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Techdirt (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
We've seen a few ridiculous cases whereby local governments claim copyright on a law, but it's still stunning to see what's going on in Liberia. Tom sends in the news that no one knows what the law covers in Liberia, because one man, leading a small group of lawyers, claims to hold the copyright on the laws of the country and won't share them unless people (or, rather, the government of Liberia) is...
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Techdirt (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
Dark Helmet alerts us to the news that our good friend Lily Allen is back in the news discussing file sharing again . Tragically, it does not appear that she's used her "time off" to better understand copyright issues very much. Unlike nearly everyone else who complains about copyright infringement, she's apparently "all for" infringing on her copyrights, just so long as you pay...
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Techdirt (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
Back in July, we wrote about how a company named Volomedia had gleefully announced that it had patented podcasting . The patent itself (7,568,213) seemed ridiculously broad, obvious and covered by prior art. On top of that, it was difficult to see how it passed the current (though, perhaps not for long) "Bilski" test for what can be patented. It looks like the EFF has decided to be proactive...
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Techdirt (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
I'm wondering if there's more to this, because it seems rather "un-Google-like." The makers of a set top box that can display internet content are complaining that Google is blocking them from displaying YouTube content , unless they agree to "partner" and commit to buying lots of ads (the amount is in dispute). If this sounds quite a bit like the ongoing battle between Hulu and...
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Techdirt (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
Sherwin Siy (one of the few people who actually was allowed to glance briefly at parts of the proposed ACTA treaty, though under strict NDA) has written about yet another letter sent by the entertainment industry to the government in support of ACTA. This letter includes pretty much everyone who benefits from abusing copyright laws and is afraid of the internet: Advertising Photographers of America...
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Techdirt (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
Danny Sullivan does a great job calling out the hypocrisy of the Associated Press yet again. The organization, which has taken a very maximalist position on copyright, where fair use gets mostly ignored , apparently had no problem scanning Sarah Palin's entire book into a computer so that reporters could search it. Of course, this is no different than what Google is doing with its book scanning program...
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Techdirt (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
Early on, we predicted that Apple's walled garden approach to apps for the iPhone would lead to developer backlash. Even if it was successful at first, the obvious trajectory was that it wouldn't just lead to problems that drove developers away, but it would eventually limit application innovation, just as other competing platforms were getting good enough to match Apple's. We might not be all the...
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Techdirt (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Having recently returned from Norway , where I was impressed at the optimism and the willingness to embrace new technologies and services, it's disappointing to read the following story (found via brokep ) of a Norwegian band who recently released an album on their own label and decided to put it up on The Pirate Bay themselves, as more and more indie labels are doing. Except... the band members are...
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Techdirt (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
We've mentioned the ongoing lawsuit against ISP iiNet in Australia a few times. Basically, the movie studios are pissed off at iiNet because it didn't do much in response to letters that were sent concerning IP addresses of those that the studios believed were sharing unauthorized works. As iiNet noted, however, it didn't see why it was involved in any of this: They send us a list of IP addresses and...
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Techdirt (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Just as the leaks predicted , the UK government has offered up its Digital Economy Bill , which includes massive changes to copyright law, including the power of the government to effectively change the law at will with little to no oversight. Basically, it would let the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, change copyright law through secondary legislation, which requires no Parliamentary approval....
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Techdirt (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
I recognize that NPR news analyst Daniel Schorr is well into his tenth decade of life, and plays the role of the "senior statesman of journalism" on NPR at times, but as a bunch of folks have sent in, he seems to have totally lost it with his recent piece suggesting the internet should share some of the blame for the Ft. Hood shootings done by Maj. Nidal Hasan. The reason? Hasan apparently...
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Techdirt (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Over the last few weeks people who are actually concerned about individual rights have done a decent job sounding the alarm about the problems with what little we've seen of the ACTA negotiations. In the last week or so, those who work for the entertainment industry have suddenly started scrambling to respond, after realizing that more and more people are starting to pay attention and to worry about...
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Techdirt (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Just this week, James Harding, the editor of The Times (of London), a paper owned by Rupert Murdoch, tried to explain why the news is worth paying for , as the paper starts to put up a new business model to get consumers to pay for news. Unfortunately, Harding apparently didn't get the message himself. As pointed out by Mathew Ingram , just days after making the case for paying for news, The Times...
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Techdirt (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Looks like the latest battle over copyright extension is about to take place in Japan, where the new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has vowed to extend certain copyrights . Specifically, he says that posthumous copyrights for compositions should last 70 years, rather than 50. This makes no sense, no matter what basis you judge copyright on. Copyright is supposed to serve a simple purpose: to encourage...
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Techdirt (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Brendan writes " Chapters/Indigo , the dominant book retailer in Canada, just recently launched their eBook store, thinly disguised as an independent 3rd party called ShortCovers . Both companies are children of the parent company Indigo Books & Music Inc. The fact that they have launched an eBook program is not a problem. It's great, in fact. I'd like to see more action in this space, and...
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