Copyright

Let’s light up the debate again.

Screw The Firefly Fans

Yeah, I’m a big supporter of copyright and all, but after an unprecedented viral marketing campaign manned by the common fan, Universal is taking some heavy-handed tactics against some fans.
They might want to run the cost analysis of the bad PR.
And for you fans infringing on copyright – shame on you. Universal making a [...]

YouTube And Copyright

YouTube has yanked thirty thousand videos in response to a Japanese association’s complaint on behalf of copyright holders.
In the first major mass removal of content in its history, YouTube has removed nearly 30,000 videos after being contacted by a number of Japanese rights-holders, according to the Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers [...]

State Sponsored Piracy

French lawmakers approve ‘iTunes law’ – Yahoo! News
The French have passed a law forcing Apple to make the iPod and downloaded iTunes compatible with rival mp3 players.  Never mind that Apple’s DRM scheme would be compromised, leaving purchased music even more vulnerable to casual copying.  (Yeah, I know the DRM can be bypassed now, but [...]

Another Related Copyright Post

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Follow Mr Colman’s recipe
A few months ago I agreed to be interviewed by an acquaintance for an article about a concept called Bookcrossing. The article appeared in a local magazine here in Kalamazoo, and I happened to see the published version today. Unfortunately, I can’t link to [...]

Copyright Again

My brother forwarded an article from Newsweek on copyrights, knowing that this is a particular Hot Button for me. Since I needed something to rail about, here goes.
First, I must display my content icon. Click here for an explanation.
The thrust of the Newsweek article is concerned with the Creative Commons [...]

Some suprising thoughts on Copyright.

Stanford Center for Internet and Society
If you aren’t already familiar with my position on copyrights, go here and here.
Given those views, you might be surprised at my reaction to Kahle v. Ashcroft cited in the above link.
What is Kahle about?
From the first U.S. copyright statute in 1790 until the Copyright Act of 1976, the U.S. [...]

The Ultimate Goal of Copyleft?

Lawrence Lessig, a Professor of Law at Stanford, has an article in Wired magazine addressing copyright extensions in the United States, linked here. I can’t recall a recent article more in dire need of a good Fisking.
But in the interest of pointing out another view, go over to In The Agora before [...]

The Public Lending Right and libraries.

The Copyright and New Media Law
In an earlier post, I had expressed concerns about the handling of printed copyright media in our nation’s library, raising my long held belief that the system strips the right of the writer to expect payment for his work. A friend of mine posted a link to the argument [...]

eBooks at the Library?

The New York Public Library, The Branch Libraries

The New York Public Library is now offering eBooks for check out. Under this system, you check out the book by downloading it to your reader, and after 21 days, it ‘expires’ and is ‘returned’ to the library by being deleted from your reader.
Now, I imagine that [...]

Google and Libraries

I’ve noticed a distinct problem in the way I’ve been communicating my objection. My friend summarized it as the Book As Object approach vs my Book As Media Channel approach. Once we bridged that gap in concept, my objections seemed quite sensible. While the Book As Object concept is the widely accepted perspective, it never [...]

OK, I officially hate the

OK, I officially hate the comment system, and will be fixing it when I have time…..
Steve,
Now I’m confused. If you now agree that a loan is as a distributed copy, then how is the loaning justified in the case of a library, while Blockbuster must negotiate fees for the same actvity?
Libraries ’steal’ [...]

An update on the copyright

An update on the copyright issue.
I had a great conversation last night with a member of our writer’s group regarding the whole copyright issue. As I had mentioned in a previous post, she is writing an article to spot light the BookCrossing site, and she wanted to speak to a few members of the [...]

I have to be brief,

I have to be brief, since my system is infected with Adware and IT will be working on it most of the day.
Obviously I have lots more to say about the IP debate, and I’m actually going to be involved in an interview tonight with our writer’s group about something called bookcrossing (.com if you [...]

Pat Schroeder’s New Chapter (washingtonpost.com)

Pat Schroeder’s New Chapter (washingtonpost.com)
And to prove I’m not completely nuts on the library issue, I found this over the weekend.
“And who, you might be wondering, is giving Schroeder and her publishers such afright?
Librarians, of course.
No joke. Of all the dangerous and dot-complex problems that American publishers face in the near future — [...]

One more go at the

One more go at the copyright issue.
I know, many of you will just skip this post, since it would seem I’ve beat the issue to death by now, but I still enjoy the intellectual aspect of crafting a consistent copyright scheme that honors the right of the copyright holder in a way that seems correct [...]

On the topic of library

On the topic of library research.
I’ve been involved in an ongoing debate here at work about copyrights and my thinking that lending copyrighted material might be immoral, in that the content creator is deprived of sales through such loans. I’m sure most of you remember my position that libraries, in practice, might be immoral [...]

CNN.com – Piracy arrest at

CNN.com – Piracy arrest at ‘Spider-Man 2′?opening night? – Jun 30, 2004
Bravo to the authorities! I say arrest them and make an example. We have to begin to fight the growing idea that just because a piece of property is digital, everyone has the right to copy it at will. We need [...]

CNN.com – Bowie: Please?remix my

CNN.com – Bowie: Please?remix my songs – Apr 26, 2004
David Bowie’s choice. So download away with no stain upon your soul.

An update on my loss

An update on my loss of data (see below). Apple responded to my problem by allowing me to download ALL of the music I have purchased to date, with the ‘warning’ that this is a one time exemption. Fair enough. If I had bought a CD from Best Buy and snapped it [...]