|
Techdirt |
Perfect 10 Case Against Google Dismissed (With Prejudice) After Court Asks Perfect 10 To Open Its Books
In the same week that Perfect 10 sued Tumblr for alleged copyright infringement, it effectively lost one of its other key lawsuits: agreeing to a dismissal, with prejudice, in its quixotic case against Google that had so far resulted in a string of losses (and useful precedents). Part of the stipulated settlement is that Perfect 10 will never again sue Google over such claims in the past (going forward is another story).
As the TorrentFreak article linked above notes, Perfect 10 was so despe...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Federal Appeals Court Rejects Illinois' Eavesdropping Law As Likely Violating The First Amendment
We've been covering Illinois' ridiculous "anti-eavesdropping" law, which has been used a few times against individuals who record the police in public. For reasons that are beyond me, Illinois' attorney general has been not only quick to use the law (often in a very vindictive manner), but also has been pretty adamant in his defense that it was a perfectly reasonable law (despite other rulings that make it clear that recording police is perfectly reasonable). A few state courts have been rejec...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Senator Leahy Still Insisting That SOPA/PIPA Are 'Needed'
It appears that Senator Patrick Leahy has learned absolutely nothing from the public outcry over his ridiculously overreaching PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, in which the White House IP Czar, Victoria Espinel, suggested that perhaps the "problem" was solving itself via voluntary action, Senator Leahy continued to insist that legislation like PIPA was needed:
“Voluntary efforts are wonderful and I am hoping the voluntary efforts will give us some confidenc...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Senator Leahy Still Insisting That SOPA/PIPA Are 'Needed'
It appears that Senator Patrick Leahy has learned absolutely nothing from the public outcry over his ridiculously overreaching PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, in which the White House IP Czar, Victoria Espinel, suggested that perhaps the "problem" was solving itself via voluntary action, Senator Leahy continued to insist that legislation like PIPA was needed:
“Voluntary efforts are wonderful and I am hoping the voluntary efforts will give us some confidenc...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
ICE & FBI Hatch Ingenious Plan To Make DVD Piracy Warnings Longer
Immigrations & Customs Enforcement, still beset on all sides by unflagging movie piracy, has decided to join forces with the FBI in their proven strategy of targeting every pirate's one true weakness: legitimate customers who bought the DVD. Though the Bureau's lengthy anti-piracy lectures preceding every movie have had limited impact to date, this exciting new partnership promises to inject them with new life by making them last way longer. It will also reinforce the weight of the warning ...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
University Of Toronto's Lawyer In Access Copyright Deal Also Advised Access Copyright On Related Legislation
In a recent post about the bad deal that Canadian universities are being asked to sign with the copyright collection society Access Copyright, I asked whether it was wise for the University of Toronto and the AUCC (which represents universities across the country) to work with lawyers who have a long history of arguing to limit fair dealing, when what the schools need most is a strong fair dealing argument. I noted at the time that even though both lawyers—Glen Bloom, who represented the A...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Pirate Party Gets Its First Mayor
We've been talking a bit about the rise of the Pirate Party (mainly in parts of Europe) and how it may change politics, even if the party itself never goes mainstream. However, the party continues to score victories, especially in Germany. The latest, while not an electoral victory, involves the mayor of the town of Eixen, who has changed his affiliation from nothing to Pirate Party -- meaning that the Pirate Party now has a mayor.
Mayor Andre Bonitz, who was elected in 2009, has switched fro...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Now It's Switzerland's Turn To Call ACTA Into Question
When discussing ACTA, there's a natural tendency to concentrate on the bigger players -- the US or the EU -- but it's important to remember that there are many other countries involved. One of those is Switzerland, which has just joined the doubters' club by holding off from signing ACTA. Here's why (French original):
Since the conclusion of the negotiations, the criticisms regarding ACTA have multiplied in various countries. The [Swiss] Federal Council takes these fears seriously since they...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Yeah, It Turns Out That Technology Doesn't Make Us Lonely
Just recently, we were talking about the bizarre claims by Sherry Turkle that social networking makes us more lonely because we spend less time alone (don't try to make sense of it). Soon after that, the Atlantic published an equally vapid feature arguing that Facebook leads to loneliness. These kinds of arguments show up every so often, and they always seem supported by anecdotal evidence.
Perhaps that's because the actual evidence suggests it's a load of crap. Boing Boing points us to a go...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Why Patent Injunctions Are Even Worse For Open Source
The damage that software patents cause to innovation in the computer world is a constant theme here on Techdirt. But as a fascinating new paper by James Boyle explains, the threat to open source, particularly from patent injunctions, is even greater because of the special characteristics of that software development methodology:
If open source innovation has great social benefits in fostering competition and innovation, it also has particular vulnerabilities. First, precisely because open sour...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
DailyDirt: A Logo With Any Other Name..?
Some companies spend a lot of effort tweaking their logo and making sure their brand image stays shiny and new. But how much does it really matter? There are some truly iconic corporate logos, but it's really the businesses behind the logos that create the image of the company. Not the other way around. Or maybe a nice reliable-looking logo really does inspire a company and its employees to bleed purple or something.... Would you even notice if the name and logo didn't match? A project by To...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Combating The Culture Of Fear And Doubt By Reclaiming Fair Use! (Techdirt's May Book Club Choice)
We're running a bit late with book club related stuff due to my ridiculous travel schedule, but we're going to get back on track. First up, rather than just having Jason Mazzone, the author of April's book club book Copyfraud, do a blog post, we're going to host a live chat here on Techdirt, and that will take place this Friday at noon PT/3pm ET. Just show up on the site then and assuming no technical difficulties, we'll do a Q&A session/chat using the popular CoverItLive platform. If yo...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
USTR Insults The Intelligence Of Legal Scholars After They Challenge Him On Lack Of TPP Transparency
As another round of negotiations over the TPP agreement is ongoing in Dallas, a group of legal scholars have sent an open letter to the USTR, Ron Kirk, decrying the ridiculous lack of transparency that has been driven in large part by the policies of the USTR, which seem almost entirely focused on avoiding hearing any outside opinions at all. Kirk shot back a quick response that isn't just dismissive, but downright insulting to the intelligence of these distinguished scholars. But, first, let'...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Kevin Smith's Approach To Competing With Piracy: Give Away A Ton, Then Sell Stuff That Can't Be Pirated
We've written about filmmaker/entertainer/podcaster/author Kevin Smith quite a bit here on Techdirt -- and for a very good reason. He seems to absolutely understand how to adapt to the modern internet era -- and thrive in doing so. As he likes to say, he's much more focused on being where the puck is going, rather than where it is (or where it's been). Along those lines, we've mentioned in the past that he's publicly stated that he believes piracy leads to converts, and those new fans are lik...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Key Ruling In The Fight Over Artists Getting Their Copyrights Back Suggests The Labels May Be In Big Trouble
We've covered a ton of stories about the coming termination rights battles. If you don't recall, under current copyright law, content creators can "terminate" the assignment of their copyright after 35 years and regain the copyright. This is a right that cannot be negotiated away or given to anyone but direct heirs. Since the specifics of this rule went into effect in 1978, we're reaching the point where lots and lots of musicians who came out with work in the late 70s can start reclaiming th...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Congress: The TSA Is Wasting Hundreds Of Millions In Taxpayer Dollars
The House Oversight Committee has come out with a report slamming the TSA for tremendous amounts of waste, specifically in the "deployment and storage" of its scanning equipment. Basically, it sounds like the TSA likes to go on giant spending sprees, buying up security equipment and then never, ever using it. A few data points
As of February 15, 2012, the total value of TSA’s equipment in storage was, according to TSA officials, estimated at $184 million. However, when questioned by Com...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
South Korea Still Paying The Price For Embracing Internet Explorer A Decade Ago
The problems of monopolies arising through network effects, and the negative effects of the lock-in that results, are familiar enough. But it's rare to come across an entire nation suffering the consequences of both quite so clearly as South Korea, which finds itself in this situation thanks to a really unfortunate decision made by its government some years back:
At the end of the 1990s, Korea developed its own encryption technology, SEED, with the aim of securing e-commerce. Users must supply...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
The Ridiculous Hoops Mad Men Had To Jump Through To Use Part Of A Beatles Song
This story has been making the rounds about how Lionsgate, the studio behind the hit TV series Mad Men, paid somewhere close to $250,000 to license a Beatles song to use in a recent episode of the show. While the money is the part that everyone focuses on, the article talks about how involved the process was to actually get the approval of the Beatles to use the song:
Weiner, who says he once met Paul McCartney at a party but didn’t broach the subject of licensing, zeroed in on “To...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Congress Begins To Wonder Why ICE & DOJ Censored A Popular Hip Hop Blog For A Year
We already discussed the RIAA's attempt to downplay its role in helping the feds seize and censor the popular hiphop blog Dajaz1.com. It seems the feds are also trying to brush this off as if it's nothing important. According to a comment they gave Ben Sistario at the NY Times:
Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Sunday that government officials had followed all proper procedures in the case of Dajaz1, which was one of more than 760 sites seized.
That rea...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Chappelle Show Creator Gives Grieving MCA Fans A Treat, Viacom Gives Them The Finger
In Viacom's continuing efforts to make itself look pretty clueless and unsympathetic, it has decided to issue a takedown over a previously unseen clip of the Beastie Boys performing on The Chappelle Show, which was uploaded to YouTube by Chappelle Show co-creator, Neal Brennan. The episode it was filmed for never aired as it was supposed to be in Season 3 of the show, which famously (and tragically) never happened because Dave Chappelle decided to walk away from the show.It's clear that Bre...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
AFP Back To Claiming That Twitter's Terms Of Service Allow It To Take And Sell Anyone's Twitpic Photos
Two years ago, we wrote about one of the most bizarre copyright lawsuits we've ever heard of. News giant AFP (Agence France Presse) -- for reasons that I still cannot begin to comprehend -- decided to proactively sue a photographer, Daniel Morel, after it (AFP) had taken his photos (of the earthquake in Haiti) from TwitPic without permission, and distributed them for sale via Getty Images. So why did AFP sue? Because Morel contacted them upon discovering this, demanding lots of money. And wh...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Did Apple's Claims Over Rectangles And Corners Lead To 'The First Smartphone Designed Entirely By Lawyers'?
Android blogger Ron Amadeo has a great post over at Android Police where he tries to explain the design of the new Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone, which many people have deemed pretty hideous. In his opinion, it all comes down to legal tiptoeing.
As you may recall, last year Apple sued Samsung over earlier products in the Galaxy line, claiming infringement of all sorts of different rights, among them some broad trade dress registrations involving basic design choices like black borders and rectan...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
What Does The Election Of France's New President Mean For European Copyright?
Whatever you might have thought of his policies, Nicolas Sarkozy probably had more impact on European copyright policy than any other EU politician. He consciously tried to the lead the way in bringing in more extreme copyright enforcement, most notably with the "three strikes" HADOPI law.
That alone makes his defeat in the recent French presidential elections significant: there are no signs that his successor, François Hollande, will take anything like the personal interest in copyri...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
SGI Back From The Dead (Again) And Suing Tons Of Companies For Patent Infringement
Back when I moved to Silicon Valley, Silicon Graphics Inc., (SGI) was still a hot place to work. They were still pumping out cool machines and had a reputation for a fun corporate culture. Of course, that collapsed pretty quickly over the next few years, as SGI totally misjudged the market trends and fell victim to the innovator's dilemma. Basically, SGI never could come to terms with the fact that its premium products were going to be increasingly undercut as cheaper commodity technology imp...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Honeywell's Lawsuit Against Nest: The Perfect Example Of Legacy Players Using Patents To Stifle Innovation
I'd been meaning to write about this lawsuit ever since it was filed, but other stuff got in the way, so this is a bit of a catch-up post, to go along with Honeywell's response to Nest's counterclaims (which we'll get to in a bit). But the key to this highly questionable lawsuit is that electronics giant Honeywell wants to use the patent system to effectively kill off the well-hyped Nest thermostat. Nest, a company that launched just last fall, got some well-deserved attention for applying an ...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
DailyDirt: Flying Weapons
If there's a way to make a weapon more mobile, the military has probably tried it. Bat bombs were created during World War II, but after spending a couple million dollars on development, the project was cancelled. Here are just a few more modern examples of flying weapons that are currently under development. Mav6 is building deadly blimps -- attaching guided missile systems to a huge, optionally-manned airship. This blimp can hover for a week a time, and it's surveillance capabilities could...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Homeland Security Admits That TSA Scanners Have 'Vulnerabilities'
A leaked internal report by Homeland Security has revealed what most people already knew: that its new (expensive) nudie scanners have vulnerabilities that could let things through. This is hardly a surprise. We've written about previous claims including a pretty detailed research report highlighting the vulnerabilities. In fact, it seems pretty crazy that the TSA is finally starting to take notice now. What's really the most galling, of course, is that plenty of people have been pointing ou...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Metal Band Chimaira's Frontman Talks DIY Versus 'Label Hell'
The Metalluminati blog has a great interview with Mark Hunter, frontman of the metal band Chimaira. Hunter is apparently a known critic of record labels, but he has a thoughtful and measured view, and in this interview he discusses the pros and cons of the DIY approach for bands:
Example: For us, leaving Roadrunner in 2006 was necessary for the band to continue. We didn’t feel part of a team, so I simply asked our A&R Monte Conner to let us go. The pro was we got our freedom; the ...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Twitter Challenges Court Ruling That Twitter Users Have No Standing To Protect Their Own Account Info
We've seen that Twitter has taken a legal stance in the past to try to protect the rights of its users against the government, and it appears to be doing so again. The State of New York has filed a lawsuit against Malcolm Harris, an Occupy Wall St. protestor who was charged with disorderly conduct. Harris has a Twitter account at @destructuremal, and the government issued an infamous 2703(d) order to compel Twitter to hand over information about Harris' Twitter account. Twitter, as it should,...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Congress To Amend NDAA To Give DoD & NSA Greater 'Cyberwar' Powers
Remember the NDAA? Yeah, for a variety of reasons that bill got a lot of attention last year -- mostly focused on the question of detainment of terrorists. But there are some other nuggets in the bill, including one tidbit about "military activities in cyberspace." The existing version of the NDAA does grant the Defense Department the ability to conduct such military activities, but only "upon direction by the President" and if the purpose is to "defend our Nation, Allies and interests," subj...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
A Speculative Example Of CISPA's Potential For Abuse
In all the talk about how CISPA represents a threat to privacy and civil liberties, it's easy to get lost in the legislative semantics and to lose track of the very real dangers the bill presents. It's not as though CISPA is going to be signed and the next day everyone's going to wake up having always been at war with Eastasia, but the bill is a significant step in the erosion of key privacy rights that stem from the 4th Amendment—the sort of rights citizens are supposed to be vigilant abo...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Join The Club: Tumblr Is The Latest Company Sued By Perfect 10
And here we go again. Perfect 10 likes to describe itself as a porn publisher, but it's become clear that it's real business seems to be about suing internet companies by claiming copyright infringement. It's sued all sorts of companies, using all kinds of bizarre legal arguments, many of which have resulted in losses (and useful precedents), but sometimes sites seem to settle and Perfect 10 just keeps suing. It's latest target is Tumblr, which it has sued for copyright infringement using man...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Ad Industry Is Already Getting Ads Off Of 'Rogue' Sites; So Why Did We Need Legislation?
Recently, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's) put together a statement of best practices as part of an "International Anti-Counterfeiting Conference." The best practices say that advertisers and marketers should be explicit that they don't want their ads on "rogue" sites. This leads to a bunch of thoughts.
First up, as Dan Mitchell at Fortune points out, the companies that already advertise on "rogue" sites aren't the major...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Bad Lawsuit, Worse Timing: Beastie Boys Sued Over Infringing Samples On Seminal Albums
Well, this is just sad. When we reported the unfortunate news of Adam "MCA" Yauch's death, we pointed to the EFF's call for an appropriate tribute to the beloved artist: an end to the legal war on sampling. The Beastie Boys produced some of the earliest sample-based music—including their seminal Paul's Boutique, widely seen as one of the best and most influential albums ever—just before the courts started coming down hard on sampling, more or less entirely tossing out the concepts of...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
RIAA Tries To Downplay Its Role In The Feds' Unjustifiable Censorship Of Dajaz1
Last week, we had the story about the unsealing of the court records in the Dajaz1.com case. That revealed that the main reason why the feds (almost certainly illegally) held onto the domain name for over a year was that ICE had asked the RIAA for the evidence it needed (i.e., that Dajaz1 actually infringed -- criminally -- on its members' copyrights), and the RIAA had taken its sweet time responding.
Ben Sisario, over at the NY Times, has an article noting the official RIAA statement on the m...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
If You Think The Cost Of 'Piracy' Is High, What About The Cost Of Enforcement?
We've all seen the crazy high claims by the legacy entertainment industry about the "costs" of infringement. Most of these reports have absolutely no basis in reality and have been widely debunked -- even by the US government itself. But, even if we grant that there are some "costs" to infringement, why is it that we rarely -- if ever -- hear about the costs of enforcement? Julian Sanchez has a great post riffing off of the news that Hulu is thinking of requiring proof of pay TV subscriptions...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
FAA Warns Guy Who Filmed Birds Striking Plane Engine
You may recall a few weeks back that a Delta 757 leaving JFK on its way to LAX hit some birds on takeoff, damaging an engine, and requiring a quick turnaround back to JFK. The story got more interesting when it was revealed that one of the passengers on board just happened to be recording video out the window as the birds hit:
Of course, then the story went from interesting to silly, when the FAA decided that this YouTube video was evidence of wrongdoing and that it needed to "do something....
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Do You Owe Your Crappy Shave To Patents?
As some people know (my colleagues at work are sick of me talking about it), I recently became slightly... er... obsessed with the wonders of shaving with an old fashioned double edge safety razor. I won't go into the details, but in reading about shaving with such a device, I couldn't get it out of my mind and have been happily shaving with one for a few weeks now. To be honest, I never thought that I'd ever have reason to mention this in any way, shape or form on Techdirt, but just weeks aft...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Italian Gov't Gives Up Trying To Regulate Copyright Online
Apparently there's been a years-long effort in Italy to give the Italian Communication Authority (AGCOM) some regulatory authority to enforce copyrights online. And apparently there has been some fighting over this (mostly over AGCOM's competence in this field). However, according to The 1709 Blog, it appears that AGCOM is now giving up its goal of regulating copyright online:
Although AGCOM has showed its ability to reconcile the various rights and interests involved in copyright, it will no...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
After SOPA And ACTA, Now TPP Starts To Fall Apart
What an extraordinary year this has been for Net activism. After the great SOPA blackout led to SOPA and PIPA being withdrawn, and the anti-ACTA street demonstrations triggered a complete rethink by the European Parliament that may well result in a rejection of the treaty, now it seems that the Trans Pacific Partnership is falling to pieces.
Foreign Policy magazine, for example, has a feature entitled Is the Trans-Pacific Partnership Foundering?, where its author explains that a number of the ...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Apple & Samsung's Patent Nuclear War: 50 Lawsuits In 10 Countries In 1 Year
Of all the big patent fights going on these days over mobile phones/tablets, the highest profile has almost certainly been the battle between Apple and Samsung. But, in case you haven't been paying attention to all the lawsuits flying back and forth, in the past year it appears that there have been at least 50 lawsuits filed in ten countries around the world -- in just over a year. And to think, all of that money could have been spent on actually innovating. What a waste. Apple's Tim Cook is...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
DailyDirt: Fooling Some Of The People Some Of The Time...
There's a sucker born every minute -- if you like to believe unverifiable statistics. Usually, if it's too good to be true, it ain't true. But as technology gets better, sometimes it's hard to distinguish sufficiently advanced algorithms from magic. Here are a few scams that successfully fooled some folks for a while. A stock-picking robot named Marl convinced thousands of investors that it could identify penny stocks that were about to soar in price. The SEC is looking to impose a fine and f...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Crowdfunding Projects: It Helps To Let Your Personality Shine Through
You may recall a few weeks back, we had a guest post from musician Erin McKeown about her reaction to finding out that a Sony Music artist had copied one of her songs without credit, and the copied song was now becoming a hit. That story kicked off quite a discussion. A few days later, I actually got to meet Erin in person at the Innovate/Activate conference, and we had a really enjoyable chat about the whole thing. So I was interested to see that Erin recently launched a crowdfunding project...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Pirate Party Wins Again In Germany
It really appears that The Pirate Party is no fluke in Germany. After winning 9% of the vote in the Berlin parliament elections, and then 7.4% in Saarland, the party has now received 8.2% of the vote in Schleswig-Holstein. These are each local "state" elections, and there's another big one next week, in Northrhine-Westphalia, where they're apparently polling in a similar range. It seems clear that The Pirate Party is certainly surpassing the German Green Party as the preeminent 3rd party -- a...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
CISPA Sponsor Warns Bill Is Needed Because China's Chinese Hackers From China Are Stealing All-American Secrets (China!)
While the focus on the cybersecurity debate shifts to the Senate, the supporters of CISPA are still loudly trumpeting that bill's supposed merits. Though the final legislation that will go before the President is undecided, and may not even be based on CISPA in the end, the details of the bill are still very important, as they contribute to the overall shape of the discussion about cybersecurity. As part of the ongoing media campaign, CISPA author Mike Rogers took to the pages of The Detroit New...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Ebook Sales Of Harry Potter Lead To Increased Physical Sales As Well
For years, JK Rowling absolutely refused to offer an ebook version of the Harry Potter books, claiming that doing so would lead to piracy. As we pointed out at the time, that was ridiculous, because the books were already widely available in unauthorized forms online, and putting legitimate versions up wouldn't change that -- it would just allow people who wanted to pay to do so. It took years, but when Rowling finally came to her senses on ebooks, she even went further and ditched the DRM (an...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Confused Jury Says Google Infringed On Oracle's Copyright, Sorta, But Maybe Not
There was some indication last week that the jury in the Oracle/Google lawsuit was having trouble coming to agreement, and it appears that despite some effort to try to fix that, in the end the jury remained deadlocked on a bunch of issues. However, it did decide that Google infringed on Oracle's copyright in the Java APIs it used -- but what the jury punted on was whether or not those uses were allowed via fair use. This seems a bit odd, since fair use, despite supposedly being a defense, sti...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
UK Gov't Considering Requiring A 'Porn License' If You Want To Look At Porn Online
We hear this idea pop up every now and again, and I'd thought by now it had been shown to be pointless enough times that no one would seriously consider it again. Apparently, I was wrong. UK Prime Minister David Cameron is considering requiring adults who want to see porn online to "opt-in" by getting what is effectively a "porn license" to surf the sites deemed naughty by the government. Those in the UK government who actually think this is a smart idea might want to talk to their friends Do...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
AT&T Argues That More Competition Is Bad For You & Leads To Higher Prices
Apparently AT&T-land is a place where basic economics doesn't apply. AT&T boss Randall Stephenson, still hurt from the rejection of his attempted merger with T-Mobile, is telling the world that greater competition means higher prices and less efficient markets. That this goes against nearly all understanding of economics seems like an important point that would be worth bringing up to Stephenson, but apparently the reporters present didn't bother. In particular, he claims that AT�...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Can You Copyright The Most Basic Concepts Of Reality TV?
Remember that old joke about how copyright law is only supposed to protect the specific expression and not the idea? Yeah... that was a good one. It seems that every day we hear yet another story about people and companies trying to claim much more than "the expression" when claiming copyright control over something. Take for example, this threat from CBS against ABC, claiming that ABC's in-production reality show, called Glass House, violates the copyrights CBS holds in its reality show, Big...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Here We Go Again: FBI Wants Backdoors To Snoop On Nearly All Internet Communications
On Friday, Declan McCullagh over at News.com had the latest reports of the FBI trying to get new laws in place that would require all kinds of internet communication services to include wiretapping back doors, so that law enforcement could tap into them. This isn't a new idea. The FBI has been calling for this for a long, long time. We had mentioned it just last year, but it goes back much further than that. Basically, the FBI is upset that it can't easily tap certain popular VoIP and social...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
After Years Of Trying To Kill YouTube, Movie Studios Are Embracing & Profiting From It
When the Betamax/VCR first came out, Hollywood insisted that it was pure evil and that it would be "the Boston Strangler" to the movie business. And, if you looked at how the devices were used at first, you could easily argue that the vast, vast majority of the usage was, in fact, infringing. In part, that was because the movie studios were so freaked out about such devices, they couldn't even comprehend offering licensed movies for home viewing at the time. Instead, the device was purely abo...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
As A Tribute To MCA: Can We Stop The War On Sampling?
Update: Apparently not. The Beastie Boys have just been sued for copyright infringement over samples on Licensed to Ill and Paul's Boutique (both albums over 20 years old).
Late last week there was the very unfortunate news of the passing of Adam Yauch, better known as MCA, one-third of the Beastie Boys. I know a few people who have known him, and people only have had the most amazingly nice things to say about the guy. Like plenty of other folks, I've spent the past few days firing up old Be...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
UK Consumer Ebook Sales Increase by 366%: Publishers Association Calls For Digital Piracy To Be 'Tackled'
One of the beloved tropes of the copyright industries is that they are being destroyed by online piracy. Superficially, it's a plausible claim, not least because of the false equation of copyright infringement with "theft", and the lingering suggestion that every time something is shared online, a sale is lost. Of course, as Techdirt's report, "The Sky is Rising", demonstrated from publicly-available figures, the facts are very different: all of the creative industries are thriving.
Here's ne...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
This week, Skeptical Cynic took the top spot (easily) on the "most insightful" voting with his comment on how governments are moving further from respecting basic human rights:
I have always thought that Internet was the best tool for defeating oppression everywhere. For decentralizing power and allowing each person to truly have an impact.
Governments everywhere are starting to show more and more that what they want more than anything is control a...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Dan Bull, Amanda Palmer & El-P: A Big Week For Artists' Voices On Techdirt
Today, instead of the usual community favorites post, we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight our own top picks for the week. It was an easy choice, because we love it when artists and creators visit the site to speak about their experiences, and this week we were lucky enough to have guest posts from three different musicians. They all had a lot of great stuff to say, and here are a few highlights.
The first came about as a result of my post on rapper/producer El-P's friendly message to...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Dan Bull Shares His Thoughts On The Pirate Bay Being Blocked Right After Helping His Music Get On The Charts
We recently noted that, in the same week that Dan Bull had his new single hit the music charts because he promoted it via The Pirate Bay, BPI had convinced a court to order UK ISPs to start blocking TPB. Earlier this year, Dan had already written a song, Bye, Bye BPI, for that organization's initial attempt to block The Pirate Bay, and we asked Dan to share his thoughts on TPB officially being blocked in the UK.
The Pirate Bay would seem an odd primary target for the British record industry's ...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Sometimes Photos Are Just Facts, And Copying Is To Be Expected
Scientific American photography blogger Alex Wild recently wrote about his experience in discovering that one of his photos had been copied by a (now deceased) artist for an illustration that ran in the L.A. Times. In many ways Wild's attitude is commendable: he recognizes that copying is a complex issue, and ends the post with an open question about what's appropriate and how he should react. But at the same time, I think he misses the mark with some of his statements, and focuses on the wrong ...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Ongoing Patent Fights Mean Startups Are Now Wasting What Little Money They Have At The Patent Office
Last week, I had the chance to chat with the General Counsel of a well known internet company -- not a "giant" one, but one you've almost certainly heard of -- and we got to discussing Twitter's new patent assignment agreement with its employees, and whether or not other tech companies would start offering the same thing. He was a bit skeptical, and pointed out that, even at a company the size of his (big enough to have a full time general counsel, for example) they had applied for exactly zero...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
DailyDirt: To Serve Man... Sushi
More than anywhere else, Japanese researchers seem a bit obsessed with creating robots to do some wacky things. So why not create some sushi robots to eliminate some of the boring, repetitive work in sushi restaurants? Here are just a few examples that point towards a future of fully-automated sushi production. The SushiBot can serve up to 3,600 portions of nigiri sushi in an hour. Its manufacturer, Suzumo, also has bots for maki rolls, but disappointingly, these robots still need a human ope...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Yet Another Judge Slams Copyright Trolls; Warns That Courts Should Not Be Used To 'Bludgeon' People Into Settling
Reminiscent of the Righthaven cases, where once judges realized what was really happening they quickly started dumping them, it seems that we're reaching the tipping point with porn companies playing the copyright trolling game as well. More and more of the attempts to seek expedited discovery are getting rejected in sternly worded rulings from judges who recognize that the sole purpose of the lawsuit isn't to go to trial, but to get expedited discovery in order to shake people down for cash. ...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
EU Commissioner Kroes: 'We Are Now Likely To Be In A World Without SOPA And Without ACTA'
Neelie Kroes gave a keynote speech at this year's re:publica conference in Berlin (disclosure: I spoke there too) that brought together many of the themes she has touched on recently -- the open Web, copyright licensing, the potential of open data, and the need to provide enhanced Internet safety for children. Interesting and important as all those are, they pale into insignificance beside the following comment she made:
We have recently seen how many thousands of people are willing to protest...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Paulo Coelho Ebook Sales Jump Way Up Thanks To $0.99 Sale
We recently wrote about Paulo Coelho convincing his publisher, Harper Collins, to run an experiment, in which they offered up nearly all of his ebooks for just $0.99 (the one exception being his most famous book, The Alchemist). In the comments, we had an interesting discussion, in which someone suggested that even dropping the price by 90% would mean it was unlikely that he got 10x more sales to make up the difference. Others pointed to similar experiments -- such as those by Valve, in which ...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
How Amanda Palmer Built An Army Of Supporters: Connecting Each And Every Day, Person By Person
Following the massive success of her Kickstarter experiment, we asked Amanda Palmer if she wanted to write a quick guest post about why she thought the offering was so successful. Here's what came back, including a bonus bit from Sean Francis, who has helped Amanda for years on the tech/social side of things.
There's a great story about how bamboo grows. A farmer plants a bamboo shoot underground, and waters and tends it for about three years. Nothing grows that's visible, but the farmer trots...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Google Points Out That What The Authors Guild Wants And What Authors Want Are Two Very Different Things
As the still ongoing legal feud between Google and the Authors Guild has continued, Google is trying a new tactic: accurately asking the court why the Authors Guild should be appointed as the representative of all authors? Google pointed out that the Authors Guild -- somewhat notorious for its luddite view of the world -- is trying to turn the lawsuit into a class action, but that most authors don't mind Google scanning their books and making it easier for people to find them:
To prove this po...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Of All The Coats, In All The Scenes, In All The Films: Burberry Threatened Over Humphrey Bogart Publicity Rights
One of the cooler features of Facebook's Timeline for businesses is the ability to go back and fill in milestones and events over the years. Some companies have long and very interesting histories, and for them a historical timeline is the perfect opportunity to engage in advertising-as-content. This is clearly what famed luxury brand Burberry was trying to do when they filled out their timeline with vintage advertisements and examples of Burberry's role in fashion and culture—including an...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
How Can You Tell If Uploading Your Cover Song To YouTube Is Infringing? You Can't
If there is such a thing as a functioning copyright system, one of its tenets should be that it is quite easy to know if what you're doing is infringement. Of course, as we've discovered over and over again, people infringe unkowingly all the time -- and it's not just because of negligence or ignorance. Often it's because it's simply impossible to figure it out. Take, for example, the quite common practice of uploading a cover of a song to YouTube. This happens all the time. Lots of people ...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
FBI Quietly Returns Anonymizing Server It Seized... Without Telling Anyone
You may recall the uproar a few weeks ago when the FBI seized a server used by activists to keep their information anonymized. The server was used by Riseup Networks and May First/People Link. The FBI claimed it needed it as a part of an investigation into bomb threats at the University of Pittsburgh, but it was quite disruptive for lots of legitimate users. And, of course, seizing the server did nothing to stop the bomb threats, which kept coming.
However, the story is now getting more biza...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
White House Reiterates Plans To Veto CISPA In Its Current Form; Though For The Wrong Reasons
As I'm sure you remember, the House passed CISPA with a few amendments -- some of which may have limited the possible abuses, while at the same time expanding the scope. Right before the bill went up for a vote, the White House stated that it would veto CISPA, if it got to the President's desk. It appears that, even with the amendments, the White House is still not willing to support the bill. White House "Cybersecurity Coordinator" Howard Schmidt appeared on CSPAN reiterating the White House...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
B&N Removes Magazine From Nook Store Due To Feature Article On 'Hacking'
We've talked a lot about the difference between gatekeepers and enablers, and how the latter are becoming more important than the former. Both are types of middlemen, of course. And there have been some reasonable discussions about how enablers can become gatekeepers at times. Indeed, this is something to be aware of, and we should worry about it and speak out when we see evidence of it happening. For example, ebook platforms have become great enablers, allowing lots of new written works to ...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Nobody Cares About The Fixed Costs Of Your Book, Movie, Whatever
We recently pointed out that book publishers are fooling themselves by thinking that they must charge super high prices on ebooks. That post seemed to set off some angry folks inside the publishing industry who did the standard thing: talking about all of the overhead that goes into publishing a book. We hear this all the time. But it's meaningless. It's cost-based accounting, rather than value-based accounting.
The consumer doesn't care how much it cost you to make the original.
Nor shoul...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Copyright Office Seeks Help In Fixing The Culture-Stifling Copyright Records Problem
Last month, I wrote about the damage to the public domain caused by the difficulty of accessing older copyright registration records. Since much of the information is not digitized and locked up in books and card catalogs in Washington, countless works that have lapsed into the public domain are treated as if they were still under copyright, since confirming their status is a prohibitive task and the penalty for making a mistake can be severe. This problem, combined with the simple fact that cop...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Kuwait Says Social Networks Must Be Regulated To 'Safeguard The Cohesiveness Of Society'
Apparently, an unregulated Twitter and Facebook might lead to society coming apart at the seams. At least that appears to be the somewhat ridiculous assertion of the Kuwaiti government as it prepares to regulate the usage of social networking sites, officially in order to "safeguard the cohesiveness of the population and society." Of course, that's silly. Social networking tools are used all the time to bring people together and to have discussions -- and also for less socially beneficial reas...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Pirate Bay Block Initiates Streisand Cascade, Drives Record Traffic
When the news broke that the UK's High Court ordered ISPs to censor the Pirate Bay, we (like many people) pointed out that the block would be largely ineffective. But for now, with the ISPs starting to implement their blocks (Virgin has theirs up and running) and the Pirate Bay all over the news, it's having the opposite effect. TorrentFreak reports that the Pirate Bay just had their biggest traffic day ever. And, naturally, they're using the momentum to teach UK visitors how to bypass the block...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
DailyDirt: Teachers, Pay Attention
Great teachers aren't exactly a plentiful resource, but the market for teachers hasn't quite minted many millionaires from the scarcity. But maybe that will change soon. There are a bunch of projects that are aiming to create innovative educational tools, and some of these efforts could be hugely profitable in the future. Perhaps those who can, will teach. Peter Diamandis is planning to create an education X Prize. This prize is still in the planning stages, so this project hasn't settled on ...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Judge Lets Feds Censor Blog For Over A Year So The RIAA Could Take Its Sweet Time
You may recall a few months ago, that we broke the story about how the US government seized and censored the hiphop blog Dajaz1.com for over a year, before suddenly giving it back with no explanation or apology. Among the many problems with the government's actions, the really crazy part was the fact that despite a legal requirement to either give the "seized property" back by May 15th or file a case for forfeiture against the site, the government appeared to do absolutely nothing. When Dajaz1...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Dear Google: People Like You Because You're Not A Walled Garden; Please Don't Put Up Garden Walls
Wil Wheaton is getting some attention for highlighting what appears to be a pretty ridiculous trial balloon on the user interface design of YouTube: requiring users to be signed in to a Google+ account to up or down vote a YouTube video.
Now, it appears that this is just a test, but just the fact that Google is thinking about it seems like a bad idea. Wheaton makes the point pretty clearly: even though he's a regular Google Plus user, he knows that this will decrease overall engagement:
...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Online Communities Bust Kickstarter Scam
Amidst all the recent talk of just how successful Kickstarter has been as a platform for creators raising money, some people have suggested that the company may run into problems down the road because it seems ripe for fraud. Of course, most things are ripe for fraud in one way or another, so Kickstarter isn't exactly special in that regard—and when fraud does happen, people will fight it just like they do anywhere else.
At least, that was certainly the case with a recent video game proje...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Swizz Beatz: Technology Brings Freedom To Musicians; Those Not Embracing It Are Greedy
Swizz Beatz, one of the most well-known, well-respected music producers around -- who was very briefly listed as the CEO of Megaupload right before it was shut down by the US government -- was just interviewed on MTV about Megaupload, technology, file sharing and music and made a bunch of good points. When asked why the industry has been so slow to adopt what technology enables, and specifically about file sharing, which the interviewer notes is "so important in hip hop," he sums it up simply: ...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Misguided Senators Propose Plan To Make It Harder For Law Enforcement To Track Down Human Trafficking Online
We've been covering the bizarre (mostly publicity-motivated) attacks on the Village Voice's Backpage.com site for a while. Those efforts have been ramping up, and every day I seem to get press releases from some ridiculous group that is apparently coordinating this misguided and dangerous attack. It appears that some of the silly publicity stunt is working, with Senators Richard Blumenthal, Mark Kirk, John Cornyn, Sheldon Whitehouse and Marco Rubio all supporting a "resolution" demanding Backp...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Chris Dodd Rewrites Hollywood's History To Pretend That It Came About Because Of IP Laws
Ah, Chris Dodd. Can you open your mouth without saying something ridiculously misleading? Sometimes, it doesn't seem possible. The latest is that he's claiming that strong IP laws were the reason Hollywood was created:
The truth is that neither the content nor the technology industries could survive without strong protections for intellectual property.
Many of you are familiar with how the name Hollywood became synonymous with the birth of the American film industry. It was in Jacob Stern&#...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Can Someone Explain When The Pirate Bay Was Actually Put On Trial In The UK?
Last week we wrote about the UK High Court ordering ISPs to start blocking The Pirate Bay just about the same time that UK musician Dan Bull had successfully used TPB as a promotional platform to launch him onto the UK charts. The first comment on that post, by Duke raised an interesting point: the court made this ruling despite the lack of any trial.
This isn't much of an expansion, Newzbin2 was ordered blocked last year, but it is a major step. The big problem here is the lack of any sort of...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
NY Times Notices That The Pirate Party May Be Changing Politics
We've talked about the growing success of The Pirate Parties in Europe, with particularly strong growth in Germany. While some continue to dismiss the phenomenon as unimportant, it appears that more and more people are realizing why it is important. I don't think more than maybe a handful of people actually believe The Pirate Party will ever become a significant political party on its own... but what it can do (and is already doing in some areas) is changing how politics works. Even the NY Ti...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Google's Fiber Makes MPAA Skittish. Why Does Hollywood See All Technology In Terms Of Piracy?
One of the points we're always trying to make about piracy is that it has less to do with people just wanting everything for free and more to do with people rushing to embrace the possibilities of new technology. The industry has been slow to offer products that take advantage of these possibilities, and when they do they usually cripple them and charge too much for them, because they refuse to acknowledge the impact of better distribution systems on the market. Instead of recognizing that techn...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Re-Inventing Public Libraries For The Digital Age
It would be something of an understatement to say that the world of public libraries is undergoing rapid change at the moment. On the one hand, the rise of open access means that people are increasingly able to find information online that was formerly held in serried ranks of volumes stored on library stacks. On the other, publishers' reluctance to allow ebooks to be lent out puts a key traditional function of libraries under threat. So what exactly should public libraries being doing in the...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
|
Techdirt |
Blog Fight Devolves Into Legal Nastygrams
Let me kick this off by saying I don't know much about blogger Heather Armstrong, often known as "dooce." I remember that she got some attention for being fired for things she wrote on her blog a long time ago, and then built a successful blog-based business in the ensuing years. I also know that she seems to bring out strong emotions -- both for and against her -- from her readers. I can relate to that. What I can't relate to, however, is going legal because someone wrote a vague blog post ...
Read the full article on Techdirt » |
|
![[+]](/images/plus.gif)
Perfect 10 Case Against Google Dismissed (With Prejudic...
