Home Messages Index
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Author IndexDate IndexThread Index

[News] Corruption Around Copyrights Law Ruins Culture, Competition

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

What copyright costs us

,----[ Quote ]
| We have extended copyright terms to the point of inanity--competition moves 
| ever faster, to the point that technology copyrights and patents seem to be 
| measured in decades. And then there is patent law, home of a widening array 
| of specious, obvious patents.   
`----

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10006829-16.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

New business models explore new ways of producing an trading. Here's a new one:

Koblo Announces Web 2.0 Community Enabled Open Source DAW

,----[ Quote ]
| Koblo APS announces a open source digital audio workstation built around a 
| Web 2.0 community site. By embracing the prevailing trends of Web 2.0 user 
| and open source software development, Koblo announces the next generation 
| music community and music software.   
| 
| Koblo consists of www.Koblo.com, the social networking site and Koblo Studio, 
| the free Open Source recording software. 
| 
| Integral to DAW and the community site will be an online marketplace where 
| plug-ins, tracks and complete projects can be bought and sold. This 
| marketplace will be available to all members of the community sell songs, 
| loops and beats, plug-ins.   
`----

http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp/2008/Koblo-Web-2.0-Community-Enabled-Open-Source-DAW.html
http://tinyurl.com/6hpjz5


Recent:

End of the Blog

,----[ Quote ]
| I have decided to end the blog, after doing around 800 postings over about 4
| years.
|
| [...]
|
| 2. The Current State of Copyright Law is too depressing
|
| This leads me to my final reason for closing the blog which is independent of
| the first reason: my fear that the blog was becoming too negative in tone. I
| regard myself as a centrist. I believe very much that in proper doses
| copyright is essential for certain classes of works, especially commercial
| movies, commercial sound recordings, and commercial books, the core copyright
| industries. I accept that the level of proper doses will vary from person to
| person and that my recommended dose may be lower (or higher) than others. But
| in my view, and that of my cherished brother Sir Hugh Laddie, we are well
| past the healthy dose stage and into the serious illness stage. Much like the
| U.S. economy, things are getting worse, not better. Copyright law has
| abandoned its reason for being: to encourage learning and the creation of new
| works. Instead, its principal functions now are to preserve existing failed
| business models, to suppress new business models and technologies, and to
| obtain, if possible, enormous windfall profits from activity that not only
| causes no harm, but which is beneficial to copyright owners. Like
| Humpty-Dumpty, the copyright law we used to know can never be put back
| together again: multilateral and trade agreements have ensured that, and
| quite deliberately.
`----

http://williampatry.blogspot.com/2008/08/end-of-blog.html


Extension of sound recordings and performers’ rights: an issue of fairness

,----[ Quote ]
| In setting up the rationalist background of his title, Professor Bently noted
| that the 2004 EC Staff Working Paper, the Gowers Report, and the
| EC-commissioned IVIR report had all approached the question rationally, with
| evidence-based and economic reasoning. Each had come out against extension.
`----

http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2008/07/extension-of-sound-recordings-and.html


Term Extension “will damage Commission’s reputation”, top legal advisers tell
Barroso

,----[ Quote ]
| Today, the leading European centres for intellectual property research have
| released a joint letter to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso,
| enclosing an impact assessment detailing the far reaching and negative
| effects of the proposal to extend the term of copyright in sound recordings.
| [...] “This Copyright Extension Directive, proposed by Commissioner Mccreevy,
| is likely to damage seriously the reputation of the Commission..."
`----

http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/06/18/term-extension-will-damage-commissions-reputation-top-legal-advisers-tell-barroso/


Blizzard Wants Copyright Laws Changed

,----[ Quote ]
| Cheating is bad, but does cheating infringe on a video game publisher’s
| copyright? World of Warcraft-maker Blizzard, a subsidiary of Vivendi, is
| trying to argue in court that it does. If this argument succeeds, it could
| change the way all software copyrights operate in the eyes of the law.
`----

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/blizzard-wow-warcraft,5311.html


BT to cut off file-sharing customers

,----[ Quote ]
| This follows a similar move by Virgin, which earlier this year joined forces
| with the BPI on an 'education campaign' aimed at those sharing copyrighted
| files.
|
| [...]
|
| ISPs have been under pressure from the government to work with the music
| industry in targeting illegal file sharers this year. Ministers have even
| threatened to introduce anti-filesharing legislation if a solution is not
| reached.
`----

http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php?id=1434139294&rid=-50


Europe rejects plan to criminalize file-sharing

,----[ Quote ]
| France's so-called Oliviennes strategy to combat copyright abuse includes
| a "three strikes and you are out" approach: offenders lose the right to an
| Internet account after being caught sharing copyright-protected music over
| the Internet for a third time.
`----

http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php?id=1466645745&rid=-50


Sweden Rejects Sarkozy’s War on File Sharing

,----[ Quote ]
| French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to disconnect European file sharers
| from the Internet. The idea is already in the process of being realized in
| France, and will according to Sarkozy be a step toward “a civilized Internet”
| where ISPs watch the information that their customers exchange.
`----

http://sigfridinenglish.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/sweden-rejects-sarkozys-war-on-file-sharing/


Big Brother: Sarkozy calls for it, his government does it.

,----[ Quote ]
| "I want to see everything and know everything." - Nicolas Sarkozy, 2006, on
| video-surveillance
|
| La Quadrature du Net (Squaring the Net) has seen the draft "Trust Online”
| Charter (FR) that the Ministry of the Interior is asking ISPs to sign by June
| 10th. The text confirms La Quadrature’s worst fears. Under the pretext of
| protecting users, the French government is attempting to put in place an
| all-encompassing Internet monitoring and filtering system. It seeks to avoid
| the usual processes of law-making, in order to impose disproportionate
| obligations on the ISPs – obligations which violate fundamental rights and
| which are contrary to the ethos of the Internet environment.
`----

http://www.laquadrature.net/en/%EF%BB%BFbig-brother-sarkozy-calls-it-his-government-does-it


The New Perverted Reverse Value Theory of Copyright

,----[ Quote ]
| What this means to me is not that consumers have captured value that belongs
| to the industry, but rather that consumers have long been deprived of the
| value of their money, and are finally beginning to get something close to the
| true value of the product being sold. It is that market reality that scares
| the you-know-what out of the MBG, and that forced it to turn to a consultant
| to come up with a theory to sell to government policy makers as an example of
| the sky is falling from yet another effort to blame consumers for the
| industry’s own shortcomings. The proposed solution by MBG is an attempt to
| obtain a government-mandated subsidy by consumers of an industry that is
| finally being forced to give consumers what they want. There is no value for
| policy makers in mandating such an undeserved subsidy. And, as a policy
| matter, the theory on which it is based, namely that every unauthorized use
| by consumers is the misappropriation of value properly owned by copyright
| owners, has no limit; it applies to book reviews, news stories, quotations,
| parodies, the first sale doctrine, and a limitless term of protection (note
| the connection between the value theory and the concurrent effort at term
| extension for sound recordings in the UK and Europe). Even Blackstone’s view
| of property as the sole, despotic dominion of the owner never reached this
| far.                  
`----

http://williampatry.blogspot.com/2008/04/new-perverted-reverse-value-theory-of.html


ISPs demand record biz pays up if cut-off P2P users sue

,----[ Quote ]
| ISPs are calling on the record industry to put its money where its mouth is
| on illegal file-sharing, by underwriting the cost of lawsuits brought by
| people who are wrongly accused of downloading or uploading music.
|
| [...]
|
| It's the latest public detail from long-running private negotiations that
| have hit mainstream media headlines today. The lobbying campaign to have
|                                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| government force ISPs to disconnect persistent illegal file-sharers scored a
| victory with a leak to The Times. The draft government document says: "We
| will move to legislate to require internet service providers to take action
| on illegal file-sharing."
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/12/anti_filesharing_paper_leak/


Policing internet 'not ISP's job'

,----[ Quote ]
| The head of one of Britain's biggest internet providers has criticised the
| music industry for demanding that he act against pirates.
|
| [...]
|
| BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones said that the music industry
| has been fighting a losing battle to prevent people from swapping songs for
| nothing on the internet.
|
| Mr Dunstone, whose TalkTalk broadband is Britain's third biggest internet
| provider, said the demands are unreasonable and unworkable.
`----

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7329801.stm


RIAA, MPAA: Be Careful what you Wish For

,----[ Quote ]
| Schemes are being hatched to make it harder and harder to download
| copyrighted material across the internet.  Seems they will be just as
| successful as the method to stop people recording CDs to tape in the “old
| days.”  And just as ludicrous.  
`----

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/16697/1054/


The concerns of copyright reform

,----[ Quote ]
| The Canadian legislation, which could be introduced as early as next week, is
| expected to use the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as a model.
|
| [...]
|
| Stoddart notes that if "DRM technologies only controlled copying and use of
| content, our Office would have few concerns".
|
| However, those same technologies can be used to collect personal information
| about computer users that is "transmitted back to the copyright owner or
| content provider, without the consent or knowledge of the user".
`----

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7201993.stm


An Economist Questions Intellectual Monopolies

,----[ Quote ]
| Copyrights and patents are government granted monopolies. They have their
| origins in the feudal guild system, not the free market economics of Smith
| and Ricardo. In fact, at the end of the 19th century, Switzerland and the
| Netherlands actually eliminated patent and copyright protection, with the
| intent of promoting free market competition. In spite of their feudal legacy,
| and their obvious status as forms of protectionism, few economists ever
| question the merits of the patent and copyright systems.      
`----

http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/01/economist-questions-intellectual.html


Chief RIAA Litigator Named Colorado Judge -- UPDATE

,----[ Quote ]
| The Pirate Party of the United States took a different position. "Being the
| lead counsel in a multi-year campaign of extortion, pretexting, and sham
| litigation should not be rewarded with a seat in any court, except perhaps as
| a defendant," said the party's chairman, Andrew Norton.
`----

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/chief-riaa-liti.html


Related:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5jkZFIwmc-8


Lessig: Required Reading: the next 10 years

,----[ Quote ]
| Yet governments continue to push ahead with this idiot idea -- both Britain
| and Japan for example are considering extending existing terms. Why?
|
| The answer is a kind of corruption of the political process. Or better,
| a "corruption" of the political process. I don't mean corruption in the
| simple sense of bribery. I mean "corruption" in the sense that the
| system is so queered by the influence of money that it can't even get
| an issue as simple and clear as term extension right.
`----

http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/003800.shtml#003800


Counterclaims for extortion, conspiracy, trespass, consumer fraud & abuse,
abuse of process upheld in Atlantic v. Boyer

,----[ Quote ]
| The counterclaims are for civil conspiracy, extortion, illegal
| investigations, computer fraud, trespass, deception, and abuse of process.
`----

http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2008/05/counterclaims-for-extortion-conspiracy.html


Dancing tot's mom faces setback in YouTube-Prince case

,----[ Quote ]
| EFF had asked for a ruling that the 30-second snippet did not violate
| copyright law; Fogel concluded it was unnecessary because "Universal has
| indicated it had and presently has no intention of ever asserting an
| infringement action directly against Lenz based on the 'Let's Go Crazy'
| video."    
`----

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9929922-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20


Does She Look Like a Music Pirate?

,----[ Quote ]
| Andersen is going after the recording industry under conspiracy laws. She
| argues the Recording Industry Association of America, the industry's trade
| group, and its affiliates worked together on a broad campaign to intimidate
| people into making financial payoffs. The defendants "secretly met and
| conspired" to develop a "litigation enterprise" with the ultimate goal of
| preserving the major record companies' control over the music business.
| Andersen is requesting class action status for her case, seeking at least $5
| million in compensation for the class      
|
| [...]
|
| From her apartment outside Portland, Andersen remains involved in the broader
| case. She collects files on her suit and tracks other disputes with the RIAA
| online. One recent winter day, she sipped a Diet Pepsi and watched Tazz jump
| from the couch and settle on the floor. "You have to find some positive in
| stuff, too," she says. "For whatever reason, I have been given a unique
| opportunity to fight this. I feel a responsibility in a way and want to help
| others. That pushes me along."      
`----

http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_18/b4082042959954.htm


Music boss: we were wrong to go to war with consumers

,----[ Quote ]
| The boss of Warner Music has made a rare public confession that the music
| industry has to take some of the blame for the rise of p2p file sharing.
`----

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/macuser/news/138990/music-boss-we-were-wrong-to-go-to-war-with-consumers.html


Defendant: RIAA abusing courts to shore up "failing business model"

,----[ Quote ]
| After the lawsuit was filed, Njuguna said she boxed up the PC reportedly used
| for infringement and purchased a new one. She then filed a series of
| counterclaims to the RIAA's lawsuit in an attempt to have the lawsuit
| dismissed and her name cleared. One of those accuses the record labels of
| failing to negotiate in good faith.    
|
| [...]
|
| Njugana also accuses the RIAA of engaging in deceptive and unfair trade
| practices, arguing that the record labels have demonstrated repeated behavior
| that has an "adverse effect on the public interest." She also cites former
| RIAA defendant Tanya Andersen's lawsuit (which seeks class-action status) as
| evidence that, unless the courts step in at some point, the RIAA will
| continue its campaign.    
`----

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070913-defendant-riaa-abusing-courts-to-shore-up-failing-business-model.html


The RIAA will come to regret its court win

,----[ Quote ]
| And, he told his blog readers: "If [the industry tries to] keep up the
| strategy of 'you need us badly and therefore we make the rules' you will lose
| the artists, their managers... and the audience. Another 12 months for this
| Radiohead experiment to become the default approach. Get engaged or get
| outmoded. And do it soon."    
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/08/0810_riaa_comment/


Mom Sues Universal Music for DMCA Abuse

,----[ Quote ]
| The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit today against Universal
| Music Publishing Group (UMPG), asking a federal court to protect the fair use
| and free speech rights of a mother who posted a short video of her toddler
| son dancing to a Prince song on the Internet.  
`----

http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/general/10869/mom-sues-universal-music-dmca-abuse


RIAA, MPAA urge pro-copyright vows from presidential candidates

,----[ Quote ]
| One question, for instance, asks: "How would you promote the progress of
| science and creativity, as enumerated in the U.S. Constitution, by upholding
| and strengthening copyright law and preventing its diminishment?"  
`----

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9821141-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)

iEYEARECAAYFAkiYs4QACgkQU4xAY3RXLo6ctgCfVT/IcIIV8GEQNCmW1wmZOjUf
2k8AnRfmqVMgSLaRpPLVtQ59BvW4XYRF
=fGMy
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Author IndexDate IndexThread Index