/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ the politics of IP en-us wex@hovir.com 2012-02-03T13:37:31-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2012/02/03/a_worthwhile_hour_of_your_time_postsopa.php After the victory rush of defeating SOPA/PIPA it has felt like attacks were renewed on all fronts. There's the C-11 mess in Canada, and another bad bill proposed in the US Congress. And of course, the beast that is ACTA still lumbers along. Trying to put it all together is daunting, at least for me. If you find yourself similarly confused and overwhelmed, let me recommend you kick back for an hour with Michael Geist's latest keynote talk. Professor Geist has always been one of the go-to guys for clear analysis of major legislative battles in the Copyright Wars, and... 75426@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Interesting People 2012-02-03T13:37:31-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2012/01/21/jonathan_coulton_on_megauploadpiracy.php The raid on Megaupload and arrests of its principals has brought out a great deal of commentary on both pro and con sides, as well as Anonymous DDOS attacks in response. As Cory Doctorow points out in Friday's post, MegaUpload wasn't just any file-sharing site, it was actively engaged in a tit-for-tat war with Universal Music Group in which UMG issued spurious takedown notices to YouTube and MegaUpload responded by suing UMG and posting a video in which artists who use MegaUpload praised the site. Jonathan Coulton, for those who have been living under a rock, is something of a... 75393@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Interesting People 2012-01-21T06:53:31-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2011/12/12/get_your_doctorow_on_and_help_fund_eff.php It's been too long since I propped the work that Cory Doctorow has been doing at tracking some of the most egregious excesses of the Copyright Wars. First up, you might want to check into the philosophical backgrounds for which I recommend his series of columns for Locus Online's "Perspectives" series. Locus is the go-to 'zine for SF/F writers and serious literary fans. Cory's been writing good thoughtful philosophy pieces there this year, of which I have two clear favorites: "Why Should Anyone Care?" questioning why anyone (who reads or writes SF/F particularly) care about copyright anymore; and "It's Time... 75324@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Interesting People 2011-12-12T14:11:40-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2011/10/07/days_way_continues.php Another quick update on a story: back in early August I noted that Felicia Day was making something of a trailblazing path through Web video production and how that allowed her to retain creative control. In a new interview with Kotaku she talks about her next Web series, a production done in the EA/Bioware Dragon Age universe. As before, she's building on her own personal model - she's a fan of the game and the stories of the world in which the Dragon Age games are set. The new series was done with EA's backing and the short teaser that's... 75214@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Interesting People 2011-10-07T09:10:47-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2011/09/26/scotusblog_goes_big_stays_free.php Fred von Lohmann pointed to this announcement of the new, improved SCOTUSblog. The blog has always been a go-to site for professionals and amateurs like myself who are trying to puzzle out what the various Supreme Court pronouncements and goings-on actually mean. The blog now is big enough to support four full-time employees, with the backing of Bloomberg Law. Bloomberg remains a paid commercial service, but here they are doing a really awesome thing in sponsoring a fully free open and accessible source of high-quality analysis and content. In addition, SCOTUSblog is promising to offer more non-text content such as... 75194@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Interesting People 2011-09-26T13:58:40-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2011/08/23/may_their_memories_always_be_a_blessing.php Salon has a nice tribute to two of the great creators in the pop music industry who recently passed away, Jerry Leiber and Nick Ashford. Both were part of song-creating duos and it's worth reading the stories of how they worked together with their main partners, and with other collaborators, producers, and musicians throughout their long careers. In particular, looking at these two men it's clear both that they were greatly influential and that they were deeply embedded in rich systems of shared creation. Their life stories give lie to the myth that people create in a kind of mystic... 75148@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Interesting People 2011-08-23T11:52:16-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2011/08/17/dear_daily_mail_you_suck_at_copyright_infringement.php The UK's tabloid The Daily Mail stole and reprinted Alice Taylor's picture and quotes without attribution and after being told no, they couldn't use the photo. Taylor had granted permission to the Washington Post, but wanted a small concession from the Mail, which they refused. Then they went ahead and stole the photo anyway. According to Taylor's blog entry, the Mail does this with some regularity except this time they may just have picked the wrong person to steal from. Taylor is not only a CEO of a gaming company, a gamer in her own right, and a savvy blogger.... 75140@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Interesting People 2011-08-17T11:30:08-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2011/08/11/cory_at_siggraph.php SIGGRAPH (the ACM special interest group on graphics) invited Cory to give a Keynote address at their annual convention. This shindig is attended by some of the biggest names on the tech-creative side of Hollywood, in advertising businesses around the world, and hosts some of the neatest research you're likely to watch. Their video show is often a place where the most cutting edge techniques in animation, computer-aided cinematography, and related computer visual techniques such as motion capture are first shown in public. Cory's address is of course fun to watch - he's very "on". He's also trying to get... 75131@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Interesting People 2011-08-11T14:03:18-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2011/08/10/obvious_troll_is_um_uninformed.php Commenter Gareth Simpson pointed me to Mark Cuban's next blog entry on the topic of patents. To say that it's cringe-worthy is a polite understatement. I suppose people worth two billion dollars are equally as entitled as you and I to spew uninformed commentary over the Internet, but geebus. Cuban's prescriptions for patent reform include abolishing software patents. This is a topic that has been debated at least since the first software patent was granted. I am myself a software patent holder, but I have mixed feelings on the topic. Patents are presently the best form of intellectual property protection... 75126@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Interesting People 2011-08-10T15:15:38-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2011/08/07/yes_mark_but_exactly_how.php Serial entrepreneur, billionaire, and controversial NBA team owner Mark Cuban posted a little mini-rant to his blog yesterday, asserting that changing (US) patent laws would create more jobs. Unfortunately, he doesn't say how he thinks laws should be changed. I'm sympathetic to people decrying the current craptastic state of patenting in the US. But Cuban's random shot at "patent trolls" comes off as easy and facile. He notes that Google spent USD 900 million for Nortel's patents and seems to share Vlad Savov's sentiment there in engadget that the major reason for Google spending this money was to defend itself... 75117@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Interesting People 2011-08-07T12:48:19-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2011/08/03/how_felicia_day_is_making_it_her_way.php Felicia Day is profiled by David M Ewalt for Forbes. Ms. Day may be known to some readers for her roles on syndicated TV shows such as House, M.D. or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But she's also well-known for her Web video production, The Guild, now starting its fifth season. She's another of the new breed of creators, and she seems to be doing well at it. Ewalt's column recaps how Day took her own personal gaming obsession and turned it into a low-budget original series show that quickly became an online hit. Picking up sponsorships from big names (Sprint... 75113@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Interesting People 2011-08-03T14:26:16-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2011/07/26/two_creators_takes_on_the_state_of_creating.php I've been reading a bunch of things lately written by and about people who do creative work for a living (I blame Gaiman's long silence). Here are a couple of articles I think Copyfight readers will enjoy: First up, The Independent had a feature earlier this month on Steph Swainston, titled "I need to return to reality'. The story covers Ms. Swainston's decision to give up a job as a published fantasy-novel author and start teaching chemistry in school. That's sort of the reverse path of a lot of authors who work at traditional jobs while they write part time... 75099@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Interesting People 2011-07-26T12:28:00-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2010/07/15/so_transparent_it_has_to_be_leaked.php I generally love reading Nate Anderson's work on ars technica. He covers many areas of interest to this blog including ongoing IP cases and new business practices in content areas. He's at his best when he cuts loose with the snark, as he does in a recent post about ACTA, the still-not-really-secret-but-can't-be-openly-discussed copyright revision treaty. If you're still not familiar with the shenanigans around ACTA, Michael Geist's blog is a great place to start. What Anderson's piece points out is that ACTA is going through this ridiculous cycle of secret negotiation followed immediately by leaked copies of the drafts. The... 74584@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Interesting People 2010-07-15T08:42:21-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2010/04/16/whereas_cory_thinks_were_at_war.php Unlike Fred Von Lohmann's optimistic take on things, over at The Guardian (UK) Cory Doctorow's latest column rails about the fact that we're at war. Which is, yanno, more or less what I've been saying for the last 5+ years in this blog. Cory's pissed that the Cartel just won a big battle in the Copyright Wars over in the UK. But it's still just one more battle in this protracted struggle. Unlike, apparently, most Copyfighters, I've never thought a negotiated peace was possible. The Cartel just thinks too differently, and has wholly incompatible motives, for a negotiated solution. There... 74414@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Interesting People 2010-04-16T15:24:18-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2010/01/27/banksy_to_debut_film_at_sundance.php Copyfight's favorite UK prankster, Banksy, is set to debut his "street art disaster movie" at Sundance. Supposedly it will show Banksy and other graffiti artists at work but it's not clear if his identity will be revealed.... 74242@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Interesting People 2010-01-27T10:08:33-05:00