/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ the politics of IP en-us 2005-08-12T10:26:38-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2005/08/12/google_sells_out_users_to_publishers.php As you undoubtedly recall, months ago Google launched their Google Print Library Project scanning thousands of books from the country's libraries for potential search, putting up whatever fair use or the publisher would allow. Publishers, in typical copyright-holder paranoia fashion, worried that perhaps the two line snippets Google would be providing of their books would spell the end of the world for their entire industry. They wrote articles attacking Google for their cruelty and finally, today, Google announced it would back down. That's right: Google won't even scan any book copyright holders ask them not to, even though doing so... 10477@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Misc. 2005-08-12T10:26:38-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2005/07/07/prayers.php There has been another terrorist attack, this time taking the form of a series of bombings in the London underground and a bus. Be careful and stay alert today, everyone. My prayers are going out to the innocent people who have been badly frightened, injured, or killed. Ann Bartow has some thoughts for today, and every day.... 10396@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Misc. 2005-07-07T11:38:58-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2005/06/27/story_updates.php Quick updates to two stories I blogged in the recent past: 1. The BBC reports that Brazilian Health Minister Humberto Costa has given Abbott Laboratories ten days to either agree to lower its prices or allow generic copies. If Abbott does not agree, Brazil will give the go-ahead to a local generic maker. Previous blog entry: Patent Suspension? Or Let Them Die? Response from Ernest Miller and commentary exchange with me: Drug Patent Suspension 2. Philippine President Gloria Arroyo admitted over the weekend that she did indeed make the now-famous "Hello Garci" telephone call that has become a ringtone sensation... 10366@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Misc. 2005-06-27T09:58:11-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2005/05/18/david_v_goliath_starring_warren_beatty_as_david.php According to the Chicago Sun-Times, actor Warren Beatty is in a licensing dispute with Tribune Media Services, which claims control over the Dick Tracy character (Beatty sues Tribune Unit over Dick Tracy Rights):''The Tribune is a big, powerful company and they think they can just run roughshod over people. They picked the wrong guy,'' Fields [Beatty's lawyer] said.via I Want Media UPDATE 18 May 2005 Hmmmm, this explains things (Outlaw Productions and di Bonaventura Pictures Team to Bring Dick Tracy to Television)The producers recently secured rights from Tribune Media Services (TMS), a division of Tribune Company, and will attach a... 10231@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ IP Use 2005-05-18T01:31:29-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2005/04/13/tools_for_participatory_culture.php Good ideas evidently come in twos: Downhill Battle: "The project is a free, open source set of software tools for watching and distributing high quality, full screen videos over the internet at almost no cost to the publisher (BitTorrent, baby). For viewers, this means you can elegantly and simply subscribe to your friends' channels, a channel for your zipcode, or organizations and watch a truckload of videos that you can't get on regular TV. For videomakers, you'll finally have a publishing tool for all your videos -- it will be as easy as blogging -- just upload your files and... 10113@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Misc. 2005-04-13T19:42:43-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2005/02/23/eula_nets_careful_reader_1000.php If EFF's white paper on horrendous end user license agreements was the stick, we now have the carrot. Reports Slashdot: When Doug Heckman was installing a PC Pitstop program, he actually read the EULA. In it, he found a clause stating that he could get financial compensation if he emailed PC Pitstop. The result: a $1,000 check, and proof that people don't read EULAs (3,000 people before him didn't notice it). The goal of this was to prove that one should read all EULAs, so that one can see if an app is spyware if it is buried in the... 9812@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Misc. 2005-02-23T20:44:00-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2005/02/19/notable_quotable.php So many links on copyright and fair use, so little time. Here are few that caught my eye in the past week: Via Frank Field via CoCo, Metallica frontman James "let's sue Napster dead" Hetfield, on Beatallica, the band that recently received a C&D [PDF] for offering remixed versions of Beatles and Metallica tunes: "'Yeah. I heard that. That was amazing. Someone put a lot of thought and talent into that man!...I heard it online. It was about a year ago, or more. It was pretty amazing. It was pretty well thought out so I'm glad there's people like that... 9793@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Misc. 2005-02-19T15:39:18-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2005/02/04/comments_are_back.php Phew. Thanks to everyone for your patience.... 9760@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Misc. 2005-02-04T19:48:48-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2005/02/04/comments_anyone.php Sorry guys -- for the past two two days, no comments that you've posted have shown up on the site, although I've seen them come through email. Our technical people are looking into it -- hold tight.... 9756@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Misc. 2005-02-04T10:45:48-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2005/02/02/information_wants_to_be_paid_for.php Mark Glaser has put up a long and thoughtful piece summarizing the issues around pay-for-access archives of news content. This issue is particularly troublesome for bloggers and other instapundits who would like to be able to point to content in authoritative sources like nytimes.com but if they do so they risk their links becoming dead after a couple days. Nobody's denying that the papers own this content. And they do realize some revenue from paid access to the archive content as well as database services such as LexisNexis. The argument revolves around what it means to be a source of... 9750@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Misc. 2005-02-02T14:05:33-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2005/01/05/whats_a_clip.php Edward Felten's version of a blink.... 9687@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Misc. 2005-01-05T15:41:45-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2004/12/17/wishing_you_an_unmerry_christmas.php For every $100 donated to EFF, Public Knowledge, or IPac during the month of December, Downhill Battle will give a lump of coal to the RIAA and MPAA: EFF: Protects your civil liberties online and defends against bad lawsuits. Public Knowledge: Builds coalitions to stop bad laws from being passed in Congress. IPac: Supports political candidates who understand technology and will pass good laws.... 9680@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Misc. 2004-12-17T14:18:45-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2004/12/15/tiny_p2p.php Professor Felten teaches by showing, writing a tiny filesharing program in 15 lines of code: I wrote TinyP2P to illustrate the difficulty of regulating peer-to-peer applications. Peer-to-peer apps can be very simple, and any moderately skilled programmer can write one, so attempts to ban their creation would be fruitless.... 9671@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Misc. 2004-12-15T10:56:41-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2004/12/14/trump_violates_patent_law.php Via copyright guru Ann Bartow: United States Patent 4,022,227: Method of concealing partial baldness Abstract A method of styling hair to cover partial baldness using only the hair on a person's head. The hair styling requires dividing a person's hair into three sections and carefully folding one section over another. Inventors: Smith; Frank J. (233 Cosmos Drive, Orlando, FL 32807); Smith; Donald J. (517 Brockway Ave., Orlando, FL 32807) Appl. No.: 643681 Filed: December 23, 1975... 9668@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Misc. 2004-12-14T12:10:16-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2004/12/13/good_santabad_santa.php Good Santa: "So in the spirit of the times (sussing great gift ideas), I've convinced an old friend, and my former Dean, to spend a couple days in this space talking about his new book, Perilous Times. Starting Wednesday, Geof Stone will be blogging here about the book. It is a great and amazing history, both optimistic and depressing. It will be Geof's first time blogging, so please make him welcome. And were I to use this space to self-promote, I might point to Businessweek's pick of the top ten books of the year. But I won't waste your time... 9664@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Misc. 2004-12-13T20:25:54-05:00