/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ the politics of IP en-us wex@hovir.com 2013-01-22T11:16:55-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2013/01/22/is_six_strikes_a_trojan_to_kill_free_wifi.php A meme circulating in the free-culture lists I read is suggesting that the latest round of punitive measures taken by Verizon and other ISPs (sometimes called 'six strikes' - more info here on Boingboing and reference to Torrentfreak) is actually aimed at choking off free wifi. The big ISPs have never been fond of free net access providers of any sort, moving strongly to block things like municipal-provided town-level wifi. However, along the way many businessess from my local sandwich shop up through big international chains such as McDonalds have begun providing free net access. Given A and B above,... 76153@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Rumor and Gossip 2013-01-22T11:16:55-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2011/08/15/first_comes_the_rumor.php Everyone is talking about Google's purchase of the formerly Motorola Mobile division in terms of protecting their Android hardware platform, or in terms of the patent portfolio they'll acquire. Both valid points, but I just want to note that this is also the division that makes the DVR high-def set-top boxes. Google owns YouTube. Anyone think 1+1 != 2? (h/t +Harry Hawk for the pointer.)... 75135@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Rumor and Gossip 2011-08-15T15:09:53-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2011/08/09/any_mac_users_out_there_os_x_lion_video_drm.php I've not been able to find any news outlets that are covering this story, but the word among my Apple friends is that if you play a DVD with Apple's built-in DVD player you are no longer able - as of the Lion release - to capture a movie frame. Dan Gillmor pointed to this small FAQ from Ambrosia software, but that's all I could find online. Anyone got a fuller/better story?... 75124@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Rumor and Gossip 2011-08-09T12:45:25-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2010/04/29/cartel_thinks_child_porn_is_great.php No, really. I can't make this stuff up. Back in June of last year Sweden elected an MEP (Member of the European Parliament) from the Pirate Party. The party's platform included a focus on protecting copyrights from over-regulation and abuse. The MEP, Christian Engström, now has published on his blog site comments from the Danish anti-piracy group lawyer Johan Schlüter at a Stockholm meeting a couple years ago. According to this blog post, Schlüter thinks ”Child pornography is great" because authorities can be talked into blocking Web sites that host child porn, and therefore will be more amenable to blocking... 74434@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Rumor and Gossip 2010-04-29T09:48:22-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2008/03/14/did_ip_and_hollywood_shenanigans_sink_new_line.php File this under "rampant speculation." The headline is that New Line Cinema, maker of the Lord of the Rings movies, is calling it quits, with top execs out and assets being snapped up by Warner Brothers. Question: did the ongoing legal problems over those movies sink the studio? End of last year it looked like New Line was in the clear, having finally settled its long-running legal battles with Peter Jackson, and green-lighting two "Hobbit"-based movies. But just about four weeks ago trouble broke out again with the Tolkien estate suing New Line for... well let's call it "cheating them... 73161@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Rumor and Gossip 2008-03-14T13:00:32-05:00 http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2008/01/14/file_under_thatd_be_nice.php Or maybe just "wishful thinking." Relaying heavily from a Variety Magazine piece, Nate Anderson at ars technica asks whether the RIAA could go away, at least in its present form. The base of the problem is that the RIAA isn't solving the music industry's problem - plummeting sales - and is costing it millions of dollars. From a pure cost perspective, it would make sense to jettison this loser. However, only one of the four big record companies is even making any noises in this direction and that one, EMI, is the smallest of the four. So long as the... 73021@/home/corante/public_html/copyfight/ Rumor and Gossip 2008-01-14T08:29:51-05:00