Conferences
Debates galore!
The CC-UK list has resurrected with some lively debate. If you are interested in following some of the arguments, visit the archive here.
P2P
OECD music downloads report
This is a very thorough report from the OECD about music downloads. It is a rather impressive document, which attempts to bring together the latest research on the subject. I haven’t finished reading it, but the section about P2P networks is very balanced and well referenced. The result is that, Read more
Copyright
What price infringement?
The mother of a teenage girl who serves and downloads music online is being charged £4000 for her daughter’s infringement. This seems to be part of a clever strategy by the music industry to attack P2P networks (I will talk more about it next week after I have presented my Read more
Creative Commons
Open vs. Free again
I have been noticing a resurrection of the “open” vs “free” debate in several lists, particularly in discussions about Creative Commons. This is rather disheartening, because I have been hoping that Creative Commons could stay away from the quasi-religious debates that have been affecting the Free/Open Source camps for years. Read more
Litigation
The Open Source patent war has begun
This has been a long way in the making, but I just found out about it due to some discussions in a couple of mailing lists and because of some research I’m conducting on software patents. I am afraid that this may be the first shot in the oncoming patent Read more
P2P
Hunting piracy goes against data protection
Very interesting note about data protection and hunting for IP addresses of P2P file-sharing users. For a while now it has been felt that the efforts to gather data from P2P users could have adverse privacy implications and may infringe data protection. Now there is an official declaration from the Read more
Copyright
More discussion about copyright term extension
Earlier this week there was a report that the UK may be considering extending copyright terms for sound recordings from 50 years to 90. The Wired article makes it clear that the UK project may be part of a wider strategy from the IFPI and the music industry to push Read more
Popular Culture
When entertainment stops being fun
I always thought that the entertainment industry was supposed to be based on making things fun. We pay lots of money to one of the most profitable industries in the planet so that they can entertain us, make us laugh, cry and sometimes even make us think. But where has Read more
Networks
Statistical fallacies in cyberspace
The blogosphere has been set alight (don’t you just love the word blogosphere?) by a report that first appeared in ZDNet about how iTunes is catching up with the “illegal” P2P networks. The report states that iTunes now has a total 1.7 million users, as much as the 2nd place Read more