Lessig has made some comments about DRM in his blog, particularly about Sun’s project to create some open DRM formats with their Open Media Commons Project. Seems like Karl-Friedrich Lenz was right all along about this specific point. I tend to agree that it should be possible to build some Read more
Just a reminder that the deadline for the Call for Papers for the VI Computer Law World Conference to take place in Edinburgh this September is this Friday! You only have to send a small abstract.
(via Oren Bracha) Nobody reads what they sign, this seems to be demonstrably true. But this is not only true of click-wrap agreements, it also happens with printed materials. A video store in Austin TX presented their customers with a receipt that includes the clause “I hereby surrender my soul Read more
Can people “steal” wifi? A man in Illinois has been fined $250 USD and given a one year suspended sentence for sitting in his car at 2 AM and accessing an open Wifi network belonging to a charity. This poses several interesting legal questions . Many legal systems now have Read more
The new issue of SCRIPTed is now online. In this issue: Editorials: – Adebambo Adewopo, “Protection and Administration of Folklore in Nigeria”. – Johanna Gibson, “The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property – A Valuable Affair. Special Feature: – Roger Brownsword, “Neither East Nor West, Is Mid-West Best?” Peer-reviewed articles: – Read more
Different reports are coming from the meeting earlier this week on the polictics of IPRs, organised by the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD). You can browse several reports from Patenting Lives, Axel H Horns and IP Watch. The meeting had quite an amazing number of experts brought together, and it Read more
Christian Ahlert from Open Business has posted a very useful tool online. This is a web applet that checks the links to a specific licence from Yahoo! and displays the results. Creative Commons Scotland only has 3,074 links to the licences, while England and Wales version 2.0 licence has 69,320. Read more
A study commissioned by the Canadian Recording Industry Association has been made public, and Michael Geist has found some interesting facts on it. Apparently, those who download the most are those who buy the most music. We already knew this, but it is nice to see more hard evidence for Read more
(thanks to Nicolas Jondet for the link) This is a good article in The Economist about open source business models. The article goes through everything open, from source code to biotechnology, interviewing key experts. The article states that: “Perhaps that is why open source is taking up a permanent place Read more