I think that everyone can agree that one of the problems with piracy is that it may have negative effect on some musicians. There is evidence that the music industry has become more reluctant to sign new acts and is relying on old names to stay afloat; and some small Read more
I found this wonderful timeline of Internet memes yesterday, so many happy memories of hours wasted in front of a YouTube screen… but I digress. I have been frustrated by the seemingly unstoppable war on evidence waged by copyright policymakers, a frustration made worse by the nagging certainty that there Read more
Some years ago, James Boyle made a compelling case in favour of evidence-based policymaking in an article attacking the European database right. Since then, I have become a strong believer in injecting some empirical evidence into copyright debates that are often filled with anecdotes of starving artists, scaremongering tales of Read more
I would like to congratulate the IPKat for winning Computer Weekly’s Blog Awards for the IT Law and Governance category. I had already predicted that they were going to win it, so I am in no way concerned by this demonstration of cat power. Yes, there is the fact that Read more
Some time ago we reported on the interesting case of pricing errors involving Dell Chile. The case has continued to develop, and now 40 consumers “affected” by the error have sued Dell for infringing Chile’s Consumer Protection Law by “deceitful error inducing mistake in the price”. The class action suit Read more
(via Wiebke Abel) The BBC has a fascinating story on the astounding growth of virtual economies. Richard Heeks of the University of Manchester’s Institute for Development Policy and Management has produced a report entitled Current Analysis and Future Research Agenda on “Gold Farming”. The report makes for a fascinating read, Read more
One of the recurring themes in this blog has been the popular depiction of technology in the media, particularly in mainstream press. It seems to me that there is a pervasive view of information technology in some sectors of the press, where new technologies are to be met with fear Read more
Some time ago I had talked about the case of Jacobson v Katzer, a very interesting ruling from the United States that in my view had made the argument that open source licences are contracts, and therefore breach of licence should be pursued as breach of contract. As I wrote Read more
The Editorial Board of SCRIPTed – A Journal of Law, Technology & Society is pleased to present its 18th issue, which addresses issues ranging from challenges in medical research governance in Korea, to pharmaceutical litigation (an assessment of the Novartis case in India), to data-protection of administrative records, to privacy Read more
Hacking is back in the news. The BBC reports that hackers in the U.S. infiltrated the computer networks of several companies and stole over forty million credit and debit card numbers. What is unusual about the case is that the hackers targeted their victim’s secure wireless access points, and therefore Read more