Some times I feel like I am living in a bizarro alternative reality. The Tories. The Snowden revelations. Chelsea FC. Miley Cyrus. The Minions. The continuing success of the cinematographic works of Michael Bay. But the aspect of modern life that truly alienates me has been building for some time, Read more
Besides being one of the world’s most popular pop stars, Taylor Swift is usually recognised for her masterful use of social media. Her Instagram and Tumblr accounts are wildly popular, but are also textbook examples of how to use the Internet to communicate a carefully curated image. The savvy online Read more
My social media timeline is filled with links to an article on Torrent Freak by Rick Falvinge, the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party. The article is entitled “The Entire Copyright Monopoly Idea is Based on a Lie“. The article sets out to criticise the social contract that gives copyright Read more
This has been a bad week for logic and reason. Or a good week for insane rulings, depending on your take on life. Last year we had a series of copyright reforms, including an exception for private copying; but now the British music industry has managed to get the High Read more
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has dealt a blow to existing intermediary liability rules in Europe in the case of Delfi v Estonia. The decision of the Grand Chamber reaffirms an earlier decision by the first section of the court. For years we have had a system of Read more
On May 28 2015, federal district judge Katherine Forrest sentenced Ross Ulbricht to life in prison for his role as the creator and administrator of the notable dark net website Silk Road. The site was an anonymous online marketplace that could run using encrypted connections over the Tor network. The Read more
An open letter to all members of the House of Commons, Dear Parliamentarian, Ensuring the Rule of Law and the democratic process is respected as UK surveillance law is revised Actions Taken Under the Previous Government During the past two years, the United Kingdom’s surveillance laws and policies have come Read more
Citations. Bibliographies. Footnotes. References. Academic publications are filled with them. They serve a number of purposes: Lend support to a statement and give authority to a line of argument. When disagreeing with an author, it is a good practice to cite the source so that others can corroborate that you Read more
On 13 May 2014 the Court of Justice of the European Union made a ground-breaking decision in the case of Costeja Gonzalez v Google Spain (C-131/12), which heralded the creation of the Right to Be Forgotten. As you may remember, Mario Costeja González, a Spanish citizen, had wanted a newspaper Read more
The Green Party in the UK has found itself in a bit of hot water with the creative sector when it made a policy statement that it would shorten copyright terms to 14 years. As far as I am aware, this is the first proposal of its kind outside of Read more