We built the Web. Ha! The “we” thing is a bit annoying. The “us versus them” is even more annoying, nearing on the condescending. Some of us actually spend enough time online to understand some of your grievances. Spot on about needless and inefficient bureaucracy, but you don’t need to Read more
The rise of individualism One of my favourite documentaries of all time is The Century of the Self (2002) by Adam Curtis (you can view it on YouTube in its glorious four hour entirety here). I’ll concede that Curtis is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I believe that in Read more
Back in November 2011 the US Department of Justice announced its continuing program of domain name seizures under the authority of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. At the same time, ICE removed the domain from 150 sites allegedly infringing copyright. Back then, I felt that this would be Read more
SCRIPT Conference on IT and IP Law 6-8 June The Arts and Humanities Research Council Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law at the University of Edinburgh (‘SCRIPT’) will be ten years old in 2012. To celebrate this event, SCRIPT is hosting a conference in Edinburgh on the Read more
In a re-enactment of last November’s Sabam v Scarlet, the ECJ has ruled against indiscriminate filtering by service providers again, but this time in a case regarding social networks. In Sabam v Netlog (C‑360/10), the Belgian collecting society Sabam sued a social network site named Netlog, based in Ghent, attempting Read more
SOPA and PIPA are knocked-out. ACTA is on the ropes… time to relax? Not yet, meet the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the new front in the War on Piracy™. While there is already a trade agreement under this name, the TPP has been enhanced and in November last year the leaders Read more
So, Facebook’s Timeline is upon us, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Well, in theory one can quit, but I’ve been there, done that. Still, I find Timeline so disturbing that I’m seriously considering giving up on FB again altogether. The thing about the new interface Read more
I’ve just finished reading the fascinating case of AMP v Persons Unknown [2011] EWHC 3454 (TCC) via the IP Osgoode blog. This is a BitTorrent case with a twist, as it is NOT a copyright case. Perhaps we have grown accustomed to BitTorrent technology, it is used to share legal Read more
After the (at least for now) defeat of SOPA and PIPA, the copyfight has been moving towards a more international setting with the arrest of the Megaupload owners in New Zealand, and now with the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). In fact, ACTA is not new, but it has been making Read more