One of the most debated aspects during the drafting discussion of the Digital Economy Act was the question of who is going to foot the bill for all of the detection and notification of online infringement. This is one of the most problematic issues of the Act, copyright infringers have Read more…
A quick note about ACTA. There is a new leaked draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. There is an excellent analysis of the leaked text at Knowledge Ecology International (here and here). The text is finally being trimmed down, but there are still some important disagreements. One of the biggest Read more…
As one of the millions of people who reuses passwords, I found this xkcd utterly brilliant: I wonder if it would be possible to program a web search that looks for the frequency of use of the words ‘xkcd’ and ‘brilliant’, ‘wonderful’, ‘utterly brilliant’, ‘amazing’ and ‘WTF?’ The results I Read more…
I must admit that I am yet to read The Shallows by Nicolas Carr, this summer’s book to hate, but I have read some interesting reviews, particularly Scott Rosenberg’s. However, I notice that the book has been making the rounds in the British press (I assume Carr may be out Read more…
I have recently become the proud owner of a wireless Kindle 3G eBook reader. I have always been comfortable reading content on a screen, and getting an electronic reader makes sense. The ebook market is exploding, and with the popularisation of tablet devices I suspect that we are about to Read more…
So, I’ve finished my book (tentatively named ‘Networks, Complexity and Internet Regulation: Scale-Free Law’). Here is the Wordle for the entire book: Here is Chapter 1. I think it is clear that the book is about networks, don’t you think? And here is the Wordle for Chapter 4. First impressions? Read more…
We used to define schadenfreude in technology circles as the warm and fuzzy feeling you got when something bad happened to Microsoft. Now I get the same feeling when something bad happens to Apple. True, they often make it difficult to hate, particularly when they come out with some beautiful Read more…
Here is the programme for tomorrow’s workshop. There’s still room if you want to book a place: 27 August 2010 (10:00 – 16:00) John McIntyre Conference Centre, Pollock Halls, the University of Edinburgh. 10:00 WELCOME Ren Reynolds / Andrés Guadamuz MORNING SESSIONS Professor Peter Yu (Kern Family Chair in Intellectual Read more…
Oh Tufte where art thou? In future courses and textbooks dealing with misleading information design, the Wired infograph declaring the death of the Web will be Exhibit A in how to twist data to make a point. According to the now infamous article by Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff, the Read more…
Issue 7:2 2010 Editorial News From The Scripted Offices Findlay Stark, pp.242-243 Reviewed Articles “Beyond the Embryo: Transnational, Transdisciplinary and Translational Perspectives on Stem Cell Research” Rosario Isasi and Bartha M Knoppers, pp.244-247 Open Access and the Regulation of Commercialisation of Human Stem Cell Lines in the UKSCB Carol C. Read more…