ACTA turns out to be a damp squib

Good news everyone. Remember that international multilateral secret agreement everyone was worried about? It turns out that we do not really have to worry that much about it any more. The newest draft text of the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has now been published, and it turns out that Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

Obscurity

(via Carlos Solís) This one is self-explanatory. One of my favourite observations about the copyright wars comes from Tim O’Reilly, who commented that “Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy.” In the words of Cory Doctorow, you cannot monetize obscurity. Nina Paley (of Sita Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

Anonymous IP manifesto

Following up from the story about the Internet group Anonymous taking itself too seriously, the organisers of the now infamous Operation Payback have issued a statement of intentions. It seems like they were honestly thinking that they would be getting more serious attention by then, given the grandiose claims they Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

When bots go shopping

Habitual readers will know of my love and appreciation for xkcd, it inspires and awes those of us of lesser wit and intellect in equal measure. Now xkcd #576, entitled “Packages” has inspired a very practical application. Programmer Paul Hunkin has created a Python script that searches $1 NZD items Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

Why sue when you can use social media?

Yesterday we got a very interesting lesson about law enforcement online. Imagine that you discover your rights are being violated in some way, and you are almost certain that you are on the right. Traditionally you had three options: do nothing, contact the offender to negotiate, or file a lawsuit. Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

Ministry of Sound gives up P2P claims

Last month we reported on an interesting development taking place in the copyright enforcement front. Law firm Gallant Macmillan requested a Norwich Pharmacal order (NPO) against BT in order to identify thousands of alleged copyright infringers of its music. Because of the ACS:Law email leak debacle, BT decided to fight Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

Is Firesheep illegal?

SocialMediaLand has been flooded in the last couple of days with stories about Firesheep. In case you have not heard about it, Firesheep is a Firefox add-on that allows anyone to hijack other people’s social network accounts in open wifi zones. The way the application works is staggeringly simple. If Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago