As usual, xkcd makes an excellent point: With sizes of up to 64GB contained in a tiny card the size of a coin, I wonder why the content industries are not concentrating more on such storage devices, and continue to insist that the war on piracy is an online endeavour. Read more
It was supposed to be the British equivalent of high-profile cases such as PirateBay and the Jamie Thomas trial. It was supposed to act as a clear deterrent to a new generation of file-sharers against widespread copyright infringement. Instead, Alan Ellis, the founder of torrent tracking site OiNK has been Read more
As far as incendiary headlines go, this one in BoingBong is near the top when it comes to flammability: US to Costa Rica: you want sugar markets? We want maximal copyright. It has everything, a large and powerful country threatens a small unarmed trading partner with retaliatory sanctions if they Read more
Much virtual ink has been spent in describing the breaking of hostilities between Google and the Chinese government, after the search engine company claimed that it had been the victim of a targeted attack in order to obtain information about Chinese dissidents. In condemning the attack, Google clearly pointed an Read more
The December issue of SCRIPTed is now online. In this issue: Editorial Mandy and Me: Some Thoughts on the Digital Economy Bill Lilian Edwards , pp.534-537 Reviewed Articles DNA Patents and the Invisible Citizen: The Role of the General Public in Life Science Governance Morten Andreasen and Klaus Hoeyer, pp.538-557 Read more
I’m in Costa Rica for the rest of the month. Why am I away? As the always excellent PhD comic accurately comments, nobody in academia works in December: Now, where did I put the suntan lotion?
While in the UK we are immersed in heated debate regarding the Digital Economy Bill, and the threat of ACTA looms large, I have read with interest an article by Peter Grundy in Wired UK about beta testing legislation before it is released to the public. Everyone familiar with web Read more
As the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change gets under way, environmental activists point the finger at the usual suspects: air travel, the internal combustion engine, wasteful spending, consuming non-local products, etc. However, we are seeing more and more questions asked about the carbon footprint of information and communication technologies. The Read more
The House of Lords debated yesterday the Digital Economy Bill, and I use the phrase “debate” in the loosest possible sense. What we got was a depressingly one-sided affair replete with misrepresentation, misunderstanding of the core issues, swallowing the industry’s figures without question, and corroboration that the House of Lords Read more
Non-commercial clauses in Creative Commons licences tend to be a controversial subject in open licensing circles. Creative Commons has released a sizeable and comprehensive report on the non-commercial definition that answers everything you ever wanted to know about NC. Still, a good number of people in the open camp insist Read more