I am becoming rather ambivalent about moral rights, which goes against my Civil Law upbringing. I believe that moral right of attribution is a good thing, but that the moral right of integrity can be difficult to apply, and when it is it may prove more trouble than it’s worth. Read more
In a week were we have seen the two sides of Bill Gates exposed by the press ad nauseam, it is refreshing to see Microsoft do some of the stupid things why we love them for. The Beta version of the long-awaited/feared/loathed Windows Vista has been released to testers, with Read more
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) gave us a nice gift last week to celebrate the International Day of the Beast (6/6/6) by announcing that we could rip music into our iPods. Yes, the widely popular practice of making copies of what you have purchased is still illegal, but the kind Read more
This is an excellent article in The Guardian by Wendy Grossman. The problem of webcasting and collecting agencies is gathering momentum as there is a meeting this week in Geneva at WIPO, where member states are negotiating the inclusion of webcasting and simulcasting into a new treaty on the protection Read more
Are deep links legal? Deep links are outgoing hyperlinks that do not lead to the front page of the hosting website. You may ask, what is the problem? That is how the Internet works, right? Initially, you would be right, as deep links were defeated in earlier copyright cases such Read more
While the British music industry claims they have lost £1.1 billion in the last three years, media market resaerchers Jupiter media calculate that the figure is at most £290m. The problem is that the numbers do not add up. For example, the British music industry keeps claiming that there is Read more
(Via Michael Geist’s blog). Sometimes I sort of wish news like these were false. The main Australian copyright collecting agency is requesting Australian schools to pay for browsing the web. They argue that it is analogous to making photocopies, and therefore they should pay their members for the benefit. Trying Read more
(via IPKat) Put yourself in the shoes of an RIAA lawyer. What is it like to be you? The money must be good, but every check arrives with the certainty that everybody hates you. You are probably the type of person who goes to a dinner party and asks the Read more
After taking time implementing the EC copyright directive 2001, France is now planning to force the copyright and neighbouring rights in the information society bill (DADVSI) through parliament using an emergency procedure. Due to heavy lobbying from the copyright industry, French copyright law may become the strictest in Europe (BoingBoing). Read more
Besides having the support of Tom Cruise and John Travolta, Scientology is famous for suing websites that distribute their holy scriptures (which you must have paid handsomely to obtain), and show people what they actually believe. If you don’t know what Scientology is about, here is an example from Wikipedia: Read more