I believe this is probably the first artist who will top the music charts without having a single CD sale in his name. Gnarls Barkley will probably top the UK charts today with a single that has not been released physically, and is only available as a download. I guess Read more…
A new report on access to knowledge and the implementation of IP legislation in developing countries. The report is very critical of the adoption by developing countries of restrictive IP legislation, and it also criticises WIPO’s draft legislation. The summary says: Copyright and Access to Knowledge discloses that Bhutan, Cambodia, Read more…
“By day a film maker… by night she fights for Fair Use!” This is ‘Bound By Law’, a new comic book by the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University. It is drawn by Keith Aoki and written by James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins. In the Read more…
The techie press has been filled with reports that Wikipedia Germany was shut down for three days for hosting an article that revealed the name of German hacker Boris Floricic (aka Tron). The story has also been taken up by the blogosphere. But is the story accurate? Not according to Read more…
There is a new licensing scheme for Spanish-speaking countries called“ColorIuris: Colores de Autor”, literary Author’s Colours. This page was created by a law firm in Spain under the assumption that all sorts of open licences (including Creative Commons) are incompatible with Continental traditions based on the droit d’auteur. This is Read more…
(Received via the CC-UK list from Rufus Pollock). This is the text of the John Coffin Memorial Lecture in the History of the Book, given by William St Clair at the School of Advanced Study University of London. The lecture deals with property, copyright and the state of literature (and Read more…
Yahoo has had to provide access to Chinese authorities to the details of an email account of a journalist accused of being a dissident. The journalist was then convicted and sent to jail for 10 years. The Chinese government exercises heavy control over the internet, with filters that block some Read more…
(Picture from Flickr) After the London bombings we are all becoming familiar with seeing snaps from passers-by using their increasingly sophisticated mobile phone cameras to take stills or even video of newsworthy events. With so many images out there – many of them with considerable commercial value – the question Read more…
Interesting new set of licences from some of the people at Loca Records. I like seeing new licences and ways of thinking, so congratulations to the drafters. I do have some problems with the licences though. The licence is described as “non-legal licenses that will operate in the shared space Read more…
(thanks to Lilian Edwards for the link). The BBC is now opening its RSS content for syndication. Web designers can now syndicate BBC content on their own websites with much less restrictions than before. If you wanted to add one of the many BBC feeds to your blog or website, Read more…