Copyright
Time to #SaveTheLink
I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the EU is not about to make linking illegal. The bad news is that the latest proposal from the EU Commission leaves open the door for the creation Read more
Software patents
HTTPS lawsuits, a new low for patent trolls
Patent trolls are a blight on the tech industry, extolling licence fees for “inventions” that they never implemented, sitting on broad claims waiting until enough people are deemed to be using the technology and then suing them. These are not Read more
Copyright gone mad
Private copying is illegal again in the UK
A few months ago we reported on a couple of decisions by the England and Wales Hight Court declaring private copying illegal (here and here). Incredibly, before 2014 making a private copy of a legally-purchased work was illegal in the Read more
Anon
Anonymous can’t defeat Islamic State, but here’s what it could achieve
The announcement that hacktivist collective Anonymous has declared war on the Islamic State has been received positively by the public. After the Paris attack some may think governments are not doing enough to protect civilians, so at least it seems Read more
Hacking
Cyberwar and the myth of the Hollywood Hacker
Depiction of computing and hacking in Hollywood has long been the subject of amusement for techies around the world. From the preposterous idea that you can hack into an alien computer, to increasingly unbelievable graphic user interfaces, film has been Read more
Copyright
No, the EU is not going to make hyperlinks illegal
You may have read that the European Commission intends to prevent hyperlinks to copyrighted material. The good news is that this isn’t true, but the bad news is that there is a real proposal to change copyright law that could Read more
Privacy
First thoughts on the draft Investigatory Powers Bill
One of the most long-lasting effects of Edward Snowden’s revelations in 2013 was that they presented strong evidence that national security agencies in the US and the UK were involved in serious indiscriminate mass surveillance programmes. Furthermore, one of the Read more
Social media
Podcasting is better than ever! A list of favourites
I have to admit that I am not a big fan of radio. Other than the occasional listen to the always excellent BBC Radio 6, I tend to spend most of my listening time with my own music (iPods still Read more
Cases
Australian court rules that Google is liable for defamatory links
Whenever I feel like criticising the European intermediary liability system, I look at Australia and any negativity quickly passes away. It has long been commented that while the USA, Europe, and many other countries have limitation of liability regimes in Read more
Creative Commons
US Court interprets copyleft clause in Creative Commons licenses
During the last decade, a common attack against open source licenses from their opponents stated that the documents were invalid because they had not been tested in court. This type of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) seemed to be very popular Read more