Category Archives: Copyright
Demonstration: Why Mashups are Awesome
That’s because Girl Talk is awesome, and is one of the most prominent mashup artists. Let’s say that you’re not into the particular sounds GT is producing (which isn’t unreasonable) – if that’s the case, and that’s why you think mashup ‘sucks’, hit the video below to see what harsh music copyright laws will outlaw. The creativity is manifest in the video is clearly original, possessing focus, and is simply awesome.
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Thoughts: Irish Newest Victims in the Copyright Wars
More substantially, I question Eircom’s ability to effectively identify particular individuals who are infringing on content; they can (likely) identify the home modems that are piping data to and from the ‘net, but a modem is not the same thing as the person who is committing infringement. … If many of the proposals to ‘fight piracy’ actually: (a) dealt with the sources of piracy; (b) didn’t have disproportionate effects on people’s lives, I think that I’d have fewer issues with how media corporations are trying to address infringements. Until the companies start using a scalpel do deal with problems (or we see a real reform in copyright law that ends the criminalization of the digital generation), it’s going to be almost impossible for digital natives, network neutrality advocates, privacy advocates, or ‘regular folk’ to support attempts to divorce citizens from the dominant communicative medium of the Western world. Continue reading
Update: Network Management, Packet Inspection, and Stimulus Dollars?
While Thomson takes this to (potentially) mean that ISPs and major content producers/rights holders might use this language to justify the use of packet inspection technologies, it’s possible that alternate management methods could be envisioned. … This is a real loss for any and all groups who rely on non-encrypted traffic for intelligence purposes; any drive that will get ‘common folk’ thinking about encrypting more and more of their traffic, accompanied with relatively easy ways of doing so, will substantially hinder the capture of actual content. How you read the implications of this depends on your perspective on privacy and surveillance, but it seems to me that it threatens to further escalate a ‘war’ that criminalizes huge swathes of the population for actions that are relatively harmless. Continue reading
Review: Canadian Copyright – A Citizen’s Guide
After providing a quick overview of broad elements of copyright (e.g. you copyright expressions, not ideas or facts; copyright is distinguished from trademarks, etc.), they get into what content owners can do with their IP, discussing public performance, first publication, translation, conversion, public communication, exhibition, rental, authorization, and moral rights (as a note, moral rights lack a clear parallel in the US). … For academics, what is probably most interesting is the discussion of Access licenses (most university libraries notify visitors that works are protected under Access licenses using large posters beside photocopiers and scanners) – it quickly becomes apparent that the authors have little love for these licenses and throughout this section, and the following one on policy, they note problems with the licensing scheme. … Without a mention of Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, or other popular Web 2.0 digital environments, I worry that this text is a good primer for copyright generally (and thus achieves its aim in educating the public about some nuances of Canadian copyright) while simultaneously missing out on the spaces where Canadians most need their citizen’s guide. Continue reading
