With a proper tax system, publishers like the L.A. Times or scientific journals may maintain a copyright for only a year or so before letting the content revert to public domain and letting Google and everyone else utilize the material for its small, but socially significant, remaining value.
via Copyright this – latimes.com.
I like this. It could probably work with patents as well.
This provision would effectively legalize spyware in Canada on behalf of these industry groups. The potential scope of coverage is breathtaking: a software program secretly installed by an entertainment software company designed to detect or investigate alleged copyright infringement would be covered by this exception.
Hopefully something like this never sees the light of day in the US and if it does, it helps raise awareness of copyright abuse. The Sony rootkit was a pretty nasty piece of malware that was rather difficult to remove properly. Bad things will happen to the unsuspecting and the more novice computer user should the ability of anyone to install spyware at the root level become legal. If I recall correctly, the Sony rootkit installed before the user accepted the End User License Agreement. Thus, even if you read the EULA and decided not to install or have anything to do with Sony, Sony already parked itself on your computer.
This updated functionality completely removes the source website from the display, encouraging the user to download the image directly from the search results. To add fuel to the fire, a prominent button “Show original image” (read as “Download now”) is also being displayed alongside the enhanced preview. The percentage of visits to the website that actually has the rights to display and offer the subject images drops at a staggering rate as people are able to and, in fact, are implicitly encouraged to begin downloading the image directly from Google Images rather than visiting the subject site.
via Google Images New Layout How This Impacts Photographers And Webmasters – Stock Photography Blog.
I still don’t see how simply downloading an image which mean possibly seeing once and then into the bit bucket really matters. The photo is not being used in a commercial manner except for perhaps by google. There has to be some kind of compromise that doesn’t impact usability.
The timeless plastic bricks of LEGO can be built into predetermined items such as a car or house but can also be formed into any shape, the options limited only by the creativeness of its builder. However, turn LEGO bricks into a controversial item and the company’s lawyers could soon be breathing down your neck.
via Pirate Party Battles LEGO Over Copyright and Trademark Injunction | TorrentFreak.
This is happening in Czechoslovakia. It amazes me at how creative companies get over claims of ownership.
According to data provided by app traffic company AppStats, Instagram has lost more than half of all its active users in the month since proposing to change its original Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. In mid-December, Instagram boasted about 16.3 million daily active users; as of Jan. 14, Instagram only has about 7.6 million daily users.
via Instagram Loses Half Its Daily Users In A Month, And Here’s Why [REPORT].
A competitor has issued me with a DMCA takedown notice saying that by using the standard Moodle login page with no modifications, I have infringed his copyright. He says my Moodle login page is too similar to his login page which he also asserts copyright over. His login page is a standard WordPress wp-admin page. This can’t be right. Who owns Moodle? I would like to report his actions.
Note that this is not paying for an excerpt, which is not that unreasonable, or some punitive measure for the copying of an entire article. No, the NNI wants to charge for links like this, this, or this.
For those 3 links, I now have to pay the NNI 300 euros. Seriously. Apparently this group of 15 newspapers is under the impression that merely mentioning an article on one of websites is not legal; they think it is copyright infringement.
via Irish Newspaper Collective Wants to Charge License Fees for Links – The Digital Reader.
Also. From: 2012: The year Irish newspapers tried to destroy the web
These are the prices for linking they were supplied with:
1 – 5 €300.00
6 – 10 €500.00
11 – 15 €700.00
16 – 25 €950.00
26 – 50 €1,350.00
50 + Negotiable
Earlier this month, Instagram disabled photo integration with Twitter, raising the ire of many users and pundits. “The only way these companies can succeed financially is by tricking members and forcing them into walled gardens,” Dan Lyons wrote in a Dec. 10 ReadWrite posting. “Think of it this way—there’s a reason that they don’t hold a circus out in the open, and instead put it under a tent—and it’s not to keep you dry in case of rain.
As you would be no doubt already aware, I run a section of my blog here devoted to the free sharing of laptop service manuals. This is a side project I have run for the last three years, gathering as many repair manuals as I could find on the internet and rehosting them on my website for anybody to download and use.
I have unhappy news for you all. Since I was first contacted by Toshiba Australia’s legal department, I have been attempting to discuss with them the potential for me to continue to share their laptop service manuals on my site. Their flat and final response was “You do not have permission [to disseminate Toshiba copyright material] nor will it be granted to you in the foreseeable future.” As a result, all Toshiba material that was on my website is now gone, permanently.
via Future proof » Blog Archive » Toshiba laptop service manuals and the sorry state of copyright law.
If provincial newspaper editorials are anything to go by, there is growing anger about the authorities’ handling of Kim Dotcom. The Waikato Times’ editorial entitled, NZ: 51st state of the US, is particularly worth reading. It says that the announcement of the illegal spying has ‘heightened suspicions that this country’s relationship with the United States has become one of servility rather than friendship’. The editorial’s conclusion is worth quoting at length: ‘Dotcom is wanted in the US to face nothing more threatening than breaches of copyright laws.
via Bryce Edwards: Political round-up: Growing anger over Dotcom fiasco – Politics – NZ Herald News.
She says ‘If the authorities are so supine in their relationship with their US counterparts and so eager to corral an alleged copyright criminal – allegations which Dotcom is strongly contesting – that they don’t check the basics before mounting their interception, what guarantees do other businesses have that this is a one-off affair?’