It looks as though NBC has been exerting their copyright control over one of my favorite sites YouTube.com. What makes YouTube such a neat place is that it’s a collection of all sorts of video (copyrighted and not) from around the world. In some ways, it acts as a repository or a gateway to a …
This site is reporting that Microsoft recently changed their Windows licensing agreement (EULA) to stipulate that a change of motherboard is equivalent to purchasing a new computer, thus requiring the consumer to purchase an additional Windows license. First, it’s tough to tell if this is actually true (no second independent source here) Edit: this has …
Along the same lines as the last post about fair use of something that one physically owns is the issue of licensing… While (slowly) studing for prelims, I’ve been reading about The Future of the Book. Many of the issues considered here revolve around the question “what will we need physical books for, now that …
It appears that the RIAA is now saying that ripping a CD is not a fair use. In some ways, I think I agree. By classifying this use and that use as fair or not fair, we run the risk of creating a copyright framework which is fragmented and difficult for the average person to …
John is a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin - Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He studies the social impact of media technology law and policy, with a special emphasis on copyright. He also is an instructional technology consultant for DoIT-Academic Technology.
John doesn't update his blog often, and many of the thoughts are probably half-baked. While the web has sort of an eternal memory, the current and future reader is urged not to take all of this too seriously.
Think of this blog as "John thinking out loud."
(For more on this idea and why I blog, please see this category.)