Category: Copyright

Happy Public Domain Day!

What Could Have Been Entering the Public Domain on January 1, 2010?

Had copyright law not been changed in 1976, you could now enjoy Fahrenheit 451, the first issue of Playboy, and Watson & Crick’s article on the double helix free of charge. Instead, we’ll have to wait until 2049.

For comparison’s sake, my wife and I watched La Vie En Rose last night. Anyone can listen to Edith Piaf’s wonderful voice thanks to the Internet Archive and sensible copyright terms: http://www.archive.org/details/EdithPiaf-11-20

Biden’s true colors

Here’s a clip of VP Joe Biden giving his views on the intellectual property at a recent copyright summit. His view is surprisingly unnuanced. He speaks a great deal about the “stealing” and “theft” of intellectual property, without acknowledging that the content of many in attendance builds on works of the past. One wonders how such a hard line view can possibly accomodate for “Remix culture,” much less keep up with what has become a common practice of sharing on the Internet. The genie is already out of the bottle.

EU ACTA Analysis Leaks: Confirms Plans For Global DMCA

Michael Geist – EU ACTA Analysis Leaks: Confirms Plans For Global DMCA, Encourage 3 Strikes Model

Michael Geist has posted a summary of the leaked EU ACTA analysis. Some highlights:

  • Third party liability
  • Limitations on 3rd Party Liability
  • Anti-circumvention Provisions
  • Civil and Criminal Enforcement of Anti-Circumvention
  • Rights Management Information protection
  • Limitations to Rights Management Information protection

The anti-circumvention provisions, while not entirely out of line with U.S. law, are a bit troubling as it’s not yet clear whether circumvention for established fair use (such as education) would be allowed.

Even more troubling are the limitations on 3rd party liability. If service providers (like YouTube) no longer enjoy “safe harbor,” or legal protection from copyright infringement lawsuits for materials their users upload, the entire landscape of “user generated content” or “remix culture” may drastically change.

Perhaps more transparency would bring much needed balance to this treaty!

GPL Enforcement: Don’t Jump to Conclusions

GPL Enforcement: Don’t Jump to Conclusions, But Do Report Violations – Bradley M. Kuhn

Brad Kuhn has an interesting post on the interplay between law, norms, and negotiation in GPL (a particular type of open source license) violations. He suggests that, when a violation is found, start with an assumption that there was no malicious intent and not to publicly “out” the violator.

I think a lot of geeks get religious about freedom in the open source movement.  Usually this is for good reason, but occasionally the mob mentality can turn into something like a witch trial. With so few lawyers, they are a group that’s perhaps not as used to negotiation. It’s good to have even keeled people around to remind us (Slashdotters) to “remember that the primary goal of the GPL is encourage more software freedom in the world.”