brainwagon

Today I noticed an editorial by founding member of the Eagles, Don Henley asking for the passage of the PROTECT IP Act currently stalled in the U.S. Senate. The basic of idea of the PROTECT IP act is that the Attorney General or private intellectual property rights holders can ask the court to issue an […]

Forgive this slightly meandering diatribe, there are a few ideas that have been kicking around in my head, and today is the day I decided to try to give them form here on my blog. I’ve been thinking about three interwoven topics: the rather odd way we teach people “English” in high school, the oncoming […]

Sigh. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a decision on Friday that says that software makers can use use licenses (in particular, shrink-wrap and click-wrap licenses) to keep you from legally reselling the software that you bought. In other words, they just gutted the first-sale doctrine. Guess What, You Don’t Own That Software […]

While not as openly hostile as the kind of stuff that Sony was doing with their active-rootkitting stuff, it’s actually not that hard to create a CD which many applications find unrippable: wander over to Ed Felton’s Freedom to Tinker blog for instructions on how to Make Your Own Copy-Protected CD with Passive Protection. Note: […]

Wow. It’s hard to comprehend just how bad an idea plotlines patents actually are. I think I’ll need a bit more coffee before I could even attempt to try. Still, there is little doubt that intellectual property law is heading toward a precipice. Some particularly good quotes from Andrew Knight’s justification for plotline patents: There […]

Well, I haven’t had a chance to read the ruling yet, but it appears that the SCOTUS has unanimously gutted the Sony decision and made software companies potentially liable for infringing uses of their software, regardless of whatever significant non-infringing uses their might be. I’ll post again when I have something in the way of […]

Slashdot mentioned that the Google SiteRank patent application was available, so here it is for your perusal.

Congressman Rick Boucher is a rare animal indeed: a man looks at the bigger picture of intellectual property and tries to determine the appropriate balance intended by the founding fathers in creating patents and copyrights. I first became aware of the Congressman when he guest blogged on Lawrence Lessig’s weblog, where he showed surprising sense. […]

Ars Technica points us at both an article from The Economist which questioned the accuracy and methology of the BSA in determining of piracy to businesses, and the terse and unresponsive reply from Beth Scott of the BSA. Reproduced here in full: SIR — Your article on software piracy was extreme, misleading and irresponsible (“BSA […]

The Times Online reports that Britain is considering doubling the length of copyrights on pop classics, in an attempt to march in step with American laws. Currently Britain’s copyright protection lasts 50 years, while in the U.S. copyrights go for 90. Their justification? James Purnell, the new minister for creative industries, believes the change will […]

Xeni Jardin filed a story for Wired on the installation of spy cams funded by the MPAA. These cameras monitor a couple of alleys and feed directly to the LAPD’s Central Area station. Are these cameras there do detect assaults? Robberies? Drug trafficking? Nope, illegal bootleg DVD sales. Read the article. Does anyone think that […]

Dan put me onto Turtle’s 78 RPM Jukebox, a site which contains some very nice recordings of old 78 RPM records which are in the public domain. Some very cool stuff, but it contains the following puzzling disclaimer: All original recordings are understood to be in the public domain. All selections in this jukebox are […]

Dan Glickman, CEO of the MPAA has an editorial running on news.com entitled: Why the broadcast flag should go forward. I urge you to go read it and think about it. A federal appeals court ruled that when the FCC mandated that all manufacturers of digital video equipment must implement and support the use of […]

Microsoft is sponsoring a short film competition in the UK entitled Thought Thieves on the subject of intellectual property theft. Thought Thieves is about people stealing and profiting from your creation or innovation. Think about it: how would you feel if you saw your hard work being passed off as the property of someone else? […]

In a two-fer that illustrates that all is right with the world, the A’s managed to beat the Yankees 6-3 in the 10th by mashing on Mariano Rivera, and the DC Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously struck down laws which enabled the FCC to mandate the Broadcast Flag. They found that the reasoning of the […]