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EFF Looks To Bust Bogus Podcasting Patent Needs Prior Art (21 November 07:40) |
| Back in July, we wrote about how a company named Volomedia had gleefully announced that it had patented podcasting. The patent itself (7,568,213) seemed ridiculously broad, obvious and cove... |
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Google Blocking Set Top Boxes From Showing YouTube Unless They Pay Up (21 November 06:58) |
| I'm wondering if there's more to this, because it seems rather "un-Google-like." The makers of a set top box that can display internet content are complaining that Google is blocking them f... |
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Entertainmnent Industry Yes Please Keep Negotiating Secret Copyright Treaty To Save Our Asses (21 November 06:14) |
| Sherwin Siy (one of the few people who actually was allowed to glance briefly at parts of the proposed ACTA treaty, though under strict NDA) has written about yet another letter sent by the ... |
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If Googles Book Scanning Violates Copyright Law What About The APs Book Scanning (21 November 05:32) |
| Danny Sullivan does a great job calling out the hypocrisy of the Associated Press yet again. The organization, which has taken a very maximalist position on copyright, where fair use gets m... |
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iPhone App Developer Backlash Growing (21 November 04:35) |
| Early on, we predicted that Apple's walled garden approach to apps for the iPhone would lead to developer backlash. Even if it was successful at first, the obvious trajectory was that it wo... |
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Norwegian Band Told It Cant Post Its Own Music To The Pirate Bay Even Though It Wants To (21 November 03:44) |
| Having recently returned from Norway, where I was impressed at the optimism and the willingness to embrace new technologies and services, it's disappointing to read the following story (foun... |
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If You Only Share A Tiny Bit Of A File Via BitTorrent Is It Still Copyright Infringement (21 November 02:38) |
| We've mentioned the ongoing lawsuit against ISP iiNet in Australia a few times. Basically, the movie studios are pissed off at iiNet because it didn't do much in response to letters that we... |
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UK Digital Economy Bill As Bad As Expected Digital Britain Minister Flat Out Lies About ISP Support (21 November 01:30) |
| Just as the leaks predicted, the UK government has offered up its Digital Economy Bill, which includes massive changes to copyright law, including the power of the government to effectively ... |
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NPRs Daniel Schorr Blames The Internet For Ft Hood Shootings (21 November 12:27) |
| I recognize that NPR news analyst Daniel Schorr is well into his tenth decade of life, and plays the role of the "senior statesman of journalism" on NPR at times, but as a bunch of folks hav... |
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No ACTA Secrecy Is Not Normal -- Nor Is It A Distraction (20 November 11:19) |
| Over the last few weeks people who are actually concerned about individual rights have done a decent job sounding the alarm about the problems with what little we've seen of the ACTA negotia... |
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Murdochs The Times Accused Of Blatant Copying Just As It Tells The World You Should Pay For News (20 November 10:03) |
| Just this week, James Harding, the editor of The Times (of London), a paper owned by Rupert Murdoch, tried to explain why the news is worth paying for, as the paper starts to put up a new bu... |
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Copyright Extension Moves To Japan (20 November 08:45) |
| Looks like the latest battle over copyright extension is about to take place in Japan, where the new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has vowed to extend certain copyrights. Specifically, he... |
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Canadian Ebook Store Offers Free Public Domain Ebooks -- Claims Copyright Says You Can Only Make 1 Copy (20 November 07:16) |
| Brendan writes "Chapters/Indigo, the dominant book retailer in Canada, just recently launched their eBook store, thinly disguised as an independent 3rd party called ShortCovers. Both compani... |
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There Are Lots Of Ways To Fund Journalism (20 November 05:31) |
| As various folks in the news business (and outside of it) continue to fret about how it could be possible to ever fund the production of news, some are taking more positive looks at the spac... |
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Winner Takes All Long Tails And The Fractilization Of Culture (20 November 03:19) |
| Reader Eileen points us to a thought-provoking article by Joshua-Michele Ross discussing the idea that, rather than a diverse "long-tail" culture, we're actually being driven to a homogenize... |
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The Lobbyists Ability To Control The Message (20 November 12:07) |
| It certainly won't come as much of a surprise to readers around here that lobbyists from Roche/Genentech were able to get 42 different members of Congress to include text they had written in... |
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In Going Free London Evening Standard Doubles Circulation While Slashing Costs (20 November 09:41) |
| In October, we wrote about how, just as Rupert Murdoch and crew look to put up paywalls for online content, the operators of the London Evening Standard were going in the other direction and... |
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Senate Exploring Med School Profs Putting Names On Ghostwritten Journal Articles In Favor Of Drugs (20 November 07:40) |
| We've had a few posts recently about the growing scandal in the pharma and publishing worlds, whereby big pharma companies would produce fake medical journals with the stamp of approval from... |
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What Does It Say When A Comedy Show Does More Fact Checking Than News Programs (20 November 06:22) |
| Poynter has an interesting article, looking at The Daily Show as being a leader in media criticism, an area where it does an excellent job, even if that's not its intention. But, what struc... |
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Nordic Music Week Optimism Galore And Found Songs (20 November 05:03) |
| Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Nordic Music Week event held in Stavanger, Norway. It was a smaller event, mainly involving those involved in the music industry in the Nordic... |
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Would Top Sites Really Opt-Out Of Google Based On A Microsoft Bribe (20 November 03:40) |
| Every so often, internet pontificators try to come up with ways to "kill Google." It's a silly game, but in an oddly timed move, three people (who have all put forth "how to kill Google" id... |
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Intel Lawyers Again Go Too Far In Trademark Bullying (20 November 02:27) |
| Chip giant Intel has a bit of a reputation for being a trademark bully at times, threatening or suing many companies just for having "intel" in their name somewhere -- including a travel age... |
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Mandelson Wants Govt To Have Sweeping Powers To Protect Copyright Holders (20 November 01:13) |
| As pretty much everyone who reads Techdirt has been submitting today, Lord Peter Mandelson over in the UK -- the guy who just discovered copyright law after a resort vacation dinner with ent... |
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Once Again Walmart Stops People From Printing Family Photos Due To Copyright Law Claims (20 November 12:17) |
| It's been many years since we first wrote about how stores like Walmart were dealing with ridiculous copyright laws by telling employees to simply not allow the printing of "professional-loo... |
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Essayist Writes Popular Essay Then Sends Non-Negotiable Invoice To Church Who Posts It Online (19 November 11:09) |
| We've seen recently how some companies have turned copyright into something that certainly approximates a tool for extortion. Rather than threatening to break up your store with a baseball ... |
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ASCAP BMI And SESAC Continue To Screw Over Most Songwriters Write A Hit Song If You Want Money (19 November 09:53) |
| We keep hearing from folks how the collections societies in the US for songwriters and composers, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, are supposedly the "good guys" in that they actually give money to the... |
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Kicking People Off The Internet Not Enough In South Korea Copyright Lobbyists Demand More (19 November 08:37) |
| If you thought that the entertainment industry would stop at having the ability to force ISPs to kick people they accuse (not convict) of file sharing offline, you might want to pay attentio... |
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Are The Record Labels Using Bluebeats Bogus Copyright Defense To Avoid Having To Give Copyrights Back To Artists (19 November 07:03) |
| As you hopefully know, back in 1999, the RIAA had a Congressional staffer named Mitch Glazier slip four words into a totally unrelated bill on satellite retransmission of broadcast TV, liter... |
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Larry Magid Calls For News Tax To Fund Failing Newspapers (19 November 05:23) |
| I usually find Larry Magid's columns pretty reasonable, so I'm a bit surprised to see him calling for a special "news tax" to fund failing newspapers. Most of the column is a decent enough ... |
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Judge Says Theres An Ad For That And Its Ok For Now (19 November 03:05) |
| Recently, AT&T sued Verizon over its "There's A Map For That" ad, that mocked AT&T's 3G network coverage, while playing on the Apple iPhone slogan of "there's an app for that." It... |
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Oh Look Some Police Do Know How To Use Craigslist As A Tool (19 November 12:31) |
| We keep hearing stories of law enforcement officials, such as Sheriff Thomas Dart of Cook County Illinois, trying to blame Craigslist for the actions of its users, rather than recognizing th... |
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Netherlands The Latest To Propose Mileage Tax That Requires GPS For Tracking Driving (19 November 10:13) |
| Matthew Cruse alerts us to the news that the Netherlands is the latest in a long line of governments that are considering a "mileage tax" that would require drivers to have GPS devices that ... |
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Spain Says Broadband Is A Basic Right (19 November 08:10) |
| Slashdot alerts us to the news that Spain will be following Finland's lead in declaring broadband as a basic legal right. I'm still not convinced that declaring it as a full legal right mak... |
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Entertainment Industry Wants More People To Know About OpenBitTorrent Tracker (19 November 05:52) |
| The definition of insanity, the saying goes, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. For the past decade, the entertainment industry has sued one site o... |
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Its The TSA Not CSI Actions Limited To Security Not Crime Investigation (19 November 04:30) |
| I'm actually writing this post just minutes after passing through TSA security at JFK, where I was stopped to investigate the fact that I have a candle (a gift) in my carry-on luggage. I'm ... |
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The More Innovative You Are The More You Get Sued Yet Another Patent Lawsuit Over Shazam (19 November 03:19) |
| Earlier this year, we noted that Apple and AT&T had been sued for patent infringement concerning Shazam, the popular service for identifying music. At the time, we noted how this was a... |
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Oh No! Nobody Reads! Oh No! Its Too Cheap For Everyone To Read! (19 November 02:06) |
| We recently wrote about how booksellers were freaking out over the "price war" between Amazon and Wal-Mart, whereby they're starting to offer certain books at a very cheap price to bring in ... |
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We See Your Copyright Contributes $15 Trillion And Raise You Fair Use Contributes $22 Trillion (19 November 12:45) |
| The copyright industry lobbyists absolutely love to throw around the bogus and debunked stat that copyright contributes $1.52 trillion to the economy. That number is derived by taking any b... |
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Cable Industry Joins MPAA In Asking FCC To Allow Them To Stop Your DVR From Recording Movies (18 November 11:25) |
| Ars Technica has allowed the cable industry lobbyists' top lawyer to explain why the cable industry supports breaking your DVR in a misguided effort to add more windows to movie releases. N... |
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Sony Pictures Having Its Best Box Office Year Ever Still Blaming Piracy For Killing The Business (18 November 10:14) |
| Sony Pictures' CEO is Michael Lynton, the guy who recently claimed that "nothing good" has come from the internet, and that piracy is killing the movie business. He made that statement less... |
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Jenzabar Finds Expert Witness Who Will Claim Google Relies On Metatags Despite Google Saying It Does Not (18 November 09:00) |
| It's been widely known for years that Google does not use metatag description comments in ranking its search results. Indeed, this simple fact is part of what made Google more reliable than... |
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China Says Microsoft Violates IP With Windows Bars Sales (18 November 07:22) |
| For years, Microsoft has been among the loudest complainers concerning "piracy" in China, so it's a bit of a surprise to see things switched around a bit. Mesanna was the first of a few to ... |
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Dont Post Comments On StlTodaycom Or They Might Tell Your Boss (18 November 05:31) |
| Via Romenesko comes this little gem of how the online editor of StlToday.com got upset about a "vulgar" comment that was left on a story. The editor, Kurt Greenbaum, noticed that the commen... |
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Recording Industry Making It Impossible For Any Legit Online Music Service To Survive Without Being Too Expensive (18 November 03:20) |
| You just knew it would happen again. Every time the recording industry finally agrees to license a new music service to try to take the "sting" out of "piracy," it demands licensing terms t... |
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Crackdown On Loyalty Program Scams Shows How Ridiculously Sucessful They Were (18 November 12:31) |
| It's no secret that there are a bunch of companies out there that trick users into signing up for a regular monthly subscription service that's usually nothing more than an excuse to charge ... |
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Just Because People Say Theyll Pay For Something It Doesnt Mean They Will (18 November 10:26) |
| I've been ignoring this one, but people keep submitting it. BCG came out with a report over the weekend on a survey it did, claiming that about half of all people would pay for online news.... |
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Yes Bad People Use Facebook Too (18 November 08:32) |
| Reader Tina alerts us to an article about how some students in Venezuela have been arrested for using Facebook to monitor other students' activities, and then rob them while they were out. ... |
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Folks Can Digg Shoes For Needy Kids (18 November 06:59) |
| With an offer that reminds me of the OLPC "give 1, get 1" promotion (but hopefully without the delivery complaints), Digg is selling a Digg-branded shoe, made by TOMS Shoes. For those who h... |
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Company Trademarks The Pirate Bay Logo (18 November 05:31) |
| Quite a few people have pointed to the story about a Swedish company that has trademarked The Pirate Bay logo, and plans to sell USB keys with the logo included. The company claims that thi... |
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Australian Patent Lawyers Claim Patenting Genes Is Necessary For Biomedical Research (18 November 04:22) |
| Here in the US, there's an important legal battle going on over whether or not you can patent genes. Not surprisingly, we're very much against such a system, which gives a total monopoly to... |
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