This situation is now turning critical, with legislative proposals such as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act claiming worldwide jurisdiction for domain names and IP addresses. The definitions in SOPA are so broad that, ultimately, it could be interpreted in a way that would mean that no online resource in the global Internet would be outside US jurisdiction.
Tag Archives: copyright
France Wants To Tax ISPs To Fund Music, Add Streaming To Three-Strikes Law | paidContent:UK
This is not the first time that France has proposed taxes on online business to fund the music industry. Last year, the Zelnik report, masterminded by music industry executive Patrick Zelnik, proposed taxes on online ads and ISPs, with the proceeds to be used for special cards to be distributed to the French public to spend on ???legitimate content.???
>>> Corporate welfare via hypothecation, is there no end to the extent the incumbents will go to to maintain their lifestyle?
Cultural Liberty: Questioning Copyright
So, what is copyright???s future?
Copyright is an unethical anachronism. It still works as a weapon with which to threaten or punish infringers (with or without evidence), but even with draconian enforcement, the monopoly has ended.
When privileged immortal corporations collide with a population naturally at liberty, the latter will prevail, however draconian their ???education??? by the former.
Nevertheless, without copyright, natural rights remain, e.g. an author???s exclusive right to their writings, truth in authorship, etc.
Moreover, the market for intellectual work can continue quite happily without a reproduction monopoly. Indeed, it will thrive.
But I had to laugh when I read this, “Copyright is a historical accident, a legislative error made in a less principled era.”
Does Crosbie believe there is a less principled era than the current one with respect to the grotesque cancerous enlargement of “rights” for the few?
Copyright isn’t working, says European Commission | ZDNet UK
People have come to see copyright as a tool of punishment, Europe’s technology chief has said in her strongest-yet attack on the current copyright system.
Digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes said on Saturday that the creative industries had to embrace rather than resist new technological ways of distributing artistic works. She added that the existing copyright system was not rewarding the vast majority of artists.
“Is the current copyright system the right and only tool to achieve our objectives? Not really,” Kroes said in a speech to the Forum D’Avignon thinktank. “Citizens increasingly hear the word copyright and hate what is behind it.”
via zdnet.co.uk
>>> The headline isn’t news (and is wrong to the extent that IP rights holders, that specially vulnerable group is making money in a recession, just not as much as their greed might require) but it seems to be breaking into the higher echelons of some jurisdictions.
Sad comments from the Register of Copyrights to the effect that without SOPA copyright cannot work. Well if SOPA is the price, who wants it to work?
How the BBC’s HD DRM plot was kept secret ??? and why
The BBC is a public broadcaster, and its charter sets out the requirement for everything it does to meet a “public value test.” Ofcom, the independent regulator that oversees the BBC, is charged with “[making] sure that people in the UK get the best from their communications services and are protected from scams and sharp practices, while ensuring that competition can thrive”.
So what did Ofcom do? Naturally, it listened to the public, ignored the uncompetitive rent-seeking proposals from the commercial sector, adhered to EU law, and rejected the proposal.
Well, that’s what they did in a parallel universe. In this universe, Ofcom accepted the self-serving arguments of the companies they’re meant to be regulating, ignored the public whose interests they were meant to be safeguarding, and gave the BBC what it asked for.
Why did it do this? It’s a secret.
But not any more.
via guardian.co.uk
The Privatization of Copyright Lawmaking
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the companion bill to the Senate???s PROTECT IP Act, would further privatize adjudication and punishment. Title I of that law (dubbed the E-PARASITE Act) creates a ???market-based system to protect U.S. customers and prevent U.S. funding of sites dedicated to theft of U.S. property.??? It achieves this by empowering copyright owners who have a ???good faith belief??? that they are being ???harmed by the activities??? of a website to send a notice to the site???s payment providers (e.g. PayPal) and Internet advertisers to end business with the allegedly offending site.
via torrentfreak.com
Is TPP worth this?
Hamish MacEwan 