For a variety of reasons, including an interesting interpretation of policy from elsewhere at the university, I’m going to be moving this blog. (The university thing isn’t related to me personally.) The new URL will be:
http://www.copythisblog.com/
I’ve migrated posts, comments, and my blogroll over already. I’ll be turning off comments on this blog, but the posts [...]
I’ve been involved in a few disturbing conversations the last couple of days.
Fair Use has a vital role in copyright law- it allows the use of copyrighted material without permission for what are essentially societal benefits. Criticism, scholarship, teaching and research are specifically mentioned in the text of the law as examples of the kinds [...]
President Powers has responded to the controversy:
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The University’s rule prohibiting the display of signs in students’ residence hall room windows has been the subject of a great deal of discussion for the past few days. I am keenly aware that this prohibition is of intense concern to many members of the student body, as well [...]
Ars Technica is running a very informative story about the claims that various organizations and government agencies make about losses to piracy:
http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/dodgy-digits-behind-the-war-on-piracy.ars
The ultimate conclusion is that the numbers are highly questionable, likely biased, and didn’t really deal with piracy in the first place.
The confusion is a result basically a 20 year “game of telephone” (yes… [...]
Judge blocks Harry Potter Encyclopedia on CNN.
I’m not particularly thrilled with the news. I can’t comment on the specifics of the case, since I don’t have access to the decision itself yet. I do think that this will have a chilling effect on similar endeavors. According to CNN, the judge said:
“While the lexicon, in its [...]
I was approached by an undergraduate student last week. She had recently received a letter from the RIAA demanding that she pay them a settlement for infringement. They had the names of seven songs, the times when the songs were shared and an IP address associated with the sharing. The organization had apparently issued a [...]
On the one hand, I think it’s quite disturbing that children have to really learn about copyright now while they’re children- so much for unfettered creativity. On the other hand, I had the opportunity to talk to several middle schoolers participating in a community-sponsored film workshop series, and they seriously give me hope for the [...]
GamePolitics is asking whether game nights at churches and libraries violate copyright:
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/06/02/do-library-amp-church-game-nights-violate-eula
Interesting discussion. Should there be licensing for that type of activity? I don’t know- I’d worry that game publishers would try to treat it as a revenue stream in such a manner unavailable to other types of media. But those EULAs… If there was [...]
I came across two articles today that aren’t explicitly connected to one another, but are certainly evocative of similar issues.
The first is from CNN: The Pictures that Horrified America.
The article discusses the big push to censor comic book publishing in America, because critics alleged that these materials were corrupting the youth of the day. It [...]
As always, there’s good news and bad news.
There’s an immense amount of erroneous information about the new orphan works bill, primarily from certain people who are worried about their livelihoods. I don’t at all begrudge someone being concerned about their livelihoods. There are definitely some legitimate concerns about the course such a bill could take. [...]
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/04/fair-use-and-other-things.html
Neil Gaiman comments on the Rowling Lexicon case, fair use, and the nature of creation. Plus, he’s heavily involved with the Comic Book Defense Fund.
Lots of emails from people asking me to comment on the JK Rowling/ Steve Vander Ark copyright case. My main reaction is, having read as much as I can about it, [...]
http://www.section108.gov/docs/Sec108StudyGroupReport.pdf
At 212 pages, it’s not going to be a quick read. Let’s see what happens to copyright and libraries, archives, and museums…
As usual, William Patry as some very insightful things to say regarding anything going on in the copyright world.
http://williampatry.blogspot.com/2008/03/turn-it-in-and-kiss-it-goodbye.html
He mentions a few of the problems that I have with Turnitin. I don’t like requiring students to turn over their work in that manner, I despise heavily one-sided End User License Agreements, and I don’t like [...]
The results of this lawsuit are quite interesting!
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080326-plagiarism-screener-gets-passing-grade-in-copyright-lawsuit.html
The district court in Virginia found that Turnitin’s use was transformative and legal under the fair use doctrine and covered by the End User License Agreement. It also looks at issues of creativity, non-monetary incentives for creativity (ie, grades), and duress.
My blogroll has vanished under mysterious circumstances, [...]
I just found this interesting… Steven Brust is an established fantasy author, and from what I’ve heard from those who have encountered him a genuinely nice person. I own a number of his books. His was one of the very first author Web sites I found on the Internet in the early days, and he [...]