Items tagged with Copyright
The US Copyright Office has just issued a draft of a massive update to its practices guide, and some of its updated information couldn't be more timely. By now, you've probably heard of the battle that ensued between a photographer and Wikimedia over a photo that a female macaque took herself. The photographer...
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In what qualifies as one of those, 'Are you freaking serious?' moments, the Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies (AARC) is suing auto makers Ford and GM for selling cars with technology to rip music from CDs. The feature that has the AARC in a tizzy is called Jukebox, which records songs from CDs to the...
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The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is showing no signs of slowing down when it comes to wiping the web of links that participate in or encourage piracy. Just the opposite, the RIAA is ramping up its efforts and has now surpassed 50 million pirate link takedown requests issued to Google, up from 25...
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Kim Dotcom has a history of bad behavior that runs the gamut from computer fraud to insider trading and embezzlement. More recently, Dotcom ran Megaupload, a now defunct website that was once a popular portal for hosting files, especially copyrighted material, which is why the U.S. government shut it down in 2012...
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Hulu has already admitted to an evil plot to destroy the world when it ran commercials with Alec Baldwin (as an alien) saying that once our brains are reduced to a cottage cheese like mush, they'll scoop them out with a melon baler and gobble them right on up. Sound pretty insidious, and while Hulu was obviously...
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Here's a head-scratcher: King.com, creators of the popular online game Candy Crush, has managed to trademark the word "Candy". It might seem bizarre that such a general word could be trademarked, but because it's being applied specifically to gaming (and clothing, for some reason), it's allowed to go...
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There will always be people who pirate content, that's just the way it is. We don't condone illegally downloading movies and TV shows, nor are we being pessimistic, but unlike big media companies, we're willing to look at the situation realistically. Perhaps so is Comcast, which is said to be developing a new method...
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Go home, HBO, you're drunk. That's the message we hope Google sends HBO in response to the media company including a link to a copy of the popular VLC media player as part of a DMCA takedown request. Judging by the other links in the request, HBO is primarily trying to remove illegal copies of Game of Thrones from the...
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On any given day in the United States you will find a number of really, really terrible ideas being floated as smart decisions. Flying to Hawaii to give birth in the ocean surrounded by dolphins. A drunk man repeatedly directing traffic in midtown Manhattan. And, today, from the USA Intellectual Property Theft...
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From the "About Time" files comes a new bill that's aimed at protecting companies from one of their biggest fears: patent trolls. Called the "SHIELD Act of 2013" (no, not this SHIELD, but rather "Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes"), this bill would require those accusing of patent infringement...
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While the country's biggest music labels all seek out a passing of a "six strikes" scheme - one that would result in your Internet being cut off after your sixth offense - BMG has found another way to both increase its revenue and instill fear in music downloaders. Typically, if a copyright holder detects an infringement on your IP address,...
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It may have taken Ubisoft a hundred million years to figure out that honest-to-goodness consumers really, really despise always-on Digital Rights Management (DRM) schemes, but bless the publisher's heart for finally caving. Actually, Ubisoft did away with always-on DRM over a year ago, but is just now making it official. "We have listened...
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Everyone has heard of patent trolls or copyright trolls like Righthaven, but the rapid evolution of the new porn troll has scientists puzzled. This new species of lawyer has emerged in the past two years as an intriguing example of how natural selection can quickly influence the trajectory of a species. Like its brethren, the porn troll issues...
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Peter Sunde, one of the oft-outspoken co-founders of torrrent site The Pirate Bay (TPB), has always held an air of confidence, sometimes to the point of arrogance. Back in 2009, for example, Mr. Sunde told his Twitter followers to "Stay calm," reassuring them that nothing will happen to TPB and its founders, and that...
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A lawsuit that could have prevented Apple from selling its popular iPad tablet in China has been settled for $60 million, the amount the Cupertino company paid Shenzhen Proview Technology. The dispute revolved around the iPad name, which Apple claims it purchased outright in 2009. However, Proview argued it still held iPad rights in China,...
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Digital pirates in search of free reading material are turning to illicit download sites where they can obtain copyrighted eBooks free of charge. The obvious allure for eBook pirates is just like anything else -- free treasure -- but in addition to not having to fork over pieces of eight, pirates are attracted to...
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When an advance copy of Crysis 2 leaked to the Internet a full month before the game's scheduled release, Crytek and Electronic Arts (EA) were understandably miffed and, as it turns out, justified in their fears of mass piracy. As 2011 comes to a close, Crysis 2 holds rank as the most pirated game of the year on any platform, according to...
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As long as it's for fair use, people living in Switzerland have what amounts to a green light to download copyrighted music and movies without any repercussions. And as far as the Swiss government is concerned, copyright holders might as well go pound sand if they're not willing to adapt to the changing landscape. Piracy is, and will remain...
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Game publishers are in love with DRM, even the Draconian kind that every once in awhile causes an uproar in the gaming community. Remember Spore? It initially shipped with a three-activation limit, and like baseball, three strikes and you're out. This limit was later relaxed by Electronic Arts, who upped it to five activations and made it...
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Take a look at your coworker sitting in the cubicle next to you. Is he a software pirate? Would you classify him as a nincompoop? If neither of those apply, then statistically speaking, it's you that fits into one or both of those categories. Don't go shooting the messenger, we're just paraphrasing the Business...
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Britain's business secretary, Vince Cable, announced today that the government plans to pass legislation allowing citizens to make legal copies of CDs and DVDs they own. The new law will also allow UK citizens to engage in "form shifting;" the term refers to the right to burn legally downloaded materials to physical media. (This last right...
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Copyright troll firm Righthaven is bidding fair to replace TV reruns as a source of summer entertainment. Since the company's case against Digital Underground was tossed in mid-June, the firm's lawyers have turned to increasingly amusing court filings in an attempt to justify their own legal fees. This week scarcely disappoints. Judge Roger...
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