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Entries from December 2009

“Rush Limbaugh accidentally declared dead by Wikipedia”

December 31st, 2009 · No Comments

From here:
Rush Limbaugh was hospitalized on Wednesday for “chest pains” in Hawaii, but the controversial radio host (who also had a syndicated TV show at one point) is not dead contrary to a post made by Wikipedia early Thursday morning. The commentator’s page was edited briefly to say that December 30, 2009 was the day [...]

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Tags: Online Norms and Culture

Google’s YouTube Power

December 30th, 2009 · No Comments

For the second time in two days, Google has shown up on my “hmm, what’s going on there?” radar. Today I want to put search behind me and look at how Google is alleged to have leveraged its video content position by changing the terms of service for YouTube’s APIs (application programming interfaces) to [...]

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Tags: Law & Technology

isoHunt Loses on Summary Judgment

December 29th, 2009 · No Comments

This is being widely reported elsewhere, most notably by Michael Geist (who includes a copy of the 47 page decision) and ArsTechnica, among others, but the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of California has granted summary judgment to the film industry in its suit against Gary Fung and isoHunt, a BitTorrent search site. [...]

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Tags: Law & Technology

Copyright and Wikipedia

December 29th, 2009 · 5 Comments

I’ve been reading up on Wikipedia’s copyright policies lately and found some interesting items tucked away in the Wikipedia copyright policy guidelines and copyright FAQ.  This is not to criticize the people at Wikipedia as they are working to do something really unique and original with little in the way of financial backing.  But as [...]

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Tags: Copyright Law · Intellectual Property Law · Law & Technology

More about how search neutrality doesn’t exist

December 29th, 2009 · 3 Comments

I appreciate Frank’s addition to the discussion here, started by Greg and based on Frank Raff’s NY Times Op-Ed. That said, I think we’re at least somewhat talking around each other, and the major reason is that the primary legal structures designed to handle the problems that Raff is really upset about — Google’s dominant [...]

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Tags: Law & Technology

Principles of Search Neutrality

December 28th, 2009 · No Comments

I just want to respond to Rob’s and Greg’s concerns about Adam Raff’s “search neutrality” editorial in the NYT today. On the basis of the many articles I’ve written on search (as well as discussions with individuals who have problems similar to Raff’s), I found the editorial both informative and compelling. Principles of [...]

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Tags: Law & Technology

Creative Commons Fund Drive

December 28th, 2009 · No Comments

American University law professor and madisonian.net contributor Mike Carroll asked me to post a link to the annual fundraising drive for Creative Commons, where Mike has been a board member since its founding.  Happy to!
Here is Mike’s pitch.  To donate and to read more, click over to the Creative Commons site:
Dear Friends –
I’m asking you [...]

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Tags: Commons · Copyright Law

There is no “search engine neutrality”

December 28th, 2009 · No Comments

Greg usefully started the conversation on today’s NY Times Op-Ed by Adam Raff, founder of “foundem.co.uk,” a UK price comparison site, by asking, “What is search engine neutrality?” I was drafting a too-long post about this when I noticed Greg’s was already up, so thought I would shorten mine considerably. My short answer is to [...]

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Tags: Law & Technology

What is Search Neutrality?

December 28th, 2009 · 2 Comments

Adam Raff, in an Op-Ed in the New York Times yesterday, says that Google
“faces a difficult choice. Will it embrace search neutrality as the logical extension to net neutrality that truly protects equal access to the Internet? Or will it try to argue that discriminatory market power is somehow dangerous in the hands of a [...]

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Tags: Law & Technology

Cell Phones, Dogs, and Prisons: A Better Policy Is Needed

December 27th, 2009 · No Comments

I call friends and family during the holidays. For me, unlike email and social networking options, talking to someone is a more intimate and fun experience. Regardless of how one “reaches out and touches someone” as AT&T used to say, it is easy to take the ability to do so for granted. As I thought [...]

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Tags: Ideas · Law & Technology · social norms

Self-Piracy

December 26th, 2009 · No Comments

So here’s some controversial advice:
“So that’s your advice is it? As my agent? On the week my book comes out in paperback, I should produce my own pirated version and give it away free? Why don’t I just punch my publisher in the face? That would be less work.”
My agent rocked back in his [...]

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Tags: Art and Politics · Law & Technology

And the Most Pirated Movie Award goes to …

December 26th, 2009 · No Comments

According to today’s NY Times, the most pirated movie of 2009 was the popular Star Trek prequel.
The award for “most notorious film piracy”, however, goes to X-Men Origins:  Wolverine which made it to illegal file-sharing avenues on the Internet one month before being released in the theaters.
Other movies that made 2009’s “most pirated” list included [...]

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Tags: Art and Politics · Copyright Law · Intellectual Property Law · Law & Technology

Star Trek Jingle Bells

December 24th, 2009 · No Comments

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Tags: Copyright Law · Online Norms and Culture

Sherlock Holmes and The Sparks

December 24th, 2009 · No Comments

Here’s just a little free association for what I hope are ongoing happy holidays for everyone. Sherlock Holmes opens on Christmas Day and is a front runner for holiday films I want to see. I happen to think that Robert Downey Jr. is in a great groove. I loved his acting in Chaplin and am [...]

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Tags: Copyright Law · Ideas · Intellectual Property Law · Just for Fun

Open Information, Open Government, and Better Nutrition: A Possibility To Explore

December 23rd, 2009 · No Comments

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Tags: Ideas · Law & Technology

Marketing and Kids

December 23rd, 2009 · No Comments

Although I tend to prefer less regulation in many cases, the pictures below seem to call for a little more discussion about how products are marketed to kids. Candy in that mimics many of the attributes of adult products such as cigarettes probably makes it easier for a kid to think they ought to try [...]

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Tags: Ideas · Intellectual Property Law · social norms

Admit it, this is funny.

December 23rd, 2009 · No Comments

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Tags: Just for Fun

Mandatory vs. Permissive Copyright Exceptions and Limitations

December 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

[H/T here to the IPKat, and particularly the AmeriKat.]
In this recent post I pointed to the recent statement of the United States at the WIPO meeting considering an proposed international treaty governing copyright in works for persons who are blind, visually impaired or have other disabilities.
Earlier in the Fall, the US Copyright Office issued a Notice [...]

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Tags: Copyright Law

Why Do Competitors Set Up Shop Near Each Other?

December 21st, 2009 · No Comments

I am a big fan of the Planet Money series on NPR. Any student struggling with the economic aspects of business associations can use Planet Money and NPR’s other financial series, Marketplace, to get grasp of what is going on. Marketplace tends to focus on the day’s events. PM takes a little time and explores [...]

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Tags: Commons · Ideas

Merry, Merry Trademark Season from Pittsburgh

December 19th, 2009 · No Comments

From the Department of Joys of the Season to You, Too comes news that the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership not only owns a trademark registration for the phrase “Light Up Night” but is now — and I mean that almost literally, as in “in the middle of the holiday season” — sending out cease-and-desist letters to [...]

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Tags: Trademark Law