Category Archives: Copyright, patents, and trademarks
the Google trademark
Google’s trademark lawyers are obviously getting nervous: they want people to only use (variations of) the word ‘Google’ in relation to Google Inc or the services it provides. I think this is probably a loosing battle – people ‘xerox’ things … Continue reading
the belgian google lawsuit
I must admit that I’m ashamed – my countrymen are being ridiculous. The lawsuit against Google does not make any sense. The Google blog has a nice post outlining the basics of the case. Basically – if those newspapers don’t … Continue reading
IEEE Spectrum on the DMCA
There is an excellent article on the DMCA in the June issue of IEEE Spectrum. Go read it – it’s an excellent overview of just how ridiculously bad a law the DMCA is.
Posted in Copyright, patents, and trademarks, DRM
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time to fight back
I’ve had it. I’m sick of region encoding on DVDs and video games. I’m sick of crippled (‘copy-protected’) audio CDs. I’m sick of DRM’d music. I’m sick of the fact that I can’t legally use the DVDs I purchased on … Continue reading
canadian musicians get it
The Canadian Music Creators Coalition gets it. They believe that suing customers is not smart. That DRM is bad because customers don’t like it – because it causes nothing but trouble. And that cultural policy should support artists, not the … Continue reading
greed (2)
An update on the Da Vinci Code lawsuit I wrote about earlier. The claimants have lost the case, thankfully. The key quote from the Post article is by a Boston-based lawyer: Copyright protects the expression, not the idea That’s pretty … Continue reading
greed
So now the authors of The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, a non-fiction book from 1982, are suing Dan Brown in the UK for copyright infringement. They claim he “lifted the central theme” from their work and used it … Continue reading
Posted in Copyright, patents, and trademarks
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confiscating Firefox CDs
This article is simply unbelievable. A UK ‘Trading Standards Officer’ confiscated Firefox CDs that were being sold by a company in the UK. Key quote: ‘If Mozilla permit the sale of copied versions of its software, it makes it virtually … Continue reading
record label against RIAA lawsuits
An important Canadian record label, Nettwerk Music Group, has decided to join a RIAA lawsuit against a 15 year old Texan – on the side of the defendant. Quote from Michael Geist’s excellent blog: Nettwerk CEO Terry McBride says: “Suing … Continue reading
Copyright down under
Good news from Australia – the Australian government will soon legalize time and media-shifting of copyrighted materials for personal use. So it will become legal for Australians to make MP3s from their CDs, and to use their VCRs to record … Continue reading
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