Every year, personal autonomy in the arts suffocates a little more as corporate interests suck more oxygen out of the creative atmosphere.
Tag: Copyright
Annual Literary Housekeeping
Every year begins with certain literary rituals. The first is to pay homage to Public Domain Day – the acknowledgment of literary works which have passed into the Public Domain and therefore are no longer subject to copyright law. Because copyright terms vary from country to country, one must be careful.
Ebooks And PED
In debates about copyright and piracy, one hears a lot from copyright law advocates on one side (tough laws, digital rights management, enforcement with teeth), and cultural libertarians on the other (broad fair dealing provisions, open source, lenient enforcement). However, one hears little from economists.
If Copyright Lawyers wrote the Rules for Baseball
Dear Disney, about that Tron Legacy flick …
Dear Mr. Disney, I went to the local movie theatre and saw your latest offering called Tron Legacy. Part way through, I had to pick the wax out of my ears. Did I hear what I thought I heard? Did you have your main character, played by Jeff Bridges (the older one), say: “Information wants to be free?” WTF?
Bill C-32 – Copyright Modernization Act and DRM
The conservatives said they were going to introduce new copyright legislation within six weeks. That was back on May 05, 2010 and true to their word, they introduced Bill C32 — the Copyright Modernization Act on June 2nd.
Harper says DMCA-style copyright bill in six weeks
Michael Geist reports that PM Stephen Harper has resolved a dispute between Industry Minister, Tony Clement, and Heritage Minister, James Moore, by siding with Moore and opting for DMCA-style copyright legislation. This would bring us more in line with American policy notwithstanding the fact that copyright consultations last summer suggested that popular opinion favoured something less stringent.
Bill C-32, education fair use video
You know you are dealing with really conservative people when they lobby for legal provisions more stringent than those proposed by the Harper Conservatives. Bill C-32 is a case in point.
Canada Holds Copyright Consultations
The Canadian government is holding a national copyright consultation from July 20th until Sept 13th, 2009. It’s happening under the auspices of the Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, and the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages.
Flame Kindle? What About US Copyright Law
The twitterverse has been abuzz with talk of Amazon’s decision to delete Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from its proprietary e-reader, Kindle. As a consequence, Kindle owners woke up on Friday to discover that those two titles had disappeared and the purchase price had been credited to their accounts.
Codex Sinaiticus and File Sharing
What do the British Museum and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) have in common? Not much it seems. Certainly not much when it comes to thinking about culture-as-collaboration and online file-sharing.
©opyright ©oming to ©anada
As election day in Canada approaches (Jan. 23rd), voters have had their sensibilities assaulted by the usual carping that comes from candidates who have nothing substantive to work with. The current liberal government has stumbled—and will probably fall—not because it took a stand on an important issue (since that would be an honourable defeat) but because of corruption.
Copyright And The RIAA
Music creates strong associations which end up, through some organic process, becoming melded to our personal identity. This music is not “out there” as an object to be grasped for a time and then returned once we are done with it; this music is “our” music.
The Canadian Recording Industry Association
Yesterday, the Canadian Recording Industry Association made its submissions to an appeal court in an attempt to overturn an earlier decision which held that file sharing (including music files) is legal in Canada.
Collateral and Copyright
Last night, my son and I went to see Collateral, the new Michael Mann action flick starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. It was a slick show, and both leads gave a little extra so that their characters weren’t mere ciphers in a pro forma script.