A number of musicians in the UK have sent a letter to The Times objecting to the use of their music by the British National Party (BNP) in order to raise funds. The problem appears to be that the BNP has legally got hold of several compilation CDs of folk Read more…
Two years ago, author Mark Helprin published an article advocating for perpetual copyright, which was received with much derision from Cyberspace communities around the world. Lessig even went as far as starting a wiki to allow readers to respond to it, and the result was a comprehensive thrashing of the Read more…
The BBC reports that Iran has blocked access to Facebook. According to them, this has been done in order to make sure that followers of former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi cannot meet online and gather more support. Does anyone remember our early dreams of a free internet? The Web Read more…
Big news from the Wikimedia Foundation, the governing body of Wikipedia. The Board of Trustees has announced that Wikipedia will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence (BY-SA). This is a huge step for Wikipedia, and follows an unprecedented governance exercise by the Wikipedia community, where 88% of an Read more…
I’ve just listened to a very interesting interview on Radio 4 with Dan Ariely, author of the book about behavioural economics Predictably / Irrational. The interview was in the context of the scandal about MP expenses here in the UK. For readers not located in the land of marmite and Read more…
After yesterday’s rant about journalists, it is fair that we highlight informed commentary. Billy Bragg has written a refreshing article calling on the music industry not to penalise fans with their misguided 3-strikes strategy. He comments that: “Stating that a “write and sue” policy will not work is an admission Read more…
There are a lot of threats to society as we know it, some more worrisome than others. Were I to draw a list, I would include things like climate change, political apathy, racism, xenophobia, and social disengagement, just to name a few. Nonetheless, I try not to worry too much, Read more…
The UK copyright industry has hardened its position on 3-strikes-and-you’re-out policy, calling for the measure to be included in the government’s final Digital Britain strategy. An alliance of content owners, including the film and music industries, has asked the government to force ISPs to disconnect users who have been involved Read more…
I am not immune from a healthy dose of Microsoft bashing from time to time, but even I have to cringe at the ongoing competition case against Microsoft. The European Commission brought a case against Microsoft alleging that it violated EU Competition law by bundling the Windows Media Player with Read more…
The UK Intellectual Property Office has ruled in favour of an application for an invention implemented in software, and therefore complies with section 1(2) of the 1977 Patent Act. The controversy involves patent application GB2407893A by Nokia which protects “a method of rapid software application development for a wireless mobile Read more…