In a recent OpEd in the New York Times, media ethicist Kelly McBride generally stands by the principle that journalists should not pay sources for information; but she also wants pardoxically to propose that sometimes the ends justify the means.  Specifically, she is referring to an initiative (ploy, stunt?) by Wikileaks to crowd fund a “bounty” for a leaker to ...

Once again the Electronic Frontier Foundation has taken up the cause of industry in the guise of public interest, principally with the ultimate goal of distorting fair use doctrine beyond its intended purpose.  I am speaking about the case of FoxNews v TVEyes, which as Terry Hart points out in this post on Copyhype, re-treads some familiar ground regarding the ...

I just watched a fun little documentary film called Stripped (2014) made by David Kellett and Frederick Schroeder about comic strip creators. The film features interviews with veteran artists whose careers were born in the syndicated market as well as contemporary cartoonists whose work never graced a newspaper but instead found an audience in cyberspace. Every artist interviewed generally seemed ...

“What would the world be without America? It would be a dull and dinky planet indeed.” – Elizabeth Wurtzel – In honor of the 225th Anniversary of the first copyright act of the United States (May 31, 1790), I’d like to recommend a little book that neatly offers both a primer and a rationale for intellectual property in the United States. Creatocracy:  ...

“Of course it’s art,” writes The New Yorker critic Peter Schjeldahl. “… though by a well-worn Warholian formula:  the subjective objectified and the ephemeral iconized, in forms that appear to insult but actually conserve conventions of fine art.” What Schjeldahl is referring to is a September exhibit at the Gagosian Gallery in New York City by visual artist Richard Prince, ...