A recurring narrative promoted by the internet industry and its cheerleaders is that the old creative industry, which relies on copyright law, is “outdated.”  The major rights holders, they keep saying, “cling to old models,” pretending the future is not happening.  Of course this new v old narrative is more than a misleading PR message—it is a gross hypocrisy if ...

  Maybe the folks at the Electronic Frontier Foundation could save themselves a lot of repetitive work if they just write a blanket statement declaring once and for all that they believe copyrights should never be enforced online in any context whatsoever.  Because no matter what proposal they encounter, it seems they will always grab their box of fridge-magnet hyperbole ...

Photo by kentoh By now, you may have encountered a handful of headlines stating that the new, Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has temporarily halted new privacy rules passed under Obama’s Chairman Tom Wheeler.  As a general takeaway, you’re also likely to see statements like “Republicans favor corporations over consumer privacy,” and as with all things under the Trump imprimatur, trust ...

photo by DevonYu Well, here we go.  I’ve been waiting for this shoe to drop, and it looks like Josh Tabish, campaigns director for Vancouver-based OpenMedia, has decided to be among the first to throw a loafer. In an editorial for Wired, he warns that “the copyright barons” are coming now that Trump is in the White House. It has a been ...

Amicus briefs were filed recently in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of BMG Rights Management v Cox Communications. In November of 2014, BMG sued Cox (an ISP) for contributory copyright infringement, and a US District Court found for the plaintiff in December of 2015, awarding $25 million in damages. The suit was based on evidence that ...

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