Embed from Getty Images In the Fall of 1977, just weeks before gay rights activist Harvey Milk won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the English rock band Queen released the album News of the World. The LP included a short, heavily-rhythmic single called “We Will Rock You”, which typically segues into the anthemic “We Are the ...

Readers may be astonished, relieved, or understandably apathetic, to learn that a federal judge in California has ruled that a Sulawesi macaque may not sue for copyright infringement.  In fact, Judge William Orrick broadened his ruling to affirm that no animal may own a copyright. The judge swears he looked and looked but could find no evidence to indicate that ...

When most people discuss or debate copyright’s value in the contemporary market, they talk about the utility of the law—typically arguing the efficacy or rationale of specific contours like term length or enforcement—while generally overlooking the philosophical principles that led to the IP clause being written into the U.S. Constitution in the first place.  This is of course not uncommon ...

By now, you know that the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)—a really big-ass global trade agreement among twelve nations including the United States—is at this point pending delivery to Congress for debate and presumptive ratification.  And this means we can expect to see various organizations and corporate interests dial up the rhetoric regarding key provisions in the deal. Although the TPP is a voluminous package ...

Anybody can write an editorial criticizing copyright on the Internet. It’s easy and fun! By following this basic guideline to creating an effective rebuttal to any proposal for protecting or enforcing copyrights online, you’ll discover that very little understanding of the issues is required. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll see that you can apply these techniques to ...

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