Silicon Valley lawyer and tech-industry activist Marvin Ammori wrote a strange little blog post that appeared a few days ago on Slate in its “Future Tense” section. In an attempt to be cute, Ammori likens some unnamed body of Hollywood “copyright lobbyists” to a stalker ex-boyfriend who won’t take the hint that nobody wants him around anymore. It’s an obnoxious ...
Here’s the latest java jive: Green Mountain Coffee manufactures the Keurig, single-cup coffeemaker, and last week the company made the announcement that it would use a DRM-like technology to prevent customers who’ve bought their machines from using any K-Cups other than the Green Mountain brand. We all recognize this as the personal printer business model — make the machine pretty ...
This morning, music industry attorney Dina LaPolt and Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler submitted written comments to the USPTO on the subject of compulsory licensing for remixing and sampling musical works. At issue is a green paper submitted by the US Department of Commerce Internet Policy Task Force that copyright reform could include a measure that would effectively mandate artists ...
According to this analysis by Chez Paznienza on The Daily Banter, toymaker GoldieBlox not only used copyright infringement as a marketing tool leading up to the 2013 holidays, but that same YouTube spot illegally using a song by The Beastie Boys was instrumental in their winning a $4 million dollar TV spot placement during tomorrow’s Super Bowl. As Paznienza writes, ...
I am dying to hear the rationale for this one. According to several stories this morning, Quentin Tarantino is suing Gawker for leaking and promoting access to the full screenplay for a feature in late-stage development called The Hateful Eight. According to the LA Times, the director says he’s depressed over the leak and is shelving the production, but meanwhile, ...
