Photo by Harrisr I assume it’s well understood by now that the biggest, corporate antagonist to intellectual property rights is Google. The company has backed an impressive array of academia, press, lobbying, and activism, all generally evangelizing the message worldwide that IP is fundamentally anachronistic in the digital age. In response to this juggernaut, many a pro-IP advocate likes to underscore ...
Lens photo by mrbrainous For all the attention paid to music and motion picture piracy, the most chronically infringed works via the internet has got to be photographs. The speed and volume with which photos are uploaded and redistributed by both commercial and non-commercial users is so constant that it occasionally results in some amusing—if not infuriating—mistakes. Like the time in February ...
SCOTUS Photo by jgroup After ten years and what must be thousands of attorney hours, the “Dancing Baby” case may have to do an about-face at the steps of the Supreme Court and, get this, actually go to trial. On May 5, the Solicitor General filed its brief recommending that SOCTUS deny a writ of certiorari in Lenz v. UMG, finding no ...
Composite sources by zmiter & maximmmmum When the President of the United States disses fundamentals from climate science to the separation of powers, it is admittedly a very difficult time to debate any issue outside the gravitational pull of so much regressive momentum. Amid a flurry of truly dangerous policy reversals, the storm now brewing over the issue of Net Neutrality will doubtless ...
Usually, when we talk about copyright or patents, we focus on the utilitarian aspects of the law. We generally discuss the merits of specific arguments in a case or the need of the author or inventor to earn a living from her work relative to the social and economic value of that work to the market. But an ongoing debate ...
