Tag Archives: Intellectual Poverty

‘Pirate Bay’ for 3D printing launched

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“The company that developed 3D printed gun parts has announced plans to launch a new firm, dedicated to copyright-free blueprints for a range of 3D printable objects.  The firm, Defcad, is the brainchild of Cody Wilson, law student and self-styled crypto-anarchist.  Mr Wilson said the revolution which many predict 3D printing will bring about will only happen if it can be freed from corporate ties.  The blueprints available on the site will be for ‘important stuff’, he said. ‘Not trinkets, not garden gnomes but the things institutions and industries have an interest in keeping from us; access, medical devices, drugs, goods, guns.'”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21754915

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Supreme Court rules ‘first sale doctrine’ applies to lawful copies of a copyrighted work

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“The US Supreme Court sided Tuesday with a former Thai student who made $90,000 reselling text books bought abroad and sparked a copyright row with a publisher.  Supap Kirtsaeng, who arrived in the United States in 1997 to study math at the University of Southern California on a scholarship, had asked his friends and family to buy the books, published by John Wiley & Sons, which were cheaper back home.  John Wiley & Sons filed a complaint in 2008 alleging illegal importation and resale without the payment of exclusive distribution rights protected by copyright.  Lower courts had sided with the publisher, imposing a $600,000 fine on Kirtsaeng.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/19/supreme-court-rules-first-sale-doctrine-applies-to-lawful-copies-of-a-copyrighted-work/

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Federal judge: ‘Clipping’ news articles violates copyright law

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“A US federal judge has ruled that the online news ‘clipping’ service Meltwater violates copyright law by using excerpts from Associated Press articles, the parties said Thursday.  ‘Investigating and writing about newsworthy events occurring around the globe is an expensive undertaking and enforcement of the copyright laws permits AP to earn the revenue that underwrites that work,’ the judge said in a 91-page opinion.  ‘Permitting Meltwater to take the fruit of AP’s labor for its own profit, without compensating AP, injures AP’s ability to perform this essential function of democracy.'”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/21/federal-judge-clipping-news-articles-violates-copyright-law/

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Forget the Cellphone Fight — We Should Be Allowed to Unlock Everything We Own

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“Copyright is impacting more people than ever before because the line between hardware and software, physical and digital has blurred.  The issue goes beyond cellphone unlocking, because once we buy an object we should own it. We should be able to lift the hood, unlock it, modify it, repair it … without asking for permission from the manufacturer. This is a property rights issue, and current copyright law gets it backwards, turning regular people — like students, researchers, and small business owners — into criminals.  Manufacturers have systematically used copyright in this manner over the past 20 years to limit our access to information.”

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/03/you-dont-own-your-cellphones-or-your-cars

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Supreme Court upholds mom’s $220,000 fine for downloading music

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“The US Supreme Court refused Monday to take up the case of a woman ordered to pay a $220,000 fine for illegally downloading music off the internet.  The country’s top court upheld without comment the verdict against Jammie Thomas-Rasset in the long-running, high-profile digital piracy case.  Thomas-Rasset, a mother of four from Minnesota, has been fighting a court battle since 2006 over violating intellectual property laws in her use of the file-sharing program Kazaa.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/18/supreme-court-upholds-220000-fine-for-music-piracy/

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U.S. Government Wins Appeal in Kim Dotcom Extradition Battle

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“In New Zealand, data-content entrepreneur Kim Dotcom is under attack for copyright violations. In the US, Pfc. Bradley Manning faces 20 years in prison for confessing that he sent archives of military and diplomatic files to WikiLeaks, which subsequently released the information to the world.  Now it seems Dotcom is losing his battle and may end up being extradited to the US and Manning may end up with close to a lifetime in prison. But on a deeper level, the suffering of these two individuals (warranted or not) will not diminish the changes being ushered in by the Internet.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/28771/Dotcom-Copyright-Case-and-ManningWikiLeak-Trial-Show-Elite-Jurisprudence-Under-Attack

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Aaron Swartz is Dead, Now White House Adjusts Rules

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“In what has to be one of the more cynical moves in recent US political history, the White House has announced (see above) that more information freely distributed is better than less information available on via subscription.  This turn of events come about six weeks after the death information activist Aaron Swartz, who supposedly killed himself when faced with severe prosecution over the intent to distribute ‘non-legal’ publicly-funded information to the public.  Swartz faced over 30 years of jail time for his ‘crime,’ and apparently committed suicide over his prosecution, we learn, after all, that such ‘laws’ are fungible and can be changed.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/28745/White-House-Directs-Open-Access-for-Technology

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White House vows to aggressively combat trade secrets theft in new cybersecurity strategy document

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“The US government vowed to aggressively combat a rise in the foreign theft of trade secrets amid mounting concerns over recent hacking attacks allegedly emanating from China.  ‘We will continue to act vigorously to combat the theft of US trade secrets that could be used by foreign companies or foreign governments to gain an unfair economic edge,’ the strategy document says.  Such ‘theft threatens American businesses, undermines national security, and places the security of the US economy in jeopardy,’ it said, putting ‘American jobs at risk.'”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/21/white-house-vows-to-aggressively-combat-trade-secrets-theft-in-new-cybersecurity-strategy-document/

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Redress for Aaron Swartz Is Not on the Way Despite White House Petition

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“There is some idea, apparently, that a government petition focused on firing the chief prosecutor of the Aaron Swartz case will begin to redress injustice. We doubt it, however.  If ever the US government needed to explain a prosecution, it is this one. However, the petition process in which people seem to place some trust is probably not going to deliver a satisfactory result. The administration of Barack Obama is under no obligation than to do more than respond, whatever that means.  The response can take the form of an explanation but presumably it doesn’t have to. In this case, we doubt an explanation will be forthcoming.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/28699/Redress-for-Swartz-Is-Not-on-the-Way-Despite-Petitions

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How Newegg crushed the “shopping cart” patent and saved online retail

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“Soverain isn’t in the e-commerce business; it’s in the higher-margin business of filing patent lawsuits against e-commerce companies. And it has been quite successful until now. The company’s plan to extract a patent tax of about one percent of revenue from a huge swath of online retailers was snuffed out last week by Newegg and its lawyers, who won an appeal ruling [PDF] that invalidates the three patents Soverain used to spark a vast patent war.  The ruling effectively shuts down dozens of the lawsuits Soverain filed last year against Nordstrom’s, Macy’s, Home Depot, RadioShack, Kohl’s, and many others.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/how-newegg-crushed-the-shopping-cart-patent-and-saved-online-retail/

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