Archive
Category: Weblog
Random assortments, selected for semantic content.
-
The Future of Cyberlaw
‘Cyberlaw’ is a phrase I have adopted to signify the application of jurisprudence in any electronic context. As a descriptive label, it has since been succeeded as the buzzword of choice by such phrases as ‘communications law’, ‘IT law’ and, more recently, plain old ‘internet law’ — as well as its more specific sub-branches, including… Read more →
-
A Guide to Online Music Stores: Licences and DRM
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has posted a guide to the licence terms of major online music retailers. From their comparison, it appears that very few, if any, of the online stores confer proprietary rights in the music they purport to ‘sell’: in most cases, the vendor reserves the right to modify the terms of the… Read more →
-
Commentator: Copyright Misuse Stifles Innovation
According to a columnist at The Age: Publishers had a role in the old world. Their job was to aggregate information and sell it in a digestible form, for which they charged money. But the internet and other technologies made publishers’ roles as information clearing-house irrelevant, outdated, anachronistic and obsolete. The world has changed, but… Read more →
-
Legal Implications of Corporate Weblogging
‘NEW YORK (Reuters) — As Corporate America wades into the burgeoning world of internet weblogs, companies are being warned they could face legal hazards when employees are let loose in the free-wheeling blogosphere. … What, for instance, would happen if someone at a publicly traded company unwittingly divulged confidential financial information or a trademark secret… Read more →
-
Architecture and Copyright
Wendy Seltzer reports on an interesting article in The New York Times on the legal implications of imitation in architecture: While the article takes its cue from a recent lawsuit by an architecture student against the designer of the Freedom Tower, it calls that suit an anomaly. (See the Patry Copyright Blog for more on… Read more →
-
Computer Repair DMCA Verdict Overturned
Jason Schultz comments on a recent decision of the United States Federal Circuit Court of Appeals: ‘Hurray! Justice delayed ends up being justice rendered. Over a year ago, StorageTek managed to convince a district court in Boston to misuse standard copyright law and the DMCA anticompetitively and shut down an independent service vendor who offered… Read more →
-
MPAA embarks upon further litigation against P2P downloaders
‘The Motion Picture Association of America said it filed 286 lawsuits against people around the United States based on information acquired from file-trading sites shut down earlier in the year. Most of those sites were hubs connecting people using the BitTorrent technology, a peer-to-peer application designed for speeding downloads of large files’: As with previous… Read more →
-
Web Privacy Not Respected by Online Retailers, Study Shows
CNET reports on a new study that has found systematic misuse of information collected from consumers on the internet: Pharmaceutical and health care firms performed the worst in the privacy study, with an average overall score of 5.4 out of 10. Others at the bottom of the list include insurance firms and companies in the… Read more →
-
Australian Movie Industry To Target Illegal DVDs, Sue Downloaders
According to The Australian, ‘The movie industry may consider prosecuting internet users who download pirated copies of Hollywood blockbusters, warning it will take pirates to court if consumers “migrate to illegal downloads en masse”. The Australian Federation against Copyright Theft (‘AFACT’) is already warning that organised crime is using popular peer-to-peer networks and pirate websites… Read more →
-
Chinese Government Censors Weblog Star
‘Reuters reports on China’s efforts to censor its latest Internet-born star, a young woman known as Furong Jiejie (‘Sister Furong’). She is seen as a pioneer pushing the boundaries of traditional media controls, but in the process has become a target of government censors. In late July, authorities told the country’s top weblog host to… Read more →