Site Check 2.01
Editor’s Note: Site Check is a special section that shares with our audience noteworthy Web sites or user-generated content. Previously, a part of our weekly Copycense Clippings coverage, Site Check now is a special section that appears on Thursdays.
If you have or can recommend a Web site, online project, podcast, screencast, or video you feel is a noteworthy contribution to the public debate about creativity, code, and content, please let us know. We gladly will attribute all contributions, so when sending in a Site, please include your name (or screen name).
The Promise of a Post-Copyright World. Again, we feature the work of QuestionCopyright.org, which provides an interesting historical perspective on industry attempts to induce a copyright choke hold. Categories: Bundle of Rights; File Sharing, P2P & Downloads; International.
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Radiohead’s New CD Leads Weekly Sales
Jeff Leeds. Radiohead Finds Sales, Even After Downloads. The New York Times. Jan. 10, 2008. Even after distributing its album online for as little as zero dollars, zero cents, Radiohead’s fans buy enough hard copies to make it the week’s sales leader. One difference (which makes a difference for folks like us) is the compact has better sound resolution. We’re willing to listen to MP3 files to get a sense of whether we’re willing to buy, but when we buy, we’ll buy for resolution and ownership. (First sale doesn’t apply to music downloads unless the license agreement specifically provides for it.)
(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 15, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings.)
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Network Solutions Keeps Domain Reserve Policy
Robert McMillan. Network Solutions Stands by Name Policy. PC World. Jan. 10, 2008. In what it says is an attempt to prevent the fraudulent practice of domain tasting, Network Solutions commits a gross policy violation by registering the domain names itself if the searcher does not purchase that domain. This action is particularly objectionable because the company long has marketed itself as a registrar whose legitimacy should be unquestioned given its connection to the American government and its status as a pioneering domain name registrar. (In the early nineties, Network Solutions was the company the National Science Foundation chose to develop the country’s current domain name registration service, was for a time the sole registrar of .com, .net, and .org domains.)
(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 15, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings.)
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EFF Files Amicus Brief in Atlantic v. Howell
Nate Anderson. EFF Tries to Quash Labels’ ‘Making Available’ Claims. ArsTechnica. Jan. 13, 2008. EFF’s brief (.pdf) in the Atlantic v. Howell case argues, among other things, that “an infringement of the distribution right requires unauthorized, actual dissemination of copies of a copyrighted work,” not just downloads to a shared network folder. The hearing in an Arizona federal court occurs January 24.
(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 15, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings.)
Copycense™: Incisive IP.™
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Tsk, Tsk: Fox’s Photo Faux Pas
Monica Hesse. Hey, Isn’t That . . . WashingtonPost.com. Jan. 9, 2008. Just a few months after the the Alison Chang/Flickr photo contretemps threatened Creative Commons with legal action (which later was rescinded), the Fox network is outed for broadcasting pet photos that belong to someone else without the photo owners’ permission. Most will suggest turnabout is fair play, but we’re more concerned with the vehemence with which the photo owner exclaims “It’s my photo!” This is a rhetorical question, but we’ll ask away: how is it that words like “mine,” “ownership,” and “control” have become so pervasive in an environment that allows unprecedented access to creative work?
(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 15, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings.)
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In 2008, Music Industry Changes Business Model
“2008 has to be the year we get real or the business as we know it goes away.” –Fred Goldring, entertainment attorney.
Elizabeth Montalbano. Digital Music Industry Challenged to Follow Fans’ Lead. PCWorld.com. Jan. 9, 2008. You’re kidding us, right?
(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 15, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings, where it was a Quote of the Week selection.)
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Public University Tracking Music Downloads
projectb15ck. UCSC Network Woes. Jan. 9, 2008. According to an e-mail within the body of the post, the information technology department at University of California, Santa Cruz is using Cisco’s Clean Access appliance and software to “help speed up the network for legitimate uses and reduce the risk of ‘accidental’ copyright infringement.” In the e-mail, John Rocchio , a UCSC IT administrator, says Clean Access will be configured to block file sharing services such as Gnutella and Bittorrent. The poster notes UCSC is a public university, therefore it is spending public funds to block Internet access. The unnamed writer asks incisively what difference is there between UCSC’s action’s and Comcast’s reported filtering of P2P traffic.
(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 15, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings, and it was an Article of the Week selection.)
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