Thursday, 4 August 2011
British government agrees that copyright has gone too far
The British government today pledged (PDF) to enact significant changes to copyright law, including orphan works reforms and the introduction of new copyright exceptions. And the tone of the comments was surprising: the government agrees that "copyright currently over-regulates to the detriment of the UK." CD (and perhaps DVD) ripping for personal use should become legal at last—and the government is even keen to see that the consumer rights granted by law can't simply be taken away by contract (such as a "EULA" sticker on a CD demanding that a disk not be ripped).
Responding to an independent study done earlier this year, the government has also endorsed the creation of a digital copyright exchange to facilitate licensing. Within limits, the government endorses the view that "the widest possible exceptions to copyright within the existing EU framework are likely to be beneficial to the UK."
The government's report is also significant for what it pledges not to do. The government says it will not bring forward the "site blocking" provisions of last year's Digital Economy Act. This is evidently not referring to the power of copyright holders to compel individual ISPs to block infringing sites after a lawsuit, but to a more comprehensive system whereby the government maintains a list of sites that all ISPs in the country would be required to block.
Probably the most important announcement is the expansion of copyright exceptions. Unlike the US, the UK does not have a broad, judge-made "fair use" doctrine that allows transformative uses of copyrighted works. Today's report doesn't use the phrase "fair use," but it endorses legalizing many of the same ideas. The government proposes to create "a limited private copying exception," to "widen the exception for non-commercial research," to "widen the exception for library archiving," and "to introduce an exception for parody."
Orphan works are out-of-print works that cannot be used by anyone because their copyright holders cannot be found. Legislation to address the problem has languished in the US Congress for years. The British government has now pledged to enact orphan works reform that would allow "both commercial and cultural uses of orphan works," once a prospective user has conducted a diligent search for the copyright holder and paid standard licensing fees.
The report devotes significant attention to the creation of a Digital Copyright Exchange, a centralized clearinghouse to improve the efficiency of copyright licensing efforts. The project is still in the planning phase and participation in the scheme would be voluntary. But the government vows to study ways to encourage and facilitate the creation of an exchange. One way it will do that is by ensuring that the government's own "Crown copyright" works will be available for licensing.
Patents receive only a brief mention in the report. The government pledges to "resist extensions of patents into sectors which are currently excluded unless there is clear evidence of a benefit to innovation and growth." It also promises to investigate the problems created by patent thickets, although it doesn't endorse any specific proposal for addressing the problem.
The report is significant not only for the specific policies it endorses, but also for the shift in tone it represents. For decades, policymakers around the world have steadily expanded the breadth of copyright and patent protections and ratcheted up enforcement. So the fact that the UK's official copyright agenda now consists mostly of creating new copyright exceptions and abandoning previously announced enforcement efforts suggests the pendulum may finally be swinging in the other direction. The individual reforms are important, but it is most significant as a barometer of the shifting political climate.
Timothy B. Lee @'ars technica'
Responding to an independent study done earlier this year, the government has also endorsed the creation of a digital copyright exchange to facilitate licensing. Within limits, the government endorses the view that "the widest possible exceptions to copyright within the existing EU framework are likely to be beneficial to the UK."
The government's report is also significant for what it pledges not to do. The government says it will not bring forward the "site blocking" provisions of last year's Digital Economy Act. This is evidently not referring to the power of copyright holders to compel individual ISPs to block infringing sites after a lawsuit, but to a more comprehensive system whereby the government maintains a list of sites that all ISPs in the country would be required to block.
Probably the most important announcement is the expansion of copyright exceptions. Unlike the US, the UK does not have a broad, judge-made "fair use" doctrine that allows transformative uses of copyrighted works. Today's report doesn't use the phrase "fair use," but it endorses legalizing many of the same ideas. The government proposes to create "a limited private copying exception," to "widen the exception for non-commercial research," to "widen the exception for library archiving," and "to introduce an exception for parody."
Orphan works are out-of-print works that cannot be used by anyone because their copyright holders cannot be found. Legislation to address the problem has languished in the US Congress for years. The British government has now pledged to enact orphan works reform that would allow "both commercial and cultural uses of orphan works," once a prospective user has conducted a diligent search for the copyright holder and paid standard licensing fees.
The report devotes significant attention to the creation of a Digital Copyright Exchange, a centralized clearinghouse to improve the efficiency of copyright licensing efforts. The project is still in the planning phase and participation in the scheme would be voluntary. But the government vows to study ways to encourage and facilitate the creation of an exchange. One way it will do that is by ensuring that the government's own "Crown copyright" works will be available for licensing.
Patents receive only a brief mention in the report. The government pledges to "resist extensions of patents into sectors which are currently excluded unless there is clear evidence of a benefit to innovation and growth." It also promises to investigate the problems created by patent thickets, although it doesn't endorse any specific proposal for addressing the problem.
The report is significant not only for the specific policies it endorses, but also for the shift in tone it represents. For decades, policymakers around the world have steadily expanded the breadth of copyright and patent protections and ratcheted up enforcement. So the fact that the UK's official copyright agenda now consists mostly of creating new copyright exceptions and abandoning previously announced enforcement efforts suggests the pendulum may finally be swinging in the other direction. The individual reforms are important, but it is most significant as a barometer of the shifting political climate.
Timothy B. Lee @'ars technica'
phbarratt Paul Barratt
David Hicks, abandoned by Howard Govt enters plea bargain under extreme duress. Gillard goes after his "proceeds of crime". Stay classy, JG.
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
The Wingnut Doughnut
Kicking off a new jobs campaign, Florida’s Governor Rick Scott went to work in a Tampa doughnut shop this morning. Apparently, Scott worked in a doughnut shop in his youth. Scott’s campaign slogan was “Let’s get to work.” For the unemployed in Florida that probably did not imply clerking in a doughnut shop, but here’s the message being sent to unemployed Floridians: “You better find something, anything, and get your lazy butt on a treadmill in a low wage, low skill job.” The move to do the doughnut gig comes as no surprise though. Scott’s ratings are in the basement and this jobs thing just so happens to coincide with a new media campaign clearly trying to clean up Scott’s tarnished reputation, but trying to put a shine on shit is tricky business. Honestly, with Florida’s unemployment at 9%, shouldn’t Scott try to put the focus on skilled jobs available in Florida and take to moment to tie in these jobs with the numerous workforce training programs available in Florida? For years, the administrations in Tallahassee have been courting the lucrative Biotechnology industry into the state and they have answered the call. Now, there is a need for trained lab techs, jobs available for those trained at the post-secondary certificate, associates, bachelors and higher levels. Florida high school graduates can land good work with just one year of college, but Scott says, “Start at a doughnut shop.” This just does not send a resonating message needed from a campaign designed to highlight work in Florida. All it says is “Look at me I still remember how to sprinkle doughnuts.”
'Collar bomb' alert grips Sydney
Australian bomb squad officers are working to defuse a suspicious device found at a home in a wealthy suburb of Sydney, police have said. Surrounding streets have been closed to traffic and emergency services rushed to the scene.
New South Wales police said in a statement that an 18-year-old woman called them to the house in Mosman, on Sydney's north shore, at around 2.30pm Australian time and that the bomb squad was in the process of examining the device.
Reports that a "collar bomb" had been strapped to the woman by someone else could not be immediately confirmed. But police told the Associated Press the incident was "not being treated as self-harm".
Asked by the Australian Daily Telegraph whether the girl could move away from the device, Mark Murdoch, an assistant police commissioner, was quoted as saying: "No, she can't get away from it."
"I can't confirm whether it is strapped to the woman involved but she is still in the vicinity of the device," he said. The paper quoted an unnamed police officer as describing the device as a "collar bomb" and the incident as an extortion attempt. This could not be independently confirmed.
The house is in Burrawong Avenue, an exclusive road full of multi-million dollar properties including one belonging to the Scottish-born horse trainer Gai Waterhouse. Homes near the house involved have been evacuated.
Police said defusing the device demanded "a high level of skill and must be meticulous".
Lizzy Davies @'The Guardian'
UPDATE
Nosh: 404
Periodically, pages go missing, assets get misplaced -- you should not be concerned. This is a startup, this kind of thing happens. At Nosh, we are fortunate to have a relationship with several teams of ex-special forces operatives who help us track down these missing pages. When a page on this website goes rogue -- and a code 404 arises -- we dispatch one of our teams to bring it back. Ideally they are able to salvage the missing page, but sometimes, if the page is truly lost, they have to take it out (resulting in the subsequent code 500 when the page gets taken down).
Regarding the page you are currently looking for, one of our teams actually did find it, but it did not want to be found and a firefight ensued. This encounter is documented above.
We are very sorry we are not able to display the page you were looking for. Please go back home and we’ll do our best to ensure this kind of mix up is resolved peacefully in the future.
Behind the scenes: vimeo.com/26952527
nosh.me/404
Via
Gillard keeps mum on News Ltd meeting
Ms Gillard had a private meeting with editors from Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd newspapers in Sydney on Tuesday night after she was invited to address a gathering of editors and executives by News Ltd CEO John Hartigan.
Last month, Ms Gillard said revelations of the UK phone hacking scandal, which resulted in the demise of Mr Murdoch's 168-year-old newspaper News of the World, had disturbed Australians.
She said Australians would have questions to ask of News Ltd and the company had a responsibility to answer those questions.
But as for her meeting with News Ltd editors, those talks were private.
"I'm not going to go to individual matters discussed," she told reporters in Melbourne on Wednesday.
"It was a broad-ranging discussion, it was a good discussion, canvassing a number of topics."
Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said Ms Gillard should reveal what "hard questions" she posed during the meeting.
"I'd be interested in what she said," Mr Turnbull told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
"She said in a rather menacing way that Rupert Murdoch had some hard questions to answer in Australia.
"Then when she was asked what those questions were, she couldn't nominate them."
On Tuesday the prime minister said it would be a private meeting, but she expected to talk about her vision for the future and the government's reform agenda.
"Such meetings have been addressed by prime ministers and opposition leaders in the past, so when I was invited by Mr Hartigan I accepted the invitation," Ms Gillard said.
@'SBS'
Last month, Ms Gillard said revelations of the UK phone hacking scandal, which resulted in the demise of Mr Murdoch's 168-year-old newspaper News of the World, had disturbed Australians.
She said Australians would have questions to ask of News Ltd and the company had a responsibility to answer those questions.
But as for her meeting with News Ltd editors, those talks were private.
"I'm not going to go to individual matters discussed," she told reporters in Melbourne on Wednesday.
"It was a broad-ranging discussion, it was a good discussion, canvassing a number of topics."
Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said Ms Gillard should reveal what "hard questions" she posed during the meeting.
"I'd be interested in what she said," Mr Turnbull told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
"She said in a rather menacing way that Rupert Murdoch had some hard questions to answer in Australia.
"Then when she was asked what those questions were, she couldn't nominate them."
On Tuesday the prime minister said it would be a private meeting, but she expected to talk about her vision for the future and the government's reform agenda.
"Such meetings have been addressed by prime ministers and opposition leaders in the past, so when I was invited by Mr Hartigan I accepted the invitation," Ms Gillard said.
@'SBS'
Mushroom Death Suit
@'The Infinity Burial Project'
Designing a mushroom death suit
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