Free Software Linux

Guess the negotiations with Hasbro and Electronic Arts didn’t go so well. It was really my primary reason for actually logging in to Facebook.

Mr TechCrunch can be slightly obnoxious at times, but on this one I can only applaud him: now the A.P. has gone too far. They’ve quoted twenty-two words from one of our posts, in clear violation of their warped interpretation of copyright law. The offending quote, from this post, is here (I’m suspending my A.P. ban to report on this important story). Am I being ridiculous? Absolutely. But the point is to illustrate that the A.P. is taking an absurd and indefensible position, too. So I’ve called my lawyers (really) and have asked them to deliver a DMCA takedown demand to the A.P. And I will also be sending them a bill for $12.50 with that letter, which is exactly what the A.P. would have charged me if I published a 22 word quote from one of their articles.

On Wednesday, Industry Minister Jim Prentice introduced a bill that BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow described as making it "flatly illegal to break any kind of digital lock, or to violate terms in one of those absurd end-user license agreements that make you promise to agree to let the record industry kick your teeth in and drink all your beer, just for the dubious privilege of paying for a song at iTu read more

Another reason to hate Flash: Now Adobe, which controls Flash and Flash Video, is trying to change that with the introduction of DRM restrictions in version 9 of its Flash Player and version 3 of its Flash Media Server software. Instead of an ordinary web download, these programs can use a proprietary, secret Adobe protocol to talk to each other, encrypting the communication and locking out non-Adobe software players and video tools. We imagine that Adobe has no illusions that this will stop copyright infringement -- any more than dozens of other DRM systems have done so -- but the introduction of encryption does give Adobe and its customers a powerful new legal weapon against competitors and ordinary users through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

"The Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament is preparing to vote on a draft report basis about cultural industries in the context of the Lisbon strategy. Some amendments taking again the main guidelines of the Olivennes mission have just been registered. As a matter of fact, we have sent the following message to MEPs of the culture committee..."

The Digital Milenium Copyright Act (DMCA) was adapted in most of the countries under the pressure of the majors and the distributors of music. Even if everybody could easily have an access to the Culture in all its variety, laws and technical restrictions make it impossible. Recently, the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) proposed a licence fee for an unrestricted access to music. At the same time, a mission for the French government was detailing the best approach to prevent and dissuade Internet users from illegally downloading music. Isn't the SAC's proposal applicable to France/your country?

via digitalcitizen => Public Domain Day challenges: what effect does copyright power have on us socially? http://www.digitalcitizen.info/2008/01/01/public-domain-day-challenges-w...

With the Canadian version of the DMCA likely to be introduced within the next two weeks, there has a remarkable outpouring of interest from individual Canadians about what they can do to have their concerns heard.