Copyright and Monopoly News
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-31 16:11:55 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-31 16:11:55 UTC
Copyrights
The practice of issuing copyright infringement notices for the purpose of obtaining cash settlements is now commonly referred to as “copyright trolling." It’s a practice that started in Germany, before moving to the UK and US, and now it’s facing a resurgence in Europe, this time in Finland.
A form of poetry in India called Vachana sahitya is part of the popular Indian language, Kannada. It evolved in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th as part of the religious Lingayatha movement. Since that time, more than 259 Vachana writers, called Vachanakaru, have compiled over 11,000 Vachanas (verses).
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At present, our repository, Vachana Sanchaya, has around 200,000 unique words that were derived from these poems. The public has been using our repository and accessing Vahanas (poems) from our Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ profiles. There are thousands of people now who read a Vahana as part of their daily routine. Vachana Sanchaya is not just meant for reading the poems, it is also meant for research. So, we have added a way for researchers to help us review the content and will be adding references from various research papers.
Draft regulations have been published in Britain that will finally end the anomaly where quotation, parody, caricature and pastiche are considered breaches of copyright. If approved by Parliament, they will come into force on June 1st, finally closing the loophole in copyright law that allowed copyright owners to chill criticism and stifle research in cases that are otherwise reasonable.
The UK Government has published a guide informing consumers about an upcoming revision of copyright law which will legalize CD and DVD copying for personal use. The changes go into effect in June, and will also broaden other forms of fair use, including parody and quotation rights.
Michael Robertson, an entrepreneur who has been waging legal feuds against the music industry for more than a decade now, has been ordered to pay $41 million to a record label that sued him.
The second oldest Pirate Bay torrent that’s still actively seeded is an “Italian Teens Home Video.” This file was uploaded on March 30, 2004 and currently has three seeders. The third place goes to a pirated copy of “Revolution OS”, a documentary covering the history of Linux, GNU and the free software movement.
Creative Commons licenses have been hugely successful in allowing people to share their creations in ways otherwise impossible using traditional copyright monopolies. But one problem remains unresolved: what exactly does the "non-commercial" license allow you to do? This lack of clarity has led various people to advocate avoiding the use of CC-NC. Back in 2012, Techdirt reported on a call to drop completely both the non-commercial and the no-derivatives licenses. In the same year, a group of German copyright experts released in collaboration with Wikimedia a document entitled "Consequences, Risks, and side-effects of the license module Non-Commercial -- NC", which was made available in an English translation the following year (PDF).
Trademarks
'Trade'
Recent developments by the Obama administration seem bent on making it more difficult to purchase top rated drugs in developing countries. The move follows patent rulings around the globe that may place U.S. drug companies at a disadvantage in the industry; a matter which is not taken lightly by the U.S. of course. India has made the news for ordering drug companies to give up their patent rights, all in an effort to help lower the spiraling costs of drugs. Canada, likewise, became something of a villain when several court rulings dismantled the patents of popular drug companies in favor of the country’s generic industry. The threat has been detected, and there is an urge to act, but it’s not that simple.
The proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal has drawn heavy criticism. Over 500 labor, environmental and farm groups oppose granting the White House "fast track" authority to speed the pact through Congress. The deal, still being negotiated in secret, has spawned protests around the world. Even some Democrats are pushing back against the White House.
In 2009, four years before the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was a widely-debated trade deal, few would have noticed a new issue popping up in a handful of lobbying reports. That year, 28 organizations filed 59 lobbying reports mentioning the then far-off trade agreement. Almost half of those organizations were pharmaceutical companies or associations.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- New Video Report About Microsoft Cancelling Multi-Billion Dollar Projects
- direct link to the video
- Microsoft is Already Laying Off Lots of Contractors
- cost-cutting at Microsoft takes a new "edge"
- Coming Soon: Microsoft Fake Results, Mass Layoffs, and Silence About All the People Microsoft Pressured to "Quit" (So That They Don't Get Counted as Layoffs)
- there will be more mass layoffs
- Speed of GNU/Linux
- The media seldom speaks of the dangers of "proprietary software"
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- Google Spreading Misinformation and Lies
- Google is in the propaganda business
- statCounter: GNU/Linux Adoption Surging in Switzerland, Windows at All-time Low
- What happened?
- Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Free Speech and Perfectionism in Design
- Links for the day
- What Fake News Looks Like (IBM)
- IBM told a lie. The media then just blindly repeated this lie.
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 28, 2025
- IRC logs for Monday, April 28, 2025
- China is Already Culling GAFAM (Not Just Microsoft Windows)
- OS monoculture or "OS hegemony" may be coming to an end
- The "Telephone Operating System in the Vatican" is 95 Years Old, Vatican Moved to GNU/Linux
- Maybe Microsoft is down to zero already
- If Tesla Shares (and Alleged Value) Fell 55% (From $489 to $222) in a Few Months Maybe It's Not Worth Anything At All (It's Just Gambling)
- Tesla swasticars have turned from a "status symbol" into a "public embarrassment" and cause for casual humiliation
- Chromebooks' Adoption in Sweden No Longer Depends on Schools
- School breaks are when classrooms are shut
- No, IBM is Not Investing $150 Billion in the US and It Doesn't Even Have That Kind of Money
- Here we go again... media as a vehicle of lobbying and misinformation
- Leak: The EPO's General Consultative Committee (GCC) Does Not Consult Staff on Crucial Matters and Bypasses the Administrative Council (AC) to Do Illegal Things
- violations against the EPO's very staff
- New Leaks Coming Soon, We Maintain 100% Record of Successful Resistance to Censorship
- We won't be told what we can and cannot say (especially when it's true)
- Central African Republic (CAR): Vista 11 is Only ~0.2% Market Share
- 99.8% to go!
- BSD and GNU/Linux Replaced Microsoft in Secure Servers, All Microsoft Has Left is LLM Slop for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD)
- the FUD machine never rests
- Gemini Links 28/04/2025: A Simple Task Tracking and Auto-Prioritization Tool and Other Programs
- Links for the day
- Links 28/04/2025: Canada's Election, Pakistan-India Conflict
- Links for the day
- Glue Inside Your Pizza (or Why People Will Get Fed Up With Slop)
- People are given "answers" from non-intelligence word dumpsters
- Proprietary Windows Versus "Linux" News (Trying to Keep People on Windows, Never Exploring GNU/Linux)
- Good editors know better how to recognise threats and not give them lip service
- Ensuring That Every Computer User Anywhere in the World Can Take Control of All His or Her Computers
- We must fight the people who attack general-purpose computing, in particular those who push this agenda very aggressively inside Linux
- Links 28/04/2025: Cyberattacks Happening, Chatbots Disappointing, and "Free Speech Under Fire"
- Links for the day
- Phone Adoption Very Low in Vatican, Windows Usage Fell Nonetheless
- Even in places where people still use desktops/laptops most of the time (and have access to these) Windows is gradually losing ground
- GNU/Linux 9% in Cuba, Vista 11 Waning, Android Dominant
- Microsoft has pretty much lost Cuba
- Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Autism and Structural Navigation
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 27, 2025
- IRC logs for Sunday, April 27, 2025
- What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: The Purge, the Cover-up, and the Witch-hunts
- OSI has gone "full Microsoft"
- In 24 Countries Observed by statCounter Vista 11 is Still Less Than a Quarter of Windows Users Despite All Other Versions Being 'Expired'
- They ought to move to GNU/Linux
- Links 27/04/2025: Pope Goodbyes, "Politics of Fear", Slop Redux and More Google Shutdowns (Google Debt Had Grown This Year)
- Links for the day
- Links 27/04/2025: Serenity Dialectics, Hockey Jersey Ethics, and More
- Links for the day
- Links 27/04/2025: Death of Nest Thermostats, Death of Metaverse
- Links for the day
- Links 27/04/2025: Projects Workflow and Discovering Technology
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 26, 2025
- IRC logs for Saturday, April 26, 2025