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Posts Tagged “

Intellectual Property

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copyright

Leaked ACTA Treaty Will Outlaw P2P

ACTA—the misleadingly named "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement"—is the worldwide copyright treaty that's being negotiated behind closed doors, and that will create a sort of global DMCA if continues in its current state. Now Wikileaks has posted a draft of the treaty, and Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow gives his take:

Among other things, ACTA will outlaw P2P (even when used to share works that are legally available, like my books), and crack down on things like region-free DVD players. All of this is taking place out of the public eye, presumably with the intention of presenting it as a fait accompli just as the ink is drying on the treaty.

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3:25 PM on Fri Jun 6 2008
By Chris Walters
10,260 views, 141 comments

thieves

All Saints Apparel Plagiarizes Shirt Design From Gaming Site 4 Color Rebellion

Posh London retailer All Saints Apparel plagiarized a shirt design from the gaming site 4 color rebellion. The site originally unveiled the 'You Complete Me' tetris-heart figure for Valentine's Day in 2006. Designer Mitch was surprised to find that All Saints had plastered the exact same design on a shirt selling for £40—that's like, $90! Mitch asked All Saints for an explanation, which was enough to prompt a decent resolution. More »

8:21 AM on Sat Feb 23 2008
By Carey
9,207 views, 29 comments

drastic measures

Harvard Bookstore: "We Own ISBN Numbers"

The Harvard Crimson ran a story last week about a student who was asked to leave the premises for writing down the prices of six textbooks at the Coop, Harvard's bookstore of record. The bookstore's president says that there's no official policy against students writing down information, but "we discourage people who are taking down a lot of notes." But what's more surprising, he tells the Crimson that the textbooks' ISBNs—which can be used to look up the same books online—are "the Coop's intellectual property." More »

4:34 PM on Mon Sep 24 2007
By Chris Walters
7,866 views, 70 comments

Latest by Blueskylaw: The bookstore's president says that there's no official policy against students writing down information, but "we discourage people who are taking down a lot of notes." Soooo, Harvard is against information? more »

Manufacturer Claims eBaying Its Car Parts Violates "Intellectual Property Rights" Manufacturers are getting eBay auctions canceled for selling their products "too cheaply," reports the Consumer Law & Policy blog...

59 comments

If it didn't already exist, would the tenor of today's debate over intellectual property and digital rights management prevent the creation of a library system? Probably, according to Stephen Dubner of Freakonomics. "Perhaps they'd come up with a licensing agreement: the book costs $20 to own, with an additional $2 per year for every year beyond Year 1 it's in circulation. I'm sure there would be a lot of other potential arrangements. And I am just as sure that, like a lot of systems that evolve over time, the library system is one that, if it were being built from scratch today, would have a very different set of dynamics and economics."

4 comments