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[News] Misuse of Copyright Law, Software Patents at Stake in the US

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Blizzard Wants Copyright Laws Changed

,----[ Quote ]
| Cheating is bad, but does cheating infringe on a video game publisher’s 
| copyright? World of Warcraft-maker Blizzard, a subsidiary of Vivendi, is 
| trying to argue in court that it does. If this argument succeeds, it could 
| change the way all software copyrights operate in the eyes of the law.   
`----

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/blizzard-wow-warcraft,5311.html

Appeals Panel Reviews Standard For Business-Method Patents

,----[ Quote ]
| A U.S. federal appeals court Thursday considered making it harder for 
| companies to obtain business-method patents that, among other things, protect 
| novel tax strategies, financial-services processes and one-stop online 
| shopping.   
| 
| In a rare 12-judge session, the Federal U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it 
| was using the Bilski case, which involves a process for reducing 
| weather-based risk in commodities trading, to consider stemming a tide of 
| business-process patents that has followed the panel's 1998 ruling in State 
| Street Bank & Trust. The State Street case involved a process for handling 
| mutual-fund assets and said processes could be awarded if they achieve 
| a "useful, concrete and tangible" result.      
`----

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200805081747DOWJONESDJONLINE001147_FORTUNE5.htm


Recent:

The New Perverted Reverse Value Theory of Copyright

,----[ Quote ]
| What this means to me is not that consumers have captured value that belongs 
| to the industry, but rather that consumers have long been deprived of the 
| value of their money, and are finally beginning to get something close to the 
| true value of the product being sold. It is that market reality that scares 
| the you-know-what out of the MBG, and that forced it to turn to a consultant 
| to come up with a theory to sell to government policy makers as an example of 
| the sky is falling from yet another effort to blame consumers for the 
| industry’s own shortcomings. The proposed solution by MBG is an attempt to 
| obtain a government-mandated subsidy by consumers of an industry that is 
| finally being forced to give consumers what they want. There is no value for 
| policy makers in mandating such an undeserved subsidy. And, as a policy 
| matter, the theory on which it is based, namely that every unauthorized use 
| by consumers is the misappropriation of value properly owned by copyright 
| owners, has no limit; it applies to book reviews, news stories, quotations, 
| parodies, the first sale doctrine, and a limitless term of protection (note 
| the connection between the value theory and the concurrent effort at term 
| extension for sound recordings in the UK and Europe). Even Blackstone’s view 
| of property as the sole, despotic dominion of the owner never reached this 
| far.                  
`----

http://williampatry.blogspot.com/2008/04/new-perverted-reverse-value-theory-of.html


ISPs demand record biz pays up if cut-off P2P users sue

,----[ Quote ]
| ISPs are calling on the record industry to put its money where its mouth is 
| on illegal file-sharing, by underwriting the cost of lawsuits brought by 
| people who are wrongly accused of downloading or uploading music.  
| 
| [...]
| 
| It's the latest public detail from long-running private negotiations that 
| have hit mainstream media headlines today. The lobbying campaign to have 
|                                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| government force ISPs to disconnect persistent illegal file-sharers scored a 
| victory with a leak to The Times. The draft government document says: "We 
| will move to legislate to require internet service providers to take action 
| on illegal file-sharing."     
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/12/anti_filesharing_paper_leak/


Policing internet 'not ISP's job'

,----[ Quote ]
| The head of one of Britain's biggest internet providers has criticised the 
| music industry for demanding that he act against pirates. 
| 
| [...]
| 
| BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones said that the music industry 
| has been fighting a losing battle to prevent people from swapping songs for 
| nothing on the internet.  
| 
| Mr Dunstone, whose TalkTalk broadband is Britain's third biggest internet 
| provider, said the demands are unreasonable and unworkable.  
`----

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7329801.stm


Illegal downloaders 'face UK ban'

,----[ Quote ]
| The Internet Service Providers Association said data protection laws would 
| prevent providers from looking at the content of information sent over their 
| networks.  
`----

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7240234.stm


RIAA, MPAA urge pro-copyright vows from presidential candidates

,----[ Quote ]
| One question, for instance, asks: "How would you promote the progress of 
| science and creativity, as enumerated in the U.S. Constitution, by upholding 
| and strengthening copyright law and preventing its diminishment?"  
`----

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9821141-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20


Is Sarko Uxorious?

,----[ Quote ]
| What this neglects to take into account is the fact that falling into the 
| public domain is a gain for the public - and hence the actual moment when it 
| becomes part of the "national pop heritage" - and that the gain vastly 
| outweighs any minimal effect it has on ageing rockers' royalties. 
| Unfortunately, with this action, as with others (including the "three strikes 
| and you're out" approach to fighting filesharing), Sarkozy shows himself to 
| be an old man - however young his new wife may be.      
`----

http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/02/is-sarko-uxorious.html


MEPs debate tightening up lobbying rules

,----[ Quote ]
| MEPs on Thursday launched the thorny debate on tightening rules covering the 
| thousands of EU lobbyists in Brussels, with an initial discussion showing 
| deputies in favour of defining the term "lobbyist" as broadly as possible but 
| shying away from the 600-page rulebook that defines and confines lobbyists in 
| the US.    
| 
| [...]
| 
| For his part, Mr Stubb says he is not out to demonise lobbyists, whose 
| activities have come to light recently during the ferocious lobbying on 
| legislation that took place during the development of the chemicals, services 
| and software patent laws.   
`----

http://euobserver.com/9/25526
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