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Infinite goods and artificial scarcity
,----[ Quote ]
| I was arguing with a friend about this article, which talks about
| creating artificial scarcity in place of something in infinite supply.
| They give an analogy â what if we had Star Trek replicators for food, so
| everyone in the world could always have enough food, and no one would
| have to pay for it? Who, then, would take this food away from the
| starving? My friend argued that this would be terrible, taking jobs from
| everyone who works in the food industry.
|
| Unfortunately, itâs not a very good analogy. Thereâs no real substitute
| for food â people have to eat. Whether or not you consider high-
| fructose corn syrup to be food, you canât escape the need for calories to
| survive. For the analogy to hold, weâd have to replace the entire music
| industry, or the entire publishing industry, with something free. No one
| is talking about doing this.
`----
http://www.ebooksyearntobefree.com/2009/09/09/infinite-goods-and-artificial-scarcity/
New Infringement Defense? 'We Don't Roll That Way'
,----[ Quote ]
| A bunch of folks have been sending in the story of how some of the major
| record labels are suing the Ellen DeGeneres show for not paying for clips
| of music that the show uses during something called the "dance over"
| portion of the show. Not having ever watched the show, I don't know, but
| it sounds like a brief clip of music used as an interlude between parts
| of the show. As plenty of people are pointing out along with their
| submissions, this seems pretty silly. It's not like hearing these brief
| musical interludes is likely to harm the market for this music. If
| anything, it sounds like it would only increase interest in that music
| from the fans watching the show.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090911/1027046166.shtml
Recent:
Lord Kames Explains Why Copyright Is Not Property... In 1773
,----[ Quote ]
| I've posted the full text of Lord Kames's opinion in the important
| Scottish Sessions case of Hinton v. Donaldson from 1773. This was the
| case that rejected for Scotland, by a vote of 11-to-1, the theory of
| "common law copyright", that authors (meaning, in practice, publishers)
| had a perpetual copyright, at common law, of their writings. It was
| followed a few months later by the English House of Lords's decision in
| Donaldson v. Beckett, in which the English Lords rejected just as
| forcefully the claim that authors had perpetual copyright under the
| common law of England.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090901/0318106070.shtml
The Real Problem With The Google Book Settlement Isn't The Settlement, But
Copyright Law Itself
,----[ Quote ]
| In Congressional hearings on Thursday about the Google book settlement,
| most of the news reports focused on two particular things: (1) the fact
| that Marybeth Peters, head of the US Copyright Office, spoke out against
| the settlement, claiming that it violates copyright law and (2) Google's
| "concession" in letting other booksellers offer up the "orphan works"
| that Google would scan. [...] The whole problem of "orphan works" is
| solely a result of the continual and ridiculous level of copyright
| expansion over the years that has created these so-called "orphan
| works." It seems that the only person who actually seemed willing to
| discuss that was Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who actually used the occasion to
| call for a repeal to the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, noting that
| it was a large part of the problem.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090910/1902136159.shtml
580,388 Orphan Works â Give or Take
,----[ Quote ]
| Clearly one of the most (if not the most) contentious issue regarding
| the Google Book Settlement (GBS) centers on the nebulous community of
| âorphans and orphan titlesâ. And yet, through the entirety of the
| discussion since the Google Book Settlement agreement was announced, no
| one has attempted to define how many orphans there really are. Allow me:
| 580,388. How do I know? Well, I admit, I do my share of guess work to
| get to this estimate, but I believe my analysis is based on key facts
| from which I have extrapolated a conclusion. Interestingly, I completed
| this analysis starting from two very different points and the first
| results were separated by only 3,000 works (before I made some minor
| adjustments).
`----
http://personanondata.blogspot.com/2009/09/580388-orphan-works-give-or-
take.html
Lies, Damned Lies and Media Industry Numbers
,----[ Quote ]
| By quoting that number, they are effectively saying a vast swathe of
| the UK population is engaged in that activity. And as history teaches
| us, when such a vast proportion of a nation is doing something that is
| technically breaking the law, this shows not that these people are bad,
| but that such a law is self-evidently unjust to that nation.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/09/lies-damned-lies-and-media-
industry.html
How The UK Gov't Extrapolated 136 Self-Reported File Sharers Into 7
Million
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090904/1819236116.shtml
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