Copyright Bookmarks
On the woes of copyright.
​#Copyright ​#Bookmarks
On copyright being the wrong solution:
Markets use prices to distribute resources, and prices are set by supply and demand, and that started breaking down in the cassette and floppy disk age where making the initial recording was very expensive but making copiesnof that was cheap. Big capital has tried to patch the hole to their advantage at the expense of the public by introducing artificial scarcity in the form of an exclusive right to make copies, “copyright”. – Sympathy for the Copyright Devil, by @Sandra@idiomdrottning.org
In a pay-if-forward style situation, if Alice makes one sock and gives copies of it to one thousand people, they can each give a thousand others one mitten each. Both sides have been amplified by the life-changing magic of copying, and there’d be one million mittens on Earth. You’re welcome.♥ … there are areas where there are scarcity, which we need to carefully manage (or systematically manage), and there are areas where there isn’t scarcity and it’s evil to create and impose it. – Economics of Mittens & Socks, by @Sandra@idiomdrottning.org
Sympathy for the Copyright Devil
On web scraping:
The idea behind this legal theory is that web scraping—often high-volume, unwanted data requests—are a form of trespass on private tangible property—computer servers. – Web scraping for me and for thee, by Kieran McCarthy, for Technology & Marketing Law Blog
Web scraping for me and for thee, by Kieran McCarthy, for Technology & Marketing Law Blog
Nice summary of what to watch out for when companies do free software:
One of the durable long-term strategies for software businesses in the era of open source was perfected by SugarCRM about a decade ago. I’ve described it as the rights ratchet model. – The Rights-Ratchet Model
The main problem with a copyright-assigning agreement is not it giving the right to the aggregator to relicense the work (although that is a problem as it enables the end game of a rights ratchet). The main problem is it allows the aggregator, uniquely in the community, to ignore the license altogether. – Legally Ignoring The License
First public domain dedication, according to @gutenberg_org@mastodon.social:
In March 1907. The Diamond SĹ«tra, a woodblock printed Buddhist scripture dated AD 868, is discovered by Aurel Stein at the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang in China. It is said to be "the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book".
Wikipedia:
It is also the first known creative work with an explicit public domain dedication, as its colophon at the end states that it was created "for universal free distribution". – Diamond Sutra
The article quotes the colophon:
Reverently made for universal free distribution by Wang Jie on behalf of his two parents on the 15th of the 4th moon of the 9th year of Xiantong [11 May 868].
To drive lawyers nuts:
I propose that new projects choose a license from what I call the "Poison Pill" class. These are licenses that are so nonsensical that any entity with an actual legal department won't use them out of terror; however, normal, every day people have no such strict adherence to legalese and can enjoy them as the art they are in themselves. Below, I've included 40 such licenses… – Licenses, a list by @acdw@tilde.zone and friends
@cvennevik@hachyderm.io liked this one:
May it guide us on our journey, like a compass in the hands of a seasoned sailor, and may our code forever be free.
@glitchf@octodon.social proposed:
My absolute favorite of these is the Pirate's License which goes something like this: "Use and distribution of this software is prohibited for any purpose."
@GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social writes:
If you want to know where tech companies are with AI safety, know Microsoft Recall won’t record screenshots of DRM’d movies..
..but will record screenshots of your financial records and WhatsApp messages, as corporate interests were prioritised over user safety.
And it’s enabled by default.
Open Access und Creative Commons:
Freie Lizenzen und Open Access bedeuten nicht automatisch einen Verzicht auf Vergütungsansprüche. … Wer aber sichergehen will, dass es keinerlei Konflikte zwischen dem Wahrnehmungsvertrag und der Open-Access-Lizenz gibt, sollte von der Möglichkeit in § 13 Abs. 2 Gebrauch machen: Dort können Autor*innen einzelne Rechte und Ansprüche aus der Liste in § 1 von der treuhänderischen Wahrnehmung durch die VG Wort ausnehmen. – Kein Widerspruch: Open Access und Vergütung durch die VG Wort, von Felix Reda, für iRights.info
Kein Widerspruch: Open Access und VergĂĽtung durch die VG Wort
Automated copyright enforcement encourages automated copyright fraud. @rrrrroseazerty@cathode.church wrote the following:
If I write this, it’s because I’m a free licensed music composer under Public Domain Creative Commons 0 license and I’m experiencing a lot of Content ID and Audible Magic claims. And if you have to read this to get your free stuff get free again, I’m sorry and I hope you’ll find an answer here. – How to contest a Content ID claim from a - free licensed - song you’ve made
How to contest a Content ID claim from a - free licensed - song you’ve made
DMCA 1201 summarized:
Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the 1998 law that makes it a felony to help someone change how their own computer works so it serves them, rather than a distant corporation. Under DMCA 1201, giving someone a tool to "bypass an access control for a copyrighted work" is a felony punishable by a 5-year prison sentence and a $500k fine – for a first offense. … As you might expect, this is quite a tempting proposition for any manufacturer hoping to enshittify their products, because they know you can't legally disenshittify them. These access controls have metastasized into every kind of device imaginable. – The US Copyright Office frees the McFlurry, by Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic@mamot.fr)
The US Copyright Office frees the McFlurry
@Rib@fedi.rib.gay wrote:
Today Melissa Lewis over on BlueSky pointed out that the font used in the infamous "You wouldn't steal a car" anti-piracy campaign … had been cloned and released illegally for free under the name "XBAND Rough". Naturally, it would be hilarious if the anti-piracy campaign actually turned out to have used this pirated font, so I went sleuthing and quickly found a PDF from the campaign site with the font embedded. So I chucked it into FontForge and yep, turns out the campaign used a pirated font the entire time!
@thatloststudent@infosec.exchange added a link showing that the music used in an anti-piracy advert at a local film festival was then used on a ton of DVDs without paying the composer:
In 2006, Dutch musician Melchior Rietveldt was asked to compose a piece of music to be used in an anti-piracy advert. It was to be used exclusively at a local film festival. However, … it had been used on dozens of DVDs both in the Netherlands and overseas. -- Rights Group Fined For Not Paying Artist For Anti-Piracy Ad.
Rights Group Fined For Not Paying Artist For Anti-Piracy Ad
A European license:
The European Union Public Licence (EUPL) is a free software licence that was written and approved by the European Commission. The licence is available in 23 official languages of the European Union. All linguistic versions have the same validity. … The licence was developed with other open-source licences in mind and specifically authorizes covered works to be re-released under the following licences, when combined with their covered code in larger works … European Union Public Licence
This is about music and streaming, and Spotify and Bandcamp specifically. m2m@sonomu.club writes:
When I keep saying that being on #streaming platforms is a pointless exercise, I get sometimes asked for numbers, or proofs. Here you go. A single song of mine was played a MILLION times in 3 months, in 2022 (and, in later months, another 750k times), with a net gain of £33. A million plays on streaming pays for a pizza night out for me and @silviamaggi. Took me FOUR sales on Bandcamp to reach the same amount. -- When I keep saying …
This is about music and streaming, and Spotify and Bandcamp specifically. m2m@sonomu.club writes:
When I keep saying that being on #streaming platforms is a pointless exercise, I get sometimes asked for numbers, or proofs. Here you go. A single song of mine was played a MILLION times in 3 months, in 2022 (and, in later months, another 750k times), with a net gain of £33. A million plays on streaming pays for a pizza night out for me and \@silviamaggi. Took me FOUR sales on Bandcamp to reach the same amount. -- When I keep saying …
US power needs to be checked:
It's well past time for a post-American internet. Every device and every service should be designed so that the people who use them have the final say over how they work. Manufacturers' back doors and digital locks that prevent us from updating our devices with software of our choosing were never a good idea. Today, they're a catastrophe. – The mad king's digital killswitch, by Cory Doctorow
The mad king's digital killswitch
Facebook still fighting off the book authors they ripped off:
For the first time, the company argued that uploading pirated books to other BitTorrent users during the torrent download process also qualifies as fair use. Meta’s reasoning is straightforward. Anyone who uses BitTorrent to transfer files automatically uploads content to other people, as it is inherent to the protocol. In other words, the uploading wasn’t a choice, it was simply how the technology works. -- Uploading Pirated Books via BitTorrent Qualifies as Fair Use, Meta Argues, by Ernesto Van der Sar, for Torrent Freak
Uploading Pirated Books via BitTorrent Qualifies as Fair Use, Meta Argues
@tante@tldr.nettime.org writes:
Open Source AI does not meaningfully exist. It's just openwashing proprietary shit. – tante