(Mis)understandings of the words “intellectual property”
Last month I was threatened with police intervention after taking pictures of my two-year-old. Why?read more
View ArticleOf RMS, Ethical Visions, and Copyright Law
As RMS emphasises again and again, at the heart of free software lies an ethical vision of sharing and mutual respect. Although open source blurs that vision somewhat thanks to the glasses of...
View Article“US copyright law is far too strict” – GNU founder
American software freedom activist Richard Stallman, better known as the author of GNU General Public License, joined RT to give his comments on modern software copyright laws, and the risks of cyber...
View ArticleWhy the free software community cares about The Pirate Bay
We are currently living in a historical moment which will define and shape digital rights and information freedom on the internet for generations to come. It’s one of those rare moments where the issue...
View ArticleUS Copyright Law, King Lear, and Jammie Thomas-Rasset
I was goofing off, looking up some information on on Wikipedia on King Lear, and here's what struck me. If the current US Copyright Law had been in effect over Shakespeare, I think he could have been...
View Article"Intellectual Property" a Violation of Real Property
Pretending that ownership of software is possible and thus trying to enforce this ownership (as copyright and patent laws do) actually leads us to violations of actual physical property.
View ArticleCould Free Software Exist Without Copyright?
[…] this does result in the paradoxical situation that the GNU GPL actually *depends* on copyright, an intellectual monopoly, in order to spread intellectual freedom. Moreover, it seems to doom free...
View ArticleHow about a legal penalty for hindering fair use?
Brazil has proposed a broad update to its copyright law (Portuguese) and it contains a surprising idea: penalize anyone who "hinders or impedes" fair use rights or obstructs the use of work that has...
View ArticleRussian President Proposes Creative Commons-Style Rules Baked Directly Into...
Glyn Moody now points us to the news that (Russian President) Medvedev appears to be going even further than just condemning today's copyright laws. He's now looking to adjust Russia's copyright laws...
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