legal page 2 - Dave's Blog

Hmmm

“This rather embarrassing issue was pointed out to the committee, the fact that there were three votes too many, and that these three votes determined the outcome. When this was done, along with formally requesting a re-vote, that re-vote on the points in question was denied.”

(via Defend our freedom to share (or why SOPA is a bad idea): Clay Shirky on TED.com)

There’s weird stuff you’d think is public domain but isn’t including Martin Luther King Jr.‘s “I Have a Dream” speech. FTA: ”If you want to watch the whole thing, legally, you’ll need to get the $20 DVD.

That’s because the King estate, and, as of 2009, the British music publishing conglomerate EMI Publishing, owns the copyright of the speech and its recorded performance.”

General Purpose Computing vs The World. Round 1 is copyright. What will be round 2?

More amazing works entering public domain. A shame that US works take such an extreme amount of time.

‘to avoid getting taxed as “dolls,” rather than lower for “toys”’

“One in three people in Switzerland download unauthorized music, movies and games from the Internet and since last year the government has been wondering what to do about it. … The overall conclusion of the study is that the current copyright law, under which downloading copyrighted material for personal use is permitted, doesn’t have to change.” Wow, that sounds like almost reasonable and understandable copyright law.