Sometimes you come across news that so twisted in recursive levels of self-parody that you cannot even express an opinion on it, you just have to sit back and say, “gee that’s f__ked up.” Case in point, this series of events, the latest of which I found thanks to a Read more…
I posted earlier about how we needed new models for an Intellectual Property economy. On John Scalzi’s Whatever Blog there’s a thread that goes into the specifics of an existing rental model that seems to work. I also had some thoughts about the economy of Second-Life and MMORPG’s in general, Read more…
Ok, I’m playing catchup here, but I just found Mark Helprin’s article about Copyright. John Scalzi has a decent response to all that and others have gone on at length. But there was a quote from Helprin I had to comment on: Were you to have ushered through the many Read more…
[This is a copy of a letter I just sent to the SFWA Forum] For the past three years I’ve been involved in a legal dispute with Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast over one of their d20 products. So far, I’ve remained mum about this in public, but fortunately Read more…
Microsoft seems to be in the vanguard, defending a 19th Century economic model for IP law. Not only has it deformed the purpose of its operating system into one giant copy-protection scheme, but now it’s attacking open-source software vendors with vague threats of patent violations. Here’s the problem in a Read more…
Another story popped up on the web from our favorite Kent, Ohio serial plagiarist sheriff’s detective. Two thoughts occur to me. One: Why is it that he has heard of e-mail, but not spell-checking software? Quoth the article: When Herman was caught last fall, he confessed his plagiarism in an Read more…
From the Edmonton Journal, we have the story of a Kent, Ohio police officer, Det. Jack L. Herman, who was quite a thief, apparently buying a series of Canadian plays and slapping his name on them. A blog post has an extended transcript of David Staples’ interview with this literary Read more…
This is from a friend of mine in college radio. While I’m all for IP rights, it irks me when someone steps between me and my rights just to enrich themselves. Not to mention the Kafkaesqe red tape is truly frightening: WCSB 89.3 FM in Cleveland and other college radio Read more…
Western civilization is dealing with a crisis over intellectual property. The fact that any digital medium can be easily copied with perfect fidelity ties our legal system into knots, leading some, like Cory Doctorow to call for the outright abolition of Copyright law. However, DMCA et al is a harbinger Read more…