Us poor non-lawyers are
so easily confused. Does this mean that if I find a book/movie/music
on a UK site, I can make a copy without worrying about Intellectual
Property rights?
Glyn Moody writes:
More
and more of our activities take place in the digital rather than
analog realm. But what exactly is the legal status of that digital
stuff as it flows around the Internet, or sits inside databases? A
recent judgment in the UK provides important guidance:
Information
stored electronically does not constitute property which someone can
exercise possession of, judges in the UK have ruled.
The
Court of Appeal rejected arguments to the contrary and refused to
interpret existing laws in a manner which would, it admitted, “have
the beneficial effect of extending the protection of property rights
in a way that would take account of recent technological
developments”.
The
judges said that whilst it is possible to exert control over
electronic information it is not possible to gain possession of it.
The distinction was drawn in a case concerning a dispute between a
publisher and an IT supplier.
Read more on TechDirt.
[From
the article:
The analysis of one of
the judges is interesting:
"An
electronic database consists of structured information," Lord
Justice Floyd said. "Although information may give rise to
intellectual property rights, such as database right and copyright,
the law has been reluctant to treat information itself as property.
When information is created and recorded there are sharp distinctions
between the information itself, the physical medium on which the
information is recorded and the rights to which the information gives
rise. Whilst the physical medium and the rights are
treated as property, the information itself has never been."
That's an important
statement that touches on many aspects of the online world, not least
digital copyright. It confirms that the property of "intellectual
property" is of monopoly rights, not of the information in the
creative work. And since that information cannot be possessed, it
therefore cannot be stolen, despite what copyright maximalists would
have us believe.
“We're trying to cut
back on NSA hacking, so...”
The Wall Street Journal
reports
that the Department of Justice is seeking increased authority to
remotely search not only computers but also cloud based services to
which those computers connect. The techniques investigators use for
this searching include sending an email containing code that installs
spying software. At that point, investigators can take over the
computer, and use any stored passwords to search cloud based back
ups, file storage, email accounts, and more. The
government doesn’t describe these methods as hacking, preferring
instead to use terms like “remote access” and “network
investigative techniques.”
The DOJ push comes in
the context of proposed
modifications to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure,
specifically Rule 41 which governs how search warrants are issued.
Under the current rule, magistrates may only authorize searches
within their particular district. Electronic crimes may affect the
district, but the suspect and data located in a different, or many
different, districts.
You have the right to
reenforce your biases by only reading or listening to people who
agree with you. (and if no one ever tells you you're wrong, you must
be right!)
U.S.
judge rules Baidu's censorship is protected as free speech
… The lawsuit
against Baidu, originally filed in 2011 by eight activists in New
York, claimed that the Chinese search engine had violated U.S. laws
on free speech. This was because Baidu had been censoring
pro-democracy works on its search engine for not only its users in
China, but also for those accessing the site from New York.
The lawsuit demanded
Baidu pay $16 million in damages. But on Thursday, U.S. District
Judge Jesse Furman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of New York ruled against the activists, and said requiring
Baidu to include pro-democracy works in its search results would "run
afoul" of the U.S.'s free speech laws.
In his ruling,
Furman compared Baidu's blocking of pro-democracy works to a
newspaper's right to exercise "editorial control" to
publish what it wants. In Baidu's case, the company has created a
search engine that favors certain political speech.
I can only hope that
other schools actually read about this and think a bit (neither is
likely)
Two years ago, the ACLU
filed suit against Minnewaska Area Schools for disciplining a
student who had posted a negative comment about a staff member while
in the privacy of her home. As part of the district’s response,
they demanded the student’s login credentials to Facebook. The
case raised free speech and privacy issues.
This week, the ACLU of
Minnesota announced
that there’s been a settlement:
The
American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota succeeded in defending
the rights of their client, Riley Stratton, with the settlement of
their case against Stratton’s school. In 2012, the ACLU-MN filed a
lawsuit against the Minnewaska School District for violating
Stratton’s rights (she was a 6th grader at the time) when they
unjustly punished her for content she posted on her Facebook page and
forced her to turn over her passwords for her Facebook and email
accounts. The case was recently settled and as a part of the
agreement the School District agreed to strengthen privacy
protections for its students and pay damages.
“I
am so happy that my case is finally over, and that my school changed
its rules so what happened to me doesn’t happen to other students,”
stated Riley Stratton. “It was so embarrassing and hard on me to
go through, but I hope that schools all over see what happened and
don’t punish other students the way I was punished.”
In
one humiliating ordeal after another, Stratton was subject to a
baseless punishment for a comment she made on her own Facebook page,
while at home, about a staff member from the school. A short while
later she was put through a traumatizing experience when she had her
Facebook page searched at school, with police present, merely because
she allegedly had an online conversation about sex while on her home
computer. Stratton’s mother was not informed about the search
until after it happened. The whole experience left Stratton
distressed to the point where she no longer wanted to attend school.
As
part of the settlement the School District agreed to change its
policies to better protect students’ privacy and train its staff on
the new policy to ensure it is correctly followed. The School
District also agreed to a $70,000 settlement which will be divided
between the Strattons, for damages, and the ACLU-MN to cover case
costs and support future ACLU-MN efforts to protect the civil
liberties of Minnesotans.
“We
are pleased with the settlement and hope this sends a
clear message to other schools that it is bad policy to police
students behavior on social media,” stated Charles
Samuelson, Executive Director of the ACLU-MN. “There may be times
when it is appropriate for schools to intervene, but only in extreme
circumstances where there are true threats or safety risks.”
Cooperating
attorneys working on the case are: Wallace Hilke and Bryan Freeman of
Lindquist & Vennum PLLP and Professor Raleigh Hannah Levine,
William Mitchell College of Law along with Teresa Nelson, Legal
Director of the ACLU-MN.
The
judgement can be found here.
More
background of the case can be found here.
One of the terms of the
settlement is that the student handbook will be revised to include
this provision:
Voluntary
searches:
Students
may be asked for permission to search their backpacks or orher
personal items. When a search is voluntary, the
student is free to withhold consent and a student’s
refusal to consent to a voluntary search will not result in
additional discipline or other adverse consequences.
Perspective. Think of
these as arrows into the side of cable TV. What is available on
cable that you can not get on the Internet for free?
http://www.androidheadlines.com/2014/03/roku-makes-3500r-streaming-stick-official-todays-launch.html
Roku
Makes The 3500R Streaming Stick Official With Todays Launch
The gloves are off
Chromecast fans, Roku has officially announced the release of their
brand new streaming HDMI dongle called the Roku 3500R Streaming
Stick. This is Roku’s answer to the wildly popular Chromecast,
which to be honest, they were smart to release because the Chromecast
has been making waves. The 3500R, although a tad more expensive,
gives quite a bit more options to those willing to buy. While the
Chromecast is great because it comes in under $40 and offers a ton of
different ways to get your media onto your TV, the Roku 3500R
provides access to over 1,200 channels with plenty of movies
for the film buff, loads of TV shows, kids programs, Sports, music
and news. You’ll also have access to media content through
Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Instant Video, Blockbusters streaming video
service and a service called Mgo. Did you think the media content
would stop there? Of course not. You can also get your content from
hulu plus, VUDU, and HBO Go among others.
(Related) Old
industries (like cable) can't move as quickly as new industries.
(I'll leave it to you to define “old” and “new.”) If we
don't get in their way, consumers could be the big winners.
Amazon
Reportedly Ready To Offer A Set-Top Box And Free Ad-Supported
Streaming
The company best known
for selling books has been aggressively moving into video streaming
with a subscription and rental service (that competes with both
Netflix and Apple’s iTunes) and new original content.
Now the company is
reportedly taking things one step further. Re/Code is reporting that
a new set-top box from Amazon will be revealed next week. The gadget
would compete with things like Roku and AppleTV to stream shows from
the Internet to your TV.
… At the same time,
the
Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon is working on free
ad-supported video streaming. Previously, streaming video was only
available to people who signed up for Amazon Prime (which now costs
$99 per year). By offering the streaming for free
but with ads, Amazon gets a whole new revenue stream and
the chance to pitch its Prime service to people who don’t already
take advantage of the video and the free shipping.
Stuff for students.
Google
Docs Adds-Ons For Students: These 5 Will Help You Write A Paper
Word-processing for
students has long been the domain of Microsoft Word. The recent
release of add-ons is making Google Docs an appealing free option.
The five add-ons we are about to meet have the potential to become
quick favorites for people working on research papers, essays, and
collaborative projects. But, are they good enough to make Google
Docs the go-to option?
Google Docs won’t be
toppling Word from the top of the heavy-duty text-editing list
anytime soon, but add-ons like these will help keep it in the list of
best
alternatives to Office. It will make it more attractive for
those who want to keep all of their work in the cloud.
More student stuff.
– provides a free to
use library of the world’s best educational videos. They scour the
public web and work with the world’s best teachers and institutions
to bring you a one stop shop for video learning. It’s like a You
Tube of education. The library is comprehensive and high quality.
They are rigorous in only uploading high quality, fascinating videos
from established academic institutions.
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