Why is Firefox - and Open Source - a Disaster in China?

Like many people, I've been tracking the steady ascent of Google Chrome - and corresponding decline of Microsoft's Internet Explorer - for some time now. Just recently, yet another milestone has been reached, apparently:

On Open Enterprise blog.

ACTA On Hold, But The Protests Continue In Serbia

One reason the European Commission decided to refer ACTA to the European Court of Justice may have been in the hope that people would simply get bored and move on. It's certainly true that the cities of Europe aren't full of protesters as they were a couple of months ago, but that doesn't mean that everything has died down completely. Here, for example, is one country whose population still has strong feelings on the matter: 

On Techdirt.

Iceland: Haven of Openness?

One of the recurrent themes on this blog is the painfully slow progress in terms of getting open source deployed by the UK government. That's despite the fact that there have been multiple statements that it really wants to use more of the stuff, and definitely will - probably, at some point in the future, if the wind is the right direction....

On Open Enterprise blog.

Australian Gov't: Not In The Public Interest For The Public To Be Interested In Secret Anti-Piracy Negotiations

Last month Techdirt wrote about yet more secret meetings between the copyright and internet industries, this time in Australia, where the federal government there was "encouraging" them to come up with ways of tackling online copyright infringement. 

On Techdirt.

German Gov't Uses Anger Over Lack Of ACTA Transparency To Justify Further Lack Of Transparency

Even though the ACTA text is now finalized, getting details from national governments about what exactly happened during the negotiations is proving extremely difficult, with information still trickling out slowly. 

On Techdirt.

Bad Idea: Internet Service Providers Should Assume Most Digital Locker Content Is 'Illegal'

In an interesting blog post, James Firth discusses a comment from music industry analyst Mark Mulligan, quoted in a BBC story about the digital locker site Hotfile: 

On Techdirt.

Welcome to the Open Data User Group

Back in October I wrote about a UK government consultation on the subject of the proposed Public Data Corporation. The government has now responded with one of its well-written documents [pdf]. Here's part of the executive summary:

On Open Enterprise blog.

UK Copyright Industries Suddenly Become Fans Of Evidence-Based Policy Making

Building on the solid work of the Hargreaves Report on copyright, the UK government took a surprisingly sensible attitude in its proposed implementation of most of Hargreaves' suggestions. The consultation period for those proposals ends shortly, and the panic among the copyright industries that the UK government might actually make copyright slightly less biased in their favor is evident. Here's a Daily Telegraph piece where they try to undermine the economic rationale behind the moves, professing scepticism about UK government claims that modernizing copyright will add billions to the UK economy: 

On Techdirt.

Urgent: Please Reply to UK Copyright Consultation

It seems like the UK copyright studies and consultations have been going on for years - first with the Gowers Review, followed by the Hargreaves Report and concluding with the current consultation on copyright. That consultation ends this Wednesday, so time is running out to make a submission.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Strange: Vote Against Freeing Up Orphan Works Achieves 113% Turnout In EU Committee

One of the unresolved problems of copyright is how to deal with huge numbers of orphan works -- creations still in copyright, but whose owners can't be traced to give permissions that may be necessary for re-use. The European Parliament's JURI committee met recently to vote on a new report on possible permitted uses of orphan works, prepared by the Polish Member of the European Parliament, Lidia Geringer de Oedenberg. 

On Techdirt.

Drone Attack: How We Might Willingly Embrace The Surveillance Society

It's striking how drones have passed from a mysterious weapon used to wreak destruction in distant lands to something that could well become a familiar sight in the skies of the US and Europe. Meanwhile, the technology is progressing rapidly, allowing drones to fly in synchronized swarms and even to be printed out by the sheet. But what might some of the effects on our daily lives be -- for example in the sphere of privacy? 

On Techdirt.

Microsoft's Open Standards Fairy Tale

Regular readers of this column will know that I often write about the issues of open standards and FRAND vs. RF licensing. One particular column that explored this area appeared back in October 2010.

On Open Enterprise blog.

TPP Talks Deadlocked; Still No Transparency

As Techdirt revealed a couple of days ago, one reason why the European Commission decided to refer ACTA to the European Court of Justice was a fear that another SOPA disaster was in the offing. It's a little too early to be sure, but we may be seeing the first signs that the equally problematic TPP agreement is also running into problems because of heightened sensitivity to key issues in the wake of the Net-based revolt against SOPA. 

On Techdirt.

Spotify Finally Launches In Germany -- And Immediately Hits Data Protection Problems

The music streaming service Spotify has adopted a rather unusual pattern of launches around the world. Founded in Sweden, it spread gradually to various parts of Europe, and only later arrived in the US. The main reason for this slow rollout seems to have been difficulty striking licensing deals with the major recording companies. 

On Techdirt.

Submission to Consultation on Copyright: Exceptions

In my previous post about submitting a reply to the UK government consultation on copyright, I concentrated on one area, that of orphan works. That's arguably the second most-important topic that the report discusses, not least because of the huge potential liberating orphan works has. But without doubt, the most important area is that of exceptions to copyright.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Collection Society To Libraries: No Story Time For Kids Unless You Pay To Read Aloud

If there's a common trait of the various rightsholders groups around the world, it is their sense of entitlement. If anyone does anything with a work under copyright, they feel they have a right to regulate it and be paid for it. A good example is the claim by the Authors Guild that owners of Kindles weren't allowed to use an experimental text-to-speech feature, since that would infringe on the entirely made up concept of "audio rights" -- and hence, presumably, require further payment. 

On Techdirt.

Do We Have a Right To Open Public Data?

The progress made by the open data movement is pretty extraordinary. A few years ago, data was something that only statisticians cared about, but today it is one of the most vibrant areas of exploration and innovation. I think that's in part because of open source's example of how opening things up allows people to experiment and make progress faster than keeping everything locked down.

On Open Enterprise blog.

European Commission Blames Social Networks For ACTA Failure; Worried About Its Imminent Directive On Copyright Enforcement

Now that the EU's ratification of ACTA has departed from the original script of everyone just waving it through, the European Commission is clearly trying to come up with Plan B. Some insights into its thinking can be gained from the minutes (pdf) of a recent Commission meeting, pointed out to us by André Rebentisch. 

On Techdirt.

As Michael Geist and others have pointed out, ACTA is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement without the main sources of counterfeits being involved -- notably, China. This has required some skilful footwork on the part of ACTA supporters, who need to justify the ratification of a loosely-worded treaty with potentially harmful effects on Internet service providers, civil liberties and developing countries, but which doesn't provide the key benefit claimed in its name. Here's how the European Union's representatives tried to deal with this issue in a "statement on IP Enforcement Trends" made at the WTO Council for TRIPS: 

On Techdirt.

Workshop Audience Barred From 'Demonstrating' Approval Of Michael Geist's ACTA Takedown

Although ACTA has now been referred by the European Commission to the European Court of Justice, it continues its passage through the various committees of the European Parliament, each of which will provide input on the final decision of whether to ratify ACTA or not. The first of these took place last week, when the International Trade (INTA) committee had a preliminary ACTA workshop. This included hearing from external experts, one of whom was Michael Geist, well known to Techdirt readers. 

On Techdirt.

Isn't It Time Artists Lost Their 18th-Century Sense Of Entitlement?

One of the common assumptions in the copyright debate is that artists are special, and that they have a right to make money from their works repeatedly, in ways not granted to "ordinary" workers like plumbers or train drivers, thanks to copyright's reach through time and space. Of course, when modern copyright was devised in the early 18th century, artists were special in the sense they were scarce; offering them special monopoly privileges "for the encouragement of learning" as the 1710 Statute of Anne puts it, therefore made sense. 

On Techdirt.

ACTA Update X

As far as we can tell, ACTA has been put on hold for months, maybe even a year, while the European Court of Justice (ECJ) considers its compatibility or otherwise with European laws. But that doesn't mean everything has stopped. The European Parliament has begun examining ACTA from various viewpoints through its committees. 

On Open Enterprise blog.

How The Runaway Success Of A Tiny $25 Computer Could Become A Big Problem For Oppressive Regimes

The Raspberry Pi is a $25 credit-card sized computer that has succeeded in making GNU/Linux not just newsworthy, but downright desirable. The initial batch of boards sold out in minutes, and eager customers crashed the server where it was being sold. The original vision of the Raspberry Pi was to promote amateur programming and to re-invigorate the teaching of computing in the UK (and elsewhere) by providing a very low-cost and easily hackable system. Naturally, though, its open source code allows it to be applied in many different situations. Here, for example, is a plan to create a secure chat system for activists that can be used in countries where communications are routinely under surveillance, using a program called Cryptocat: 

On Techdirt.

Why Digital Texts Need A New Library Of Alexandria -- With Physical Books

Amidst the growing enthusiasm for digital texts -- ebooks and scans of illustrated books -- it's easy to overlook some important drawbacks. First, that you don't really own ebooks, as various unhappy experiences with Amazon's Kindle have brought home. Secondly, that a scan of an illustrated book is only as good as the scanning technology that is available when it is made: there's no way to upgrade a scan to higher quality images without rescanning the whole thing. 

On Techdirt.

German Government Wants Google To Pay To Show News Snippets

Some bad ideas just keep on coming back, despite the fact that they are manifestly stupid. Trying to get Google and others to pay for the privilege of sending more traffic to newspapers by including short snippets from their stories is one of them. Of course, logic would dictate that the newspapers should be paying Google for the marketing it provides, but unfortunately not everyone sees it that way. 

On Techdirt.