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Over the last few months, Techdirt has been reporting on the amazing rise of the German Pirate Party, with win after win after win.
Politicians in the other parties have looked on aghast, powerless to
halt the rise of something they clearly can't fathom. Inevitably, the
fightback has finally begun, but packaged as an artists' revolt, not
simply that of the copyright industries worried about their profit
margins.
On
Techdirt.
When discussing ACTA, there's a natural tendency to concentrate on
the bigger players -- the US or the EU -- but it's important to remember
that there are many other countries involved. One of those is
Switzerland, which has just joined the doubters' club by holding off
from signing ACTA. Here's why (French original):
On
Techdirt.
The damage
that software patents cause to innovation in the computer world is a
constant theme here on Techdirt. But as a fascinating new paper by
James Boyle explains, the threat to open source, particularly from patent injunctions, is even greater because of the special characteristics of that software development methodology:
On
Techdirt.
The problems of monopolies arising through network effects, and the
negative effects of the lock-in that results, are familiar enough. But
it's rare to come across an entire nation suffering the consequences of
both quite so clearly as South Korea, which finds itself in this
situation thanks to a really unfortunate decision made by its government some years back:
On
Techdirt.
Whatever you might have thought of his policies, Nicolas Sarkozy
probably had more impact on European copyright policy than any other EU
politician. He consciously tried to the lead the way in bringing in
more extreme copyright enforcement, most notably with the "three
strikes" HADOPI law.
On
Techdirt.
Since my last ACTA update, plenty has been happening - there's really never a dull moment in this area.
On
Open Enterprise blog.
A few weeks ago, I wrote
about how businesses based around giving stuff away were able to make
money by replacing far more expensive options. One aspect of that is
that open source leaves money in people's wallets. The other side, of
course, is that purveyors of more expensive options tend to lose out.
That's a pattern that is being repeated across different industries -
not just in the software world.
On
Open Enterprise blog.
What an extraordinary year this has been for Net activism. After the great SOPA blackout led to SOPA and PIPA being withdrawn, and the anti-ACTA street demonstrations
triggered a complete rethink by the European Parliament that may well
result in a rejection of the treaty, now it seems that the Trans Pacific
Partnership is falling to pieces.
On
Techdirt.
One of the beloved tropes of the copyright industries is that they
are being destroyed by online piracy. Superficially, it's a plausible
claim, not least because of the false equation of copyright infringement
with "theft", and the lingering suggestion that every time something is
shared online, a sale is lost. Of course, as Techdirt's report, "The Sky is Rising", demonstrated from publicly-available figures, the facts are very different: all of the creative industries are thriving.
On
Techdirt.
Neelie Kroes gave a keynote speech at this year's re:publica conference in Berlin
(disclosure: I spoke there too) that brought together many of the
themes she has touched on recently -- the open Web, copyright licensing,
the potential of open data, and the need to provide enhanced Internet
safety for children. Interesting and important as all those are, they
pale into insignificance beside the following comment she made:
On
Techdirt.
It would be something of an understatement to say that the world of
public libraries is undergoing rapid change at the moment. On the one
hand, the rise of open access
means that people are increasingly able to find information online that
was formerly held in serried ranks of volumes stored on library stacks.
On the other, publishers' reluctance
to allow ebooks to be lent out puts a key traditional function of
libraries under threat. So what exactly should public libraries being
doing in the digital age? Eric F. Van de Velde has written a a fascinating exploration of that question, along with a few suggestions.
On
Techdirt.
Techdirt has published several posts recently about the growing anger
among scholars over the way their work is exploited by academic
publishers. But there's another angle to the story, that of the
academic institutions who have to pay for the journals needed by their
professors and students. Via a number of people, we learn that the scholars' revolt has spread there, too:
On
Techdirt.
Yesterday I looked
at the first part of a long document that Microsoft sent the Cabinet
Office in October last year. Here I'd like to explore one of the other
sections, which is headed as follows:
On
Open Enterprise blog.
In my first two posts about Microsoft's lobbying against true open
standards, I concentrated on a document sent to the Cabinet Office in
May 2011. Here, I'd like to look at another, sent in October 2011
(available in both html and pdf formats.)
On
Open Enterprise blog.
We reported last week that the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament had decided to vote against the ratification of ACTA; now the Liberals and Democrats are following suit:
On
Techdirt.
A constant theme here on Techdirt is that it's not the idea that's crucial, but the execution. Here's someone who seems to agree:
On
Techdirt.
Even though most of the focus around here has been on the UK government's Open Standards consultation (I do hope you've managed to reply by now - time is running out), the ACTA monster is still slouching towards Bethlehem. Things have gone better than I expected, with the ACTA rapporteur
recommending against ratification, the socialists confirming they will
vote against it, and rumours that the liberals will also vote against
it. But it's important to emphasise that it's not dead yet.
On
Open Enterprise blog.
Governments around the world are seeking to monitor more and more of
their citizens' online activities -- and it's not just the most
obviously repressive regimes doing this. In the US, there is CISPA, while the UK is drawing up the Communications Capability Development Programme.
Thomas Steen alerts us to a further escalation of this desire to spy
on the public, in Norway. The secret service there (known by the
acronym PST) want details about comments posted on all Web sites
retained (via Google Translate):
On
Techdirt.
The dramatic announcement that the EU's rapporteur on ACTA, David
Martin, would be recommending that the European Parliament should reject
the treaty was made at the end of a morning conference on the subject
organized by Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. One
of those speaking in favor of ACTA at that meeting was Helienne
Lindvall, a professional songwriter and musician, who has now blogged about it:
On
Techdirt.
As you may have noticed, open standards are a hot topic currently. One person who deals with them all the time in a variety of ways is Charles-H. Schulz.
That's because he's one of the leaders of The Document Foundation, home to the LibreOffice fork of the ODF-based OpenOffice.org, and he's also on the board of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). The following is an interview exploring his views about standards - open and not so open.
On
Open Enterprise blog.
Back in 2009, Techdirt wrote
about an interesting challenge to a then-new law against counterfeits
in Kenya, on the grounds that it might be used to stop perfectly legal
generic variants of drugs being imported into the country. That
matters, because around 90% of drugs used in Kenya are generics, which
means that blocking them would have serious implications for healthcare
in that country.
On
Techdirt.
One of open source's great strengths is that it is not a company.
This means that traditional methods of nullifying its threat – such as
buying it or causing it to go bankrupt – simply don't work. This is one
reason why traditional software companies have had such a hard time
getting their heads around free software and coming up with a sensible
response.
On
The H Open.
Open Access continues to gain momentum,
as more and more researchers seek to make their work freely available
online. One way of doing that is by modifying the contract that
academic publishers routinely send to potential authors, inserting a
clause that allows digital copies to be distributed.
On
Techdirt.
As Techdirt has reported,
the London 2012 Olympics bring with them a range of "special" measures
guaranteed to make London a place for lovers of freedom to avoid this
summer. But it seems that the organizers wish to ensure that anyone attending will also have a rather miserable time:
On
Techdirt.
In may last column, I wrote about Microsoft's efforts last year to derail any possible adoption of ODF.
That's very telling, because in a way it's quite separate from the
issue of open standards, and it shows that one of Microsoft's chief
fears is losing the extremely lucrative office suite business. But just
how lucrative is it? An email from Microsoft that is apparently
circulating around the Treasury department sheds some interesting light
on this. Here's what it says:
On
Open Enterprise blog.
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