open...
open source, open genomics, open creation
23 July 2012
Italian Local Government Warms to Open Source
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There is a natural tendency to concentrate on what is happening locally, and so most of the stories here on Open Enterprise are about wha...
Is This Chemical Why File Sharers Buy More Music?
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One of the great divides in the digital world is between those who believe that people who share files online are selfish, thieving pirate...
15 July 2012
Is Open Data A Boon Or A Bane?
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Techdirt often writes about the benefits of openness and sharing. One area that is increasingly coming to the fore is open data -- for e...
Russia And China Both Want To 'Protect Children'; Both Want To Do It By Increasing Censorship
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As expected , Russia has passed a law that will allow Web sites to be blacklisted, ostensibly to "protect children". According...
UK Government Wants To Give Itself Power To Change Copyright Law Without Full Parliamentary Scrutiny
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A common feature of democracies is that new laws are scrutinized and debated by representatives of the people before they are passed -- th...
Is The EU's Proposed Reform Of Music Licensing Doomed From The Start?
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Music collection societies often figure in Techdirt thanks to their attempts to wring licensing payments from people on absurd grounds, li...
South Korea Gives Mobile Operators Permission To Ignore Net Neutrality By Surcharging Or Blocking VOIP Services
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Net neutrality arguments are often couched in rather theoretical terms, and many people can't really see what all the fuss is about. ...
Are Books Printed With Disappearing Ink Really The Best Way To Make People Read Them?
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As Techdirt has noted , the main threat to artists is not piracy, but obscurity -- the fact that few know they are creating interesting s...
India Moves Even More Of Its Healthcare Away From Western Pharma
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A few years back, Techdirt noted that India had 16,000 licensed drug manufacturers in the 1990s, and became a net exporter of pharmaceut...
DCMS: Who Cares What the Public Thinks?
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The UK government's communications review is likely to have a big impact on the digital world. As part of that investigation, the De...
What Happens If File Sharing Can Also Be Prosecuted As Trademark Infringement?
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In the arguments over ACTA, one criticism seemed widely accepted: that it tries to bundle together two quite different challenges -- tack...
ACTA's Back: European Commission Trying To Sneak In Worst Parts Using Canada-EU Trade Agreement As A Trojan Horse
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Even in the face of a resounding rejection of ACTA by the European Parliament last week, the European Commission seems determined to keep...
Help Stop Software Patents in Europe (Again)
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A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the danger that the Unitary Patent would usher in software patents to Europe. The proposal was supp...
UK Ministry of Defence Close To Gaining Patent On Key GPS Technology; US Not Amused
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Normally, we think of the US as the champion of patenting " anything under the sun that is made by man ," while the UK is general...
The Warehousing And Delivery Of Digital Goods? Nearly Free, Pretty Easy, Mostly Trivial
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One of the most important moments in the rise of a radical idea is when the fightback begins, because it signals an acceptance by the est...
EU Directive On Orphan Works So Bad It Makes Things Worse
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Orphan works (or maybe that should be " hostage works ") have become a really hot area in the copyright debate. That's beca...
So We Won on ACTA Yesterday: Now What?
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Well, we did it: ACTA was resoundingly defeated in the European Parliament yesterday by 478 votes to 39, with 165 abstentions. That'...
UK Pensioner Could Face Arrest For Atheist Poster
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Along with ridiculous libel cases, the UK is also infamous for laws that are designed to stop people hurting the feelings of others. Mayb...
ECJ Decision: You *Do* Own Software That You Buy
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Although all eyes have been on the European Parliament this week, that doesn't mean things have stopped elsewhere in the EU machine. ...
European Parliament Declares Its Independence From The European Commission With A Massive Rejection Of ACTA. Now What?
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In a plenary vote today, the European Parliament has rejected ACTA by 478 votes to 39 , with 165 abstentions. That followed a failed attem...
ACTA: Last-Minute Appeal to EPP Group
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If you watched the stream of the plenary session in the European Parliament yesterday, you will know that what we saw was an incredible p...
Defeating ACTA: Now or Never
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Well, never a dull moment in the world of ACTA. After I wrote yesterday's column summing up what I thought was the final state of pl...
ACTA Supporters In Europe Fighting To The Bitter End
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As Techdirt has reported over the last few months, the passage of ACTA through the European Union's approval process has been little s...
ACTA Update XX: The Final Act
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So, here we are: the final decisive week that is likely to determine the fate not just of ACTA, but also the course of digital copyright l...
James Watson, Co-Discoverer Of DNA's Structure, Says 'Patenting Human Genes Was Lunacy'
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Techdirt has been covering the important Myriad Genetics case for a while. Although the CAFC decided that isolated genes could be patent...
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