YouTube getting all pissy — yanking API rights from 3rd party hardware/services.
Nov 20th
Just when you thought YouTube was becoming this all knowing all loving *now HD* online video giant, they go and pull some stupid crap like revoking the rights of countless 3rd party hardware and service partners by making their API’s off limits. Specifically, the new YouTube ToS prohibit anyone from using YouTube API’s if they are “created for use on television set top boxes, television game consoles, or video screens packaged and marketed as television sets”. Wow, asshole move there isn’t it? There are a ton of 3rd parties who use YouTube’s API’s and will therefore be hurt by this newfound douchery.
Mind you, not all 3rd parties are being excluded from using the API as there are a few exceptions. So far the “few exceptions” appear to be the likes of Sony’s Playstation 3, Nintendo’s Wii, TiVo, Panasonic, Samsung, and several other licensed partners are safe. So in the end it’s all about the money again. Unfortunately that leaves many start ups and innovative services such as the now YouTube-less “Popcorn Hour” (YouTube denial pictured above) out of luck and less one highly sought after feature.
So we have to ask, is this something related to a Google-based decision, or is it because of they’re new buddy buddy relationship with the various assholes in suits big recording labels?
UK to soon see the end of the internet? Above the law “Pirate-Finder” being created to police the web, invade privacy and freedoms!
Nov 19th
Living in the UK and using the internet, particularly any type of torrent or P2P software/service whether legal or illegal is soon going to become a nightmare. The reason for the hoopala is because of an planned change to the Digital Economy Bill currently under debate by Pariliament. The person seeking those changes, Secretary of State Peter Mandelson, is aiming to create a “secondary legislation” that can amend laws and bills at will and without debate or approval from any other government party as long as it’s in the name of “copyright protection”. Bullshit. This guy is a f’ing idiot. It gets worse…
Pirate Bay logo gets patented — by clothing/tech company
Nov 17th
The Pirate Bay trackers may be down for the count, but that infamous sailing ship will live on, plastered against countless clothing items from t-shirts and hoodies to sweatbands and underwear. In an odd turn of events, that iconic logo used by The Pirate Bay is in the process of becoming patented. Yes, patented. But it isn’t by founding members or anyone related to the company. Instead, a Swedish clothing and technology retailer called Sandryds Handel is taking it upon themselves to claim ownership. The founding members, with their pretty blanket feels frowning on private ownership, see this as an abomination and have stated that they feel the logo should remain in the public domain — which is the reason they never patented the logo themselves. What’s bringing me to a hearty chuckle is that this company believes a mass following of pirates — who don’t pay up front for stuff — are going to begin throwing money out for gimmicky products trying to cash in on TPB name. We’ll see how well that goes…
Now some other company is going to pick up the pieces of TPB and make some money off of their name. Pretty sad and shady if you ask me. Though from a business stand point, why not rip off someone elses logo and brand image to turn a dollar on your own time? The TPB logo has just been shat upon. Perhaps Sandryds Handel should spend a few dollars designing their own logo hmm?
What do you have to say?
Liberation: Musical Copyrights nearing the end. Music labels in for drastic reality check come 2013.
Nov 13th
Copyrights and other law topics aren’t really covered here a whole lot. It’s for good reason though. This is a tech blog aimed more at gadgets. But being the nerd that I am, I follow many more areas than just gadgets. Music copyrights and the whole music label tango that so many deal with on a daily basis interest me. We see daily how the digital world in which we love constantly gets lambasted by labels and content owners as the cause for declining music sales, the reason for sinking profits, and overall the start of the end of the world. Those facts have been disproven many times over but that doesn’t stop them from repeating the same sentences over and over. They claim that because of the digital age, copyrights need to be protected to a higher degree and more of them filed.
Thankfully for us the end user as well as artists, the end (or at least significant decline) of label control of the music scene is one that desperately needs to come. It seems like an implausible, almost laughable dream — that labels will lose their copyright with the artists getting back what is rightfully theirs. But it isn’t that far of a stretch. Thanks to a law passed in 1976 called the “U.S. Copyright Act of 1976″, artists will very soon be able to reclaim their property giving them the ability to succeed where the labels have failed time and time again — to properly manage, distribute, and market musical content in the digital age…
Copyright “protection” at it’s worst: Shop owner ordered to pay for performance license for singing while working…
Oct 22nd
I often start posts regarding stupid copyright decisions and laws on a negative and cynical note. I figured why not switch it up — this one ends favorably for the accused. So, in the spirit of adventure and trying to always stay fresh, here it is: The accused in this story gets an apology and flowers…that’s it. Whew. Since that’s over, if you’d like to know the reasons why flowers and an apology were warranted, continue on…
How’s this for stupidity — Sandra Burt of Clackmannanshire, Scotland was contacted by the PRS (Performance Rights Society) because of her frequent “performances” at work. Mind you, the only reason she had to sing her days away was because the same organization contacted her employer and demanded a performance royalty for playing a radio within earshot of customers. (Let’s not even begin on how stupid a performance royalty is in the first place as content owners already have several other taxes and royalties that get levied before hand). Since her employers complied with the local Satan, Sandra had no other choice but to begin singing. All seemed well until she herself received a letter claiming she was to pay a performance fee for singing popular music to a crowd. The stupidity is overwhelming though unsurprising from such an organization.
Again, coming back to where we started, all ended up just fine and dandy for Sarah after a mountain of public uproar. After which the PRS sent dear Sandra another letter. This second letter sang a more apologetic tune for “a big mistake” and came complete with flowers to boot. How nice. The question however is how do these sorts of “big mistakes” even happen in the first place? Don’t these organizations of some sort of fact checking or system of checks and balances? Oh well, at least Sandra is free (literally) to sing ’til her hearts content without fear of prosecution.
Don’t you like happy endings…
French politician pushing for “3-Strikes law” caught pirating…..(again)
Oct 8th
You may remember a man by the name Nicolas Sarkozy. He is the French President whom has been extremely vocal in his support for a “3-Strikes” law in France. The first time he was first seen pushing the law, he was found to have violated the very laws he lobbied for by using a song created by MGMT at a political rally. The only problem was of course MGMT didn’t grant him permission to associate their works with his agenda. The end result — a €30,000 payment to MGMT courtesy of Mr. Copyright’s pockets.
It appears however that Nicolas “Copyright” Sarkozy is at it again. After taking another strong political stance by again lobbying for a French 3-strikes rule, Mr. Copyright himself has been found to have unlawfully reproduced 400 unauthorized copies of the 52-minute documentary ‘A visage decouvert: Nicolas Sarkozy’. The reason for the alarm? The producer of said documentary has to date shipped a mere 50 copies. Whoops! Hmmm. A politician thinking he’s above the law (or merely trying to hide his own hypocrisy)…I’m shocked.
Per Boing Boing:
The French satirical investigative journalism weekly “Le Canard Enchaîné” reveals that our holier-than-thou presidency is in fact a pirate’s lair. In a stunning display of hypocrisy, the presidential audiovisual services produced 400 unauthorized copies of the 52 minutes documentary “A visage découvert : Nicolas Sarkozy”…
It is even more appalling that we are dealing with repeat offenders : last spring, while the Hadopi law was discussed, U.S. music duo MGMT received €30,000 as a settlement for a copyright infringement by French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party who used one of its songs at a political rally without permission. Those who led the charge against Internet users are not the most respectful of copyright.
How does this make you feel? Angry at the blatant disregard politicians have for their own laws. Do you ooze anger at the obvious double standards imposed on us by those in power?
Warner music wants you to hate them
Jul 16th
The music and copyright industry is so backwards, antiquated, and completley blind that a major fallout from the general popular is all but certain in the nearer future. While stories of stupid rulings on lawsuits centering around music copyrights is nothing new, a new action taken by Warner Music shows just how stupid these people that run these “organizations” really are. Time and time again we see that these mobs have absolutely no idea what copyright actually entitles them to as they abuse copyright law and power. So what exactly did Wonder Warner do this time?
Pandora climbs in to bed with the devil
Jul 15th
While the royalty battles between webcasters, online music services and copyright holders have been raging on for the last several months, the last several weeks have finally seen an end. While the “deals” made between the parties involved isn’t really that much of a deal in the traditional sense in that the copyright holders and other greedy individuals involved still walked away with more money, at least it’s an end to the fighting…for now. What is really disappointing however is the stance that Pandora, a music streaming service that used to be my favorite has taken.
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Pandora is getting flogged by the new royalty rates. While it won’t be the death of them in the present, it is by no means going to make them rich. Radio stations conveniently doesn’t have to pay the same rates as web based radio…and Pandora isn’t very happy. But instead of standing up for their own backsides and promoting the greater good, they have instead decided to partner with the enemy and support the Performance Rights Act which would extend the same rates to radio stations. Basically it’s a case of “if I have to do it…they have to do it too…” sibling mentality. Great job Pandora. You just succeeded in making my new music streaming service someone other than yourselves. While many will continue on in life knowing nothing of Pandora’s new friends, the informed few will surely feel let down at to the new road being traveled. I’m disappointed, aren’t you?
Source: Tech Dirt
The never ending battle that they will never win
Jun 24th
While some may see me utter the much hated name “RIAA” and think to themselves, “Oh god…not another article about them”, fret not as I didn’t write it, Mike Masnick of Tech Dirt did, and a fine article he did write. After Jonathan Lamy (RIAA spokesmen/blog write) posted a blog article about a previous article Mike wrote, I was once again convinced just how incompetent, retarded, clueless, and irrelevant the RIAA is becoming. While Jonathan does an admirable job sticking up for his band of brothers, it is no match for Mike Masnick’s rebuttal, which for lack of better words, wipes the floor with the RIAA’s article meticulously picking out every argument ‘ol Johnny outs and again, proving how mindless and misguided they are. John and any RIAA supporter can claim they’re God’s gift to mankind as long as they’d like to believe. Doing so will only push consumers and artists further and further from this despicable organization. Mike’s article is a very good read. I suggest everyone who cares anything about copyrights and consumer rights not just pertaining to the Performance Rights Act, but to all of the injustices the RIAA supports and pursues read his article and come away more intelligent and wiser.
Mike’s Article on Tech Dirt: RIAA has a blog? And they used it to read my mind?
Another “harmed” musician lashes out against RIAA-Thomas ruling
Jun 24th
Somehow I don’t think this is exactly what the RIAA envisioned in regards to an “open arms welcome” by musicians and record labels alike when the Thomas ruling was given. Granted, while music labels are more than perfectly fine charging convicted individuals unconstitutionally large sums of money, more and more of the very core of their entire case, music artists, couldn’t be more disgusted. Yesterday it was Moby calling for the disbandment of the RIAA, today it is Richard Marx has something to say. Now before you start laughing, while Richard Marx doesn’t exactly portray the image of a tech junkie who fights for the digital rights of all, his newly acquired voice is one that is surely welcome. While his voice alone doesn’t hold any legal substance and won’t cause any different outcome in any trial regarding copyright quarrels, what he has to say is enough to make your ears perk up and your attention span hone in on his core message: Suing people enormous amounts of money just to “make an example” is disgusting and stupid and will only push more people to the practice. Of course, Mr. Marx said it in a few more eloquent words…
The TapeWriter: RIAA vomit inducing, incompitent copyright holder slaying wonder device
Jun 16th
Whew! What a mouthful. If you love all things analog and digital, the TapeWriter is your gadget. Even though tapes are cool and hold a nostalgiac value to them, mp3 files are much easier to carry around, not to mention exponentially smaller. Thankfully, the TapeWrite makes your life easier and simpler by allowing easy “burning” of your old cassette tapes to mp3 files. The ease of use is made even easier by the fact that no drivers or extra software is needed. Backup your legally purchased content without fear of prosecution. While copyright holders and RIAA like companies may cry foul, simply turn your back, walk away, and continue your backup process. When they start paying taxes on your purchases, maybe then they can have a word. Until then, eat it! If you’ve got quite the collection of old plastic laying around, why not spend the $199.99 needed and turn it into ever lasting memories. *awww*
Source: Geek Alerts
Swedish judicial system apparently doesn’t know what “conflict of interests” or “bias” mean
Jun 9th
Remember that small trial that was hardly talked about? The one that had a few pirates that were accused of swapping a few files online? Ya, that case. You no doubt remember the judge, Tomas Norstrom, was accused of bias and conflict of interest as he was a member of a couple pro-copyright groups - more specifically the Swedish Copyright Association and the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property. Apparently in Sweden, such affiliations with the prosecution do not justify a bias. Anyone with any amount of common sense and intelligence can clearly see the conflict of interests and problems that this case had from the start. It is sadly a rigged and fixed case all around. Besides the blatant bias and conflict of interests, the defendants are also going out on a slightly smaller limb and claiming that the Stockholm trial court intentionally yet covertly guided the case to Horstrom to carry out their best interests. Obviously, the courts deny this. Oh well..*Scratches head*….the easily discernible bias continues to grow. Thankfully the appeals court hasn’t reached a decision yet. There’s still hope…
Source: Wired, Image Source
