http://www.techdirt.com/ Easily digestible tech news.... http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121203/15572821214/new-zealand-government-admits-that-order-to-suppress-illegal-spying-kim-dotcom-only-such-order-issued-10-years.shtml#c222 Tue, 4 Dec 2012 05:26:55 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121203/15572821214/new-zealand-government-admits-that-order-to-suppress-illegal-spying-kim-dotcom-only-such-order-issued-10-years.shtml#c222 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121127/17093921162/recording-industry-could-catch-more-flies-with-honey-keeps-betting-vinegar.shtml#c660 Mon, 3 Dec 2012 08:23:18 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121127/17093921162/recording-industry-could-catch-more-flies-with-honey-keeps-betting-vinegar.shtml#c660
"And you will find that, in attempting to impose unreasonable restraints on the reprinting of the words of the dead, you have, to a great extent, annulled those restraints which now prevent men from pillaging and defrauding the living." -- Thomas Babington Macaulay, Speechs to House of Commons
on 5 Feb. 1841 Opposing Proposed Life + 60 Year Copyright Term

Before you try to "educate" people to adhere to your mad money-making scheme that is this copyright with durations above lifetimes, fix it. No copyright for the Dead. Fuck these Zombies!]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121128/02492821166/open-letter-to-human-synergistics-international-response-to-your-accusation-that-techdirt-is-infringing.shtml#c1964 Mon, 3 Dec 2012 05:20:46 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121128/02492821166/open-letter-to-human-synergistics-international-response-to-your-accusation-that-techdirt-is-infringing.shtml#c1964 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121127/11245721156/some-thoughts-fixing-problems-patent-system.shtml#c425 Wed, 28 Nov 2012 07:26:33 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121127/11245721156/some-thoughts-fixing-problems-patent-system.shtml#c425 The real problem is that if we did carve out software from patentability, it's likely that crafty patent lawyers would quickly figure out how to rewrite patent claims to make them broadly cover the same concepts in a way that could be seen as not being "software."

Eh, that has already happened. Software is mathematics, and mathematics are not patentable. However, patent offices and courts have come up with a completely nonsensical definition of algorithm which they apply to judge software as being not mathematics. Kind of ruling that Pi is exactly equal to "3".

Software being mathematics is mathematically proofable. So there is actually no ambiguity involved. And as it happens, it also dispells all these arguments that come up all the time, like "but if it's in an ASIC" and whatever, because it defines totally clear what is patentable (In this case: the ASIC as such, but not the logic of any possible program that runs in it).

Now, the only problem is to get patent offices and courts to acknowledge the scientifc truth. And *poof*, all the software patents would be gone ;)


Apart from that, there's another big BUT: Having no software patents would NOT solve the problem. All the problems discussed at this conference would still exist.

Because most of them are inherent in the matter that is being subjected to patents (namely: the impossibility to draw clear borders to other things, ambiguity of the language, and the fact that most innovation happens gradually and everything depends on everything else).

There's only one thing where these inherent problems don't exist, and that's chemical compounds. And if you look at the statistics, you'll see that _everywhere_ but in pharmaceuticals legal expenses are much higher than gains with licensing. Which makes it clear that the patent system is not just defect, it's completely kaputt, broken by design, at best useless and more often damaging for everything but chemical components.

You can't fix it. The only thing there is to do is to abolish it for everything where it does not work.

As for chemicals, there are other problems. It produces monsters like Monsanto. However, that is not a problem within the patent system itself. In that case it works as it is supposed to work.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121127/17295921163/google-asks-germans-to-protest-pay-to-link-proposal-as-it-comes-close-to-becoming-law.shtml#c526 Wed, 28 Nov 2012 06:03:46 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121127/17295921163/google-asks-germans-to-protest-pay-to-link-proposal-as-it-comes-close-to-becoming-law.shtml#c526
And what's more, being banned from repeating "news" means effectively you're not allowed to share culture. Some kind of corporate censorship on news.

This is incredibly bad and a threat to democracy.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121029/02482720866/washington-post-yes-we-need-to-give-up-liberty-security.shtml#c637 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 09:16:29 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121029/02482720866/washington-post-yes-we-need-to-give-up-liberty-security.shtml#c637
Security is also "security from being imprisoned without a charge", security is also "security from not being taken out of your home at night by the secret police", security is also "security from an unfair process", security is also "security from not being bombed by a drone because your neighbour happens to host a wanted criminal", security is also "security from being groped by some customs official". And so on.

What you get if you give up liberty is a totalitarian state. And you'll will find that in a totalitarian state, you've got no security at all.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121029/02482720866/washington-post-yes-we-need-to-give-up-liberty-security.shtml#c632 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 09:08:47 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121029/02482720866/washington-post-yes-we-need-to-give-up-liberty-security.shtml#c632
You've totally lost perspective. To you, this Obama Bush probably even looks "left-wing". I only see authoritarian extremists. Including that looney that wrote the above Washington-Post article.

Behold: http://politicalcompass.org/charts/us2012.php
Where are there the champions of liberty? Well, Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson probably, but they are both not extremely libertarian.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20121020/22581720775/why-dc-silicon-valley-dont-mix-well.shtml#c1037 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 07:53:18 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20121020/22581720775/why-dc-silicon-valley-dont-mix-well.shtml#c1037
Anyway, a whole lot of the shenanigans banks are involved today could probably be prevented in just having a few very simple laws. Like "capital gains are subject to taxes" and "You may not lend out more than half the money you're indebted" or something like that... You can tell it's not going to be popular ;)]]> http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20121024/18211120814/cnn-counts-patents-mistakes-them-inventiveness.shtml#c383 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 07:08:00 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20121024/18211120814/cnn-counts-patents-mistakes-them-inventiveness.shtml#c383
Sometimes they did, sometimes they did not. And sometimes an entirely sensible law was changed in a way which produced problems in the future.

Like those morons that decided that copyright should be valid after the death of the author. There was no reason to change it to that, but rampant rent-seeking of publishers. They did it, and lo and behold, we've got a shitload of works nobody can publish anymore because nobody can find all the probable heirs and rightholders.

And it goes on. Loads of laws with specific exemptions for some technology, which will be obsolete in 20 years, but the law will still be wreaking havoc.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121020/01463320773/bizarre-trend-journalism-professors-using-klout-scores-as-part-students-grades.shtml#c474 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:13:53 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121020/01463320773/bizarre-trend-journalism-professors-using-klout-scores-as-part-students-grades.shtml#c474 http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20120927/00320920527/former-copyright-boss-new-technology-should-be-presumed-illegal-until-congress-says-otherwise.shtml#c733 Thu, 27 Sep 2012 14:22:16 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20120927/00320920527/former-copyright-boss-new-technology-should-be-presumed-illegal-until-congress-says-otherwise.shtml#c733 That is correct. However, that design was corrupted by extending the term of copyright past the lifespan of generations of humans. Currently copyright benefits authors and its remains
I fixed that. Obviously copyright past the lifespan of the author benefits its remains..]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120926/23522220526/us-military-classifies-wikileaks-as-enemy-united-states.shtml#c1227 Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:09:22 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120926/23522220526/us-military-classifies-wikileaks-as-enemy-united-states.shtml#c1227 Assange willingly solicited leakers from the U.S. This is no different from any other spy agency in the world trying to recruit assets in a nation it wishes to gain secret information from.

I paraphrase:
The New York Times willingly solicited whistleblowers from a company. This is no different from any other news agency in the world trying to recruit assets in a company it wishes to gain secret information from.

You miss one crucial bit: Public. So they would solicit "spies" for the public (which, by the way, includes you)?

I repeat here what would really work:

Fixing the problem would be minimizing the amount of people who have access to classified material. Since they tend to over-classify, nobody can work without that classified-access, so there's a huge amount of people who need that access.

The only rational course would be the declassify 90% of what gets classified right now, since it's not really important. And for the rest, you would not have to give 2 Million people access, but maybe only 50'000, so the chance of leaks would be very much lower.

But bureaucracies don't really work like that, since bureaucrats get power over other bureaucrats when classifying things. So everyone classifies and thus ever more people need access to that material...]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120926/23522220526/us-military-classifies-wikileaks-as-enemy-united-states.shtml#c1226 Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:51:43 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120926/23522220526/us-military-classifies-wikileaks-as-enemy-united-states.shtml#c1226
Well, if the state is a nation of law, anyway...]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120926/16265120521/penguin-taking-underperforming-authors-to-court-to-recoup-paid-advances.shtml#c273 Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:39:25 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120926/16265120521/penguin-taking-underperforming-authors-to-court-to-recoup-paid-advances.shtml#c273
Hire your own free-lance editor (since the publisher will sue you for your advance anyway), get somebody who will publish it on all the usual e-book-shops, and you're set. And probably much cheaper than with a publisher..]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120924/03124520499/absuridty-copyright-policy-leaves-dutch-supreme-court-confused.shtml#c290 Wed, 26 Sep 2012 04:47:37 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120924/03124520499/absuridty-copyright-policy-leaves-dutch-supreme-court-confused.shtml#c290 The court misses some important points here, indeed. First, if people are paying levies for unauthorized downloads, society will perceive their actions to be justified.
That's NOT a problem. This is absolutely intended, because copyright applies to PUBLISHING, not to possession or acquisition. And most European countries do have exactly the same philosophy behind their copyright laws.

Second, people mainly use phones, computers and portable devices for music and films. Hardly anyone uses blank media any more. Therefore, levies on CD]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120924/03124520499/absuridty-copyright-policy-leaves-dutch-supreme-court-confused.shtml#c274 Wed, 26 Sep 2012 04:36:28 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120924/03124520499/absuridty-copyright-policy-leaves-dutch-supreme-court-confused.shtml#c274
Since the downloader can't tell whether something is illegal (only a judge can tell!), he must assume it's legal.

Besides, if somebody posts a picture of a cat somewhere, and you download it, how would you know whether this is itself was uploaded legally? And actually, it's like that with MOST material.

The "probably illegally uploaded" things are a minority if you factor in all the pictures, videos, posts and emails of everyone on this planet.

And you can't place the burden of proof onto the downloader; so you just don't.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120916/15053420396/garbage-garbage-out-studies-concerning-which-countries-lead-education.shtml#c79 Tue, 25 Sep 2012 07:22:55 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120916/15053420396/garbage-garbage-out-studies-concerning-which-countries-lead-education.shtml#c79
Or maybe they get into professional sports, as it seems the US universities are mostly about.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120912/05463320358/cambodia-wants-mandatory-surveillance-cameras-internet-cafes.shtml#c151 Tue, 25 Sep 2012 07:18:33 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120912/05463320358/cambodia-wants-mandatory-surveillance-cameras-internet-cafes.shtml#c151 The circular could be a model for a more fascist cyber legislation which the government plans to enact this year.

There, I fixed it.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120923/22491220490/apple-accused-violating-rights-iconic-swiss-railway-clock.shtml#c542 Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:59:26 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120923/22491220490/apple-accused-violating-rights-iconic-swiss-railway-clock.shtml#c542
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2680/4193737950_c36577969f_b.jpg

It's about 50cm in diameter. So this is just a thumbnail, which is covered by the right to quote parts of a work and fair use.

Might be a design patent tough.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120921/15010920465/switzerland-questions-crazy-hollywood-claims-about-file-sharing-ends-up-congressional-watchlist.shtml#c1269 Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:49:17 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120921/15010920465/switzerland-questions-crazy-hollywood-claims-about-file-sharing-ends-up-congressional-watchlist.shtml#c1269
http://www.schweizermedien.ch/fileadmin/schweizermedien/brancheninfos/medienbudget/2011_Medienbudget.pdf
(You can replace the 2011 with 2005 to 2010 to get older reports; in german).

That's 3150 SFR (about 3350 USD) per household a year, half of which is spent on content. Not counting companies.

Italy is a different case, since they've got no money ;)]]>