Techdirt. Stories filed under "coordination" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "coordination"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:19:00 PDT New Bill Seeks To Let DHS Agents Coordinate More With Private Companies In Seizing Property (Like Domains) Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120322/17043918217/new-bill-seeks-to-let-dhs-agents-coordinate-more-with-private-companies-seizing-property-like-domains.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120322/17043918217/new-bill-seeks-to-let-dhs-agents-coordinate-more-with-private-companies-seizing-property-like-domains.shtml changes to IP law, some of which showed up in SOPA.

One of the ones that didn't show up in SOPA has now made its way into a new legislative proposal, H.R. 4216: Foreign Counterfeit Prevention Act, introduced by Reps. Ted Poe and Steve Chabot. The text of the bill seems simple enough. It changes 18 USC 1905, which currently forbids federal officials from revealing to private parties' information that they come across during investigations. The new bill seeks to make an exception to that: allowing Homeland Security/Customs & Border Patrol agents to share pre-seizure info or products with trademark and copyright holders.

Now, on its face, this might make sense. It's a way for CBP officials to ask copyright and trademark holders if their rights are being abused by potentially infringing products. But, as we noted when the White House first asked for this law, this hasn't always worked out so well in the past, in part because copyright and trademark holders are often not particularly truthful when asked if they infringe -- and they rarely, if ever, give any thought to fair use or other legitimate uses of their copyrights and trademarks. In fact, one of the reasons why the federal government screwed up so badly in seizing Dajaz1 was because it relied on bad claims by the RIAA, who insisted that works that were not infringing were infringing. Organizations like the RIAA have little incentive to get these things right. And this bill encourages greater coordination with those private parties?

The simple fact is that infringement is determined not by the copyright or trademark holder, but through a court process and adversarial hearing. Having Homeland Security sharing more info with private companies seems like a situation that is ripe for abuse. We've already seen how Homeland Security sometimes appears to act as the the private police force of certain private companies. Are we sure that we really want to create a situation that encourages more such activities?

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]]> this-again http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120322/17043918217 Tue, 9 Sep 2008 05:04:37 PDT Turns Out Virtual Worlds Teach Players The Scientific Method Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080908/0317172200.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080908/0317172200.shtml are basically learning the scientific method, without even realizing it. That is, in order to achieve certain goals and milestones, groups work together to put forth a hypothesis and data on how best to tackle a problem -- and then when it doesn't work, they regroup, and change the hypothesis based on the new data. In fact, the research found that when looking at forums discussing the games, rather than a bunch of juvenile trash-talking (though, there was some of that too), much of the conversation would mimic the process of scientific discovery and understanding:
Someone would pose a question -- like what sort of potions a high-class priest ought to carry around, or how to defeat a particular monster -- and another would post a reply, offering data and facts gathered from their own observations. Others would jump into the fray, disputing the theory, refining it, offering other facts. Eventually, once everyone was convinced the theory was supported by the data, the discussion would peter out.
The researcher then takes this a step further, suggesting that one way we could revive sagging science education in this country is to embrace this aspect of video games, and get students to recognize that what they're doing is the basic process of scientific discovery, so that they don't think of science as being boring and irrelevant to their lives.

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]]> well,-how-about-that http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080908/0317172200