bikey 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Is It Copyright Infringement On Fashion Design To Post Photos From A Fashion Show Online?

    bikey ( profile ), 12 Jan, 2009 @ 02:58pm

    French fashion

    The US is one of the only countries in the world not to protect design in general, and fashion in particular. It's left over from the time when the US as a developing country felt entitle to copy everything from everybody. The lack of protection may be good or it may be bad (if you can call Ralph Lauren, who basically copies designs from day camp, a designer, then it is definitely not a positive thing), but it should at least be known by readers of techdirt. As for the US in WWII, if you you have to rely on statements about 'saving the French' to make yourselves feel superior, we have all lost much more than we think. Have a little dignity.

  • On the post: People Noticing That New UK Email Retention Laws Might Violate Privacy Rights

    bikey ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2009 @ 11:51pm

    personal data

    Finally, people are beginning to realize this. We have gone from citizen to consumer to shareholder to data subject in just a few short years!
    For details, see http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2008/11/end-of-road-for-personal-data.php

  • On the post: No One Can Find ISPs Who Have Agreed To RIAA's 3 Strikes Plan

    bikey ( profile ), 07 Jan, 2009 @ 12:39am

    Maybe one reason ISPs are not biting is that this arrangement, unlike that proposed in EU (which requires a law binding ISPs to perform this function) could well prove to be illegal (theories of privacy, public airways? I don't know -anything is possible in the Common Law if you have a brainy lawyer at the helm) and at best contractually unenforceable. And then there's the (previously mentioned on this site) issue of competition among ISPs. A promise that one won't play ball with RIAA could be a very competitive tool.

  • On the post: Entertainment Protectionism Doesn't Create Jobs, It Destroys Them

    bikey ( profile ), 07 Jan, 2009 @ 12:22am

    Ironically, IP has become about clinging to the past and avoiding innovation. This is true across the IP board, but particularly in entertainment. Look at Broadway - nothing but revivals. Look at Hollywood - nothing but sequels and well worn stars playing themselves (there are obvious exceptions but I think this hold true in terms of numbers). Look at mainstream popular music - very little aside from what crusty rich old record execs thinks 'will sell' to the lowest comdenom. The originality (and the reasonable admission price) was paramount in making American entertainment its ambassador to the world. No wonder we have to rely on militarism to make our influence felt. It's all that's left.
    As for saving jobs through the protectionism particular to the IP sector, it has never held up against even the most basic research. Jobs go where cheap labor lives. IP concentrates money in old ideas far beyond their use and prohibits young ideas from growing up out of the topsoil.

  • On the post: UK Police Now Allowed To Hack Home PCs Without Court Approved Warrant

    bikey ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2009 @ 09:53am

    Re: A fine line between protecting your rights and catching criminals

    When all this surveillance started, it was about 'terrorism', then crime was added, then property interests. Then more actions were determined to be criminal. Frankly, I prefer my privacy to omnipotence of states that have given no indication of giving a tinkers damn about me.

  • On the post: UK Police Now Allowed To Hack Home PCs Without Court Approved Warrant

    bikey ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2009 @ 05:56am

    gov hacking

    Difficult to understand unless your sputtering economy depends on responding to content lobbies' demand to criminalize and root out any and all downloading...

  • On the post: RIAA Dumps MediaSentry, But Hires DtecNet Instead

    bikey ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2009 @ 02:38am

    Yes, the Europeans rejected it, but not before Sarkozy tried to sneak his pillow-talk legislation back in in what he hoped to be unread pockets of the seemingly unrelated telecoms package (the Europeans are still wondering what interest Business Software Alliance had in lobbying hard for the telecoms package...), a scheme thwarted only by a curious UK academic who discovered it. Is anyone beginning to notice the overlap between IP worldwide policing and the decline in so-called personal data protection (non-existent in the US but historically important for Europe) in the name of the War on Terror? IP is what's left of the western economy, especially now that finance has tanked. This is not conspiracy, it is industrial policy, let lose in a world where we have gone from being citizens to consumers to data subjects, with our rights diminishing accordingly. Running along side is the content lobby's relentless efforts to criminalize all perceived IP infringement (search IPRED2) in Europe, pursuing the secret ACTA which would leave IP enforcement in the hands of customs officials worldwide, while trying to get the US government to pursue its civil actions on the home front (the homeland? whatever) among other things. See legislative history of Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act 2008

  • On the post: UK Copyright Expiration On Popeye May Be A Test For Mickey Mouse

    bikey ( profile ), 01 Jan, 2009 @ 06:29am

    Re: You know mike what will happen

    The same Burnham who can't distinguish between straight copyright (rewarding creators for their efforts) related or neighboring rights (rewarding broadcasters and record companies for their investments and performers for their renditions (in the old sense of the word) and moral rights (rewarding nothing, but protecting the reputation of the creators from misuse of their creation). Help us, o supernatural forces from the Burnhams of this world.

  • On the post: UK Copyright Expiration On Popeye May Be A Test For Mickey Mouse

    bikey ( profile ), 01 Jan, 2009 @ 02:44am

    mickey

    It's not so much that the 'trademark remains'. The trademark appeared when the copyright ran out (50 years, as it then was, from 1929), and if anyone had had the money, time and inclination, it probably never would have survived a challenge. Mickey shouldn't be a trademark - he did not make the T-shirts, etc. on which he appears. He does not distinguish his goods from those of others. He is a character who should inhabit the public domain, just like Betty Boop. This is where big money comes in - who would bother, against the Disney phalanx, to point this out in court? So don't hold your breath. He's incarcerated in IP for the duration.

  • On the post: On Staying Happy

    bikey ( profile ), 01 Jan, 2009 @ 02:37am

    happiness

    As a teacher of IP and international law, I often get the same questions from students. I usually respond something along the lines of "understanding what's going on around you reduces your victimhood and is an enjoyable activity in itself". Your posting will help to expand on that. Thanks, continue the good work, and Happy New Year to all.

  • On the post: MPAA Also Likes The Idea Of ISP Enforcers For File Sharing

    bikey ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2008 @ 02:00am

    fight to the death

    It is indeed a fight to the death. The problem is the IP people are backed, or more correctly are backing the 'national security' people and with the info they collect together, users barely have a chance. We must first realize how powerful this duo in violating our privacy and our right to the internet (yes, it is time for this) before we can develop an effective strategy to combat it.

  • On the post: MPAA Also Likes The Idea Of ISP Enforcers For File Sharing

    bikey ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2008 @ 01:56am

    Re: Why?

    Of course they get paid. That's what it's about. Thank Sarkozy's pillow talk for this one. One whisper from Carla and it's (almost) French law. Another whisper from Sarkozy and it's (almost EU law). One more whisper...

  • On the post: MPAA Also Likes The Idea Of ISP Enforcers For File Sharing

    bikey ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2008 @ 01:54am

    Re: moving to 'third world' country

    It would be nice if they so burned, but as for you finding salvation in TWC, forget it, unless you plan to stay in that place forever. Once the secret ACTA comes into force, your every electronic possession will be searched at every border for evidence of 'illegal' downloads (which could be anything you didn't write yourself).

  • On the post: ACTA Negotiators Hold Closed Door Meeting To Say They Need To Be More Transparent

    bikey ( profile ), 25 Dec, 2008 @ 01:11am

    Re: international treaties.

    Dear Anonymous, You're not wrong per se, but the goal of the original Berne was to allow citizens of signatory states to have their copyrights recognized in other signatory states and to free authors from complying with state-imposed bureaucratic requirements in order to do so. These requirements intially offended the US (which at that time claimed to be developing country and therefore entitled to copy anything), as did moral rights (the right to protect the author's reputation after he had sold the economic rights). It wasn't until 1989 (not 1979) that the US acceded to Berne, and then basically because they were pushing for everyone else to join and felt it unseemly (remember when we found things unseemly?) not to join themselves. Since the 1990s, and particularly after the 1995 World Trade Agreement TRIPS provisions, it has been the pharma and content industries who have dictated the contents of international treaties, while the US government engages in constant forum shopping (WIPO to WTO, back to WIPO. Currently ACTA is being (secretly, as we know) negotiated through the World Customs Organization - ever heard of that one?) to make the task of pharma and content even easier.

  • On the post: Some ISPs Push Back On RIAA Plan

    bikey ( profile ), 24 Dec, 2008 @ 01:11am

    Re: About time

    'Outsourcing policing' is right on point. The brewing but still secret "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" is just that. Get the border guards to do it. Let's keep our collective eye on that ball.

  • On the post: RIAA's New Policy Isn't About Deterrence, It's About Sidestepping Due Process

    bikey ( profile ), 23 Dec, 2008 @ 03:04am

    three strikes

    This plan is really making the rounds. After lobbying Sarkozy, who promptly and perhaps successfully tried to introduce it into French law, RIAA then convinced him, as president of the EU to initiate legislation introducing it into the EU as a harmonizing directive. Rejected by a full 88% of the European Parliament, he is still attempting to bring it in through the back door. Much has been written on this at the EU This is a case study in RIAA international lobbying for the circumvention of due process. It is closely tied with the collection of personal data, which obviously would make their task much easier.

  • On the post: Why Obama Should Change US Trade Policy On Intellectual Property

    bikey ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2008 @ 12:14am

    Re: Becerra

    Yes, there's much more to IP than copyright. There's patent, for example. Patents on seeds and plants, the source of food and drugs. A less than neutral take on IP has no place in the trade policy of a country whose reputation for fairness and compassion, let alone decency, is on the rocks, to put it mildly. Watch The World According to Monsanto, or The Future of Food to find out what IP means for the rest of the world. IP is much more than copyright.

  • On the post: If You Worked At Mattel And Thought About Making A Non-Barbie Doll, You Can't

    bikey ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2008 @ 12:38am

    IP

    One must accept that IP law is no longer aimed at fostering innovation but at protecting the old guys who once had a thought. Lawrence Lessig is on the right track - go after the lobbyists who 'push' congress to enact ever more draconian IP law, and parse out 'national security' from IP law so that these guys can't use fear to get every detail of your life.

  • On the post: European Council Rejects EU Parliament's Amendment Against Three Strikes Rule

    bikey ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2008 @ 11:17pm

    Re: I dont understand all this Euro stuff

    If you are American, it makes sense that you don't understand. If you are European, that sums up the problem right there.
    1) the EC has mountains of power - EC makes law and that law trumps national law where there's a conflict.
    2) The Council here is made up of all the cabinet ministers from the various countries. It is they who vote for legislation initiated (always) by the Commission.
    3) The Parliament is made up of elected Parliamentarians from the member states and though it does not function like a national parliament, it has some say in the legislation that passes through it on the way from the Commission to the Council (an over simplification, but it will do in a pinch).
    Hope this helps.

  • On the post: European Council Rejects EU Parliament's Amendment Against Three Strikes Rule

    bikey ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2008 @ 11:12pm

    Someone should listen to Ireland

    Does anyone really wonder why 1)Ireland voted against the Lisbon Treaty and 2) no other country has the guts to allow its citizens a referendum? France deserves what it gets - they voted for him. As for the rest? You decide (please).

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