Mike 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (45) comment rss

  • On the post: French Author Plagiarizes Wikipedia; Does That Mean His Entire Book Is Now CC Licensed?

    Mike ( profile ), 29 Nov, 2010 @ 02:18pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: He did not "alter, transform or build upon" the wiki stuff,

    Either way, neither he nor his agent (publisher) have the legal right to sue people who share the work.

    Well I don' think that's true. If it is case 2 (his entire work is in violation of copyright law), that doesn't give anyone else the right to share (copy) the work.

    As I understand the facts as things currently stand, his work is in violation of copyright law. Period.

    He could probably negotiate a settlement by placing his work under the same CC-BY-SA license, and adding attribution, thereby bringing future copies of his work into compliance, but it seems the violated authors (wikipedia) would have to agree that was acceptable.

  • On the post: Man Strips Down For TSA, Told He Still Needed To Be Groped; Arrested For Failing To Complete Security Process

    Mike ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2010 @ 03:04pm

    Re: Kilts

    OK, Now that was a great idea!

    What I don't understand is with all the comment threads I've been reading on this topic, how can this be the 1st time I've seen this suggestion!

  • On the post: Yankees Claiming Copyright To Block Memoir Involving 60 Year Old Letters From A Young George Steinbrenner

    Mike ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2010 @ 08:38am

    Automatic copyright started when?

    I thought that the copyright on creation was part of the 1975 copyright law changes.

    If I'm right (and please correct me if not), then it's highly unlikely that Steinbrenner registered for a copyright on letters he wrote, and they should be in the public domain.

    No one else has said this, so I must be wrong somehow, please let me know where.

  • On the post: Lack Of Food Copyright Helps Restaurant Innovation Thrive

    Mike ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2010 @ 11:23am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Big Mac or McChicken without McClown Approval!

    yeah you're basically agreeing with me.

  • On the post: Lack Of Food Copyright Helps Restaurant Innovation Thrive

    Mike ( profile ), 13 Jul, 2010 @ 01:30pm

    Re: Re: Re: Big Mac or McChicken without McClown Approval!

    OK, first of all cooking/recipes is not the same concept as food.

    Given our current concept of copyright, it makes as much sense to have recipes copyrightable as it does music or books.

    Your statement is equivalent to saying stories have been around for thousands of years so stories are in the public domain and therefore are not copyrightable. Or the analogy could be that writing has been around for thousands of years...

    Next, "the public domain" is an artificial concept created by the laws defining copyright, if there were no copyright/patent laws (an artificial concept created and enforced by government) then the concept of public domain would be meaningless as all thoughts/ideas/expressions of ideas would be usable by anyone who encountered them.

    The food industry and the fashion industry are both really good examples of how copyright may be unnecessary, and perhaps counter productive to to goal of increasing creativity for the general good.