ip markets and monopolies

Killed by Code?

July 23, 2010 14:22

Slashdot and Boingboing both pointed this week to a publication by the Software Freedom Law Center titled "Killed by Code: Software Transparency in Implantable Medical Devices". The page at that URL has the full text and you can download PDF and Postscript versions if you want. The SFLC, chaired...

Digital Tickets Raise Ownership Questions

June 08, 2010 20:26

The New York Times reports on the latest rounds in the battles between ticket vendors and resellers (or scalpers depending on your point of view). The challenge is that a "ticket" is often no longer a physical object whose transfer can easily be monitored. Getting into a venue can be a matter of...

It's In The Times, So It Must Be Respectable Now

May 20, 2010 19:43

Back in January, Seth Fischer dropped by to point out that if you want to escape the slush pile, small press is where it's at. Self-publishing has always had the taint of untalented egotism on it - they don't call it 'vanity press' for nothing. But as Virginia Heffernan explains in a New York...

Sita vs Netflix

April 26, 2010 15:58

Back in January of last year I wrote about the indie film Sita Sings The Blues, which had gotten tangled up in some hairy ridiculous amount of copyright snarl. Since then the film's maker Nina Paley has gone on to settle most of her copyright troubles, line up major distribution (despite...

Agruments Against Gene Patents

April 22, 2010 19:55

A couple weeks ago I posted that I was undecided on the question of gene patents. A recent commenter took me to task on the issue and reminded me that I'd meant to read more on this. I have a query in to my local library to see if they have a copy of Genetics in Medicine, which recently did an...