Tag Archives: copyright

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Open-source DRM? WTF?

If there are two concepts in the computing world that could be more antithetical than Open Source and Digital Rights Management, I can’t imagine what they might be[1]. But it’s real: an outfit called Marlin say they’re ready to take on the software behemoths with DRM systems that “works in a way that doesn’t hold consumers hostage [… and] allows you to protect and share content in the home, in a way that people own the content, not the devices.”

Well, bravo to them for making the effort. I give it a maximum of two weeks of the system being out ‘in the wild’ before someone cracks it open like a seasonal hazelnut.

[ 1 – Unless you count ‘Apple’ and ‘Value For Money’, I guess… 😉 ]

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Terry Pratchet visits Second Life, understands derivative works as fan activity

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The latest speculative fiction author to pay a visit to the metaverse was none other than Terry Pratchett, who dropped in to Second Life to talk about his new novel, Nation. [via NewWorldNotes; image from linked Your2ndPlace transcript]

Your2ndPlace has a transcript of the question-and-answer session, in which Pratchett revealed that, although he is aware that copyright laws forbid them, he sees metaverse recreations of characters and items from his work as legitimate fan activity, and doubts there is much the law can do about stopping it happening:

Dedric Mauiac: What are you views on people in second life creating people, places, and things from your books and either giving or selling them to other players?

TerryPratchett Morpork: It would be interesting to see what the law could do about Second Life! Regrettably for you, copyright and trademarks exist everywhere, but in reality I see this sort of thing as fan activity.

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New Olympic sport – intellectual property whack-a-mole

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The Beijing Bay logoDid you know that the International Olympic Committee threatens non-sponsor advertisers just for mentioning the Olympics?

Lucky for us that Futurismic‘s too small to show up on their radar, then… but that’s not all. The IOC’s latest move in Beijing is to cover up the brand names of anything that isn’t an official Olympic sponsor – things like bathroom furnishings, or the headphones of press reporters… or entire non-sponsor hotels. And there we were questioning the ethics of the Olympics taking place in totalitarian China. Looks like a perfect match after all, no? [via TechDirt]

In more Olympics-related news, those wily Swedes behind legendary torrent-tracker site The Pirate Bay have fallen foul of the IOC as well, in this case for acting as a tracker for Olympic footage.

But far from capitulating, The Pirates have yet again used the Streisand effect to turn legal threats to their advantage and boost their public profile… which is why, should you head over there to download a video of some weightlifter popping his elbow joint out or something, you’ll notice the site has been temporarily named The Beijing Bay. Zing – gold medal for Team Sweden! [via Wired]

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Pay attention, J K Rowling – fan-created content can work in your favour

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J K Rowling might be interested to see that suing people who make derivative works based on your own creations isn’t necessarily the best option. YA author Stephanie Myers Meyer took the opposite approach by encouraging her fans to produce a Lexicon of her Twilight Vampire books, and as a result has engendered a hard core of people who evangelise the books on her behalf. [via TechDirt]

Word-of-mouth is the best form of marketing there is, so they say – and getting someone else to do the hard work for you seems like a smart move in a networked world. As I’ve mentioned before, I think the importance of fan-fic in building an author’s career is set to increase over time, and it is in author attitudes to fan-created works that we’ll start seeing the split between writers who have embraced the internet and those who cling to the old paradigms of print.

Future Imperfect

Second Life, 3D dildos and the intellectual property mindset inversion

Sven Johnson reports on intellectual property wranglings in Second Life for the latest instalment of Future Imperfect.

Future Imperfect - Sven Johnson

Second Life’s unique content creation tools have been its strongest unique selling point, resulting in a vigorous virtual economy. But there, just as in real life, intellectual property rights are a thorny issue – and there are signs that the social media masses are starting to change their attitude to content theft.
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