Category: Upphovsrätt

Kim Dotcom och Megaupload har synat amerikanarnas hand

Han åker över till USA frivilligt om vissa krav uppfylls, bland annat vill han att pengar släpps fria så att han kan betala advokaterna som hanterar hans försvar och att han ska få en rättvis rättegång. Nu kom bollen hastigt och lustigt över på amerikanarnas planhalva, jag har ingen aning om hur de kommer att reagera men försvaret verkar spela på att motståndarna inte har något som kommer att hålla i en rättegång.

Läs mer:

  • Kim Dotcom Offers To Come To The US, If DOJ Releases Funds For Legal Defense | Techdirt

    This is an interesting move, because it’s entirely possible that the DOJ will call his bluff here. Certainly, some of the strength in Dotcom’s case is that he wasn’t violating New Zealand law (which is required for the extradition to take place). A fight in a US court, against the DOJ, is a much tougher proposition — and a very risky bet. There are a lot of reasons why Dotcom may have a strong case, but the DOJ rarely loses. It happens, but it’s rare. Even in extreme cases, the DOJ is pretty good at railroading those they indict to “plea” out of a case rather than face a full trial.

  • Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom Offers to Surrender to the FBI, at a Price | Threat Level | Wired.com

    The ever-provocative Dotcom tweeted Wednesday: “Hey DOJ, we will go to the US. No need for extradition. We want bail, funds unfrozen for lawyers & living expenses.”

    The German filesharing tycoon and his co-accused have a legal team comprising 25 lawyers in four countries working on their individual cases as well as that of Megaupload the company. According to Megaupload’s U.S. lead lawyer, Ira Rothken, none of the legal team has been paid yet.

    But Rothken would not confirm or deny if a deal was in the making, telling Wired, “We will not comment one way or another on the involving private discussions between counsel or whether such discussions even occurred.”

  • Kim Dotcom Will Go to the US in Exchange for Legal Funds | TorrentFreak

    Just hours after his extradition hearing was delayed until 2013, Kim Dotcom is offering the US Government an unusual deal. Growing tired of the “dirty games” being played, Megaupload’s founder says he will voluntarily go to the US if he and his colleagues are promised a fair trial and money to pay their legal and living expenses.

Ny ‘svart lista’ från USA

Nu får länder se till att ha sin lagstiftning och polisapparat uppdaterad och rustad till tänderna, annars kan man hamna på en ny svart lista som USA ska hålla: länder som är “cybersecurity concerns”

Countries That Don’t Put In Place Copyright Regimes The US Likes May Be Deemed ‘Cybersecurity Concerns’ | Techdirt

This seems to suggest that the State Department can now shame entire countries claiming they’re a “cybersecurity concern” if the reality is that their copyright enforcement efforts are more lax. With such a broad definition, it seems like just about any country could be blamed if they don’t magically somehow stop the “negative impact” of file sharing.

För mycket upphovsrätt

Too Much Copyright: This Generation’s Prohibition | Techdirt

The Mickey Mouse curve: längden på upphovsrätt följer Musse Piggs ålder

Vartefter Musse Pigg har riskerat att inte vara upphovsrättsligt skyddad så har skyddstiden förlängts.

En kuggfråga: Hur många verk blev släppta från upphovsrättsligt skydd den 1 januari 2012 i USA?

Om man har skydd 70 år efter upphovsmannens död så borde ju en del verk komma över den gränsen varje nyår?

Svaret är 0 verk. Läs mer på sidan Public domain day.

What is entering the public domain in the United States? Nothing. Once again, we will have nothing to celebrate this January 1st. Not a single published work is entering the public domain this year. Or next year, or the year after that. In fact, in the United States, no publication will enter the public domain until 2019. And wherever in the world you live, you will likely have to wait a very long time for anything to reach the public domain. When the first copyright law was written in the United States, copyright lasted 14 years, renewable for another 14 years if the author wished. Jefferson or Madison could look at the books written by their contemporaries and confidently expect them to be in the public domain within a decade or two. Now? In the United States, as in most of the world, copyright lasts for the author’s lifetime, plus another 70 years. And we’ve changed the law so that every creative work is automatically copyrighted, even if the author does nothing.

“Förmodligen ett upphovsrättsligt intrång”

In yet another example of overactive copyright law blocking legitimate content, we find this story from Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper, about Zazzle’s abrupt and unfriendly treatment of its supposedly (but not actually) infringing customers.

Marco, who is no stranger to copyright concerns, recently used Zazzle to sell a jokey mug based on bad reviews of Instapaper:

Later in the day, after the mug had racked up 116 sales, all the customers were told that their orders had been cancelled because the mug violates Zazzle’s acceptable use policy—apparently the “design contains an image or text that may be subject to copyright.”

May be subject to copyright? Anything and everything may be subject to copyright. If that’s the bar they’re using to determine what’s allowed on Zazzle, nothing will exist there at all. Besides, usually when you come across something that may have a problem you check to find out if it actually does. But that’s not what happened here.

Zazzle Blocks ‘1-Star Review’ Mug, Gets Even Worse Review From Instapaper Creator | Techdirt

Det är detta som kommer att bli normen med lagar och avtal som SOPA/PIPA och ACTA och som DCMA redan idag driver fram: en webbplats vågar inte/har inte råd att det finns upphovrättsligt skyddat material på deras sidor, de blir ansvariga och kan inte friskriva sig så att ansvaret bara läggs på den som laddar upp/tillhandahåller det skyddade materialet.

Det kommer att leda till självcensur och siter som t ex YouTUBE kommer att få det mycket svårt.

Jämför med tårtbagaren i Clay Shirkys video om SOPA/PIPA, tårtbagaren kan inte ta emot ett barns teckning av Musse Pigg och trycka på tårtan eftersom Disney äger rätten till Musse Pigg.

Därför slänger Zazzle ut muggen ovan, för att det kanske är ett upphovsrättsligt intrång.