Why Copyright - Credit: michaelgeist.ca (CC BY-SA)

A short documentary, “Why Copyright”, has been released about Bill C-61, the bill that is often called the “Canadian DMCA”. It’s licensed under CC BY-SA.

In June 2008, the Canadian government introduced Bill C-61, new copyright legislation that closely followed the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The public response to the bill was both immediate and angry - tens of thousands of Canadians wrote to the Minister and their local Members of Parliament, leading to town hall meetings, negative press coverage, and the growing realization that copyright was fast becoming a mainstream political and policy issue. This film, produced by Michael Geist and Daniel Albahary, asks Canadians from across the country and from a wide range of sectors the question - “why copyright?”

It’s pretty informative, but it’s a little dry.

• Michael Geist
• Ars Technica

Cablevision files amicus brief

Networked DVR maker Cablevision files an amicus curae in a case that may redefine cable television licensing.

The Copyright Alliance worries that this summer’s appeals court ruling, which legitimized the product, “validates a well-worn stratagem for evading responsibility and undermining licensing.”

The dispute centers on Cablevision’s RS-DVR, which locates all the necessary DVR equipment in the company’s central office, not in the customer’s living room. Cablevision pays a license fee to broadcasters in order to stream their content directly to users, but it does not pay anything extra for its new system, which creates a 1.2-second content buffer of all outgoing content to make recording possible the moment the customer presses the button. In essence, the entire cable network becomes a long-distance remote control device that is operated by the customer sitting comfortably on a couch, telling the system he or she wants to record some new episode of Lost.

Source: Ars Technica

TextBook Torrents

TextBook Torrents has closed for good in response to legal threats.

Now, just 2 months later, visitors to the TextBook Torrents site this week were faced with the grim reality that the site has gone. “TextBook Torrents won’t be coming back,” Geekman told TorrentFreak. “I’ve been at it for two years and it has been an awesome two years, but i’m ready to step back and hopefully allow somebody else to rise up in our place.”

Geekman told us that he felt that when it became clear to the copyright owners that simple threats to the site and its host wouldn’t be sufficient to close down the tracker, he himself became the next logical target: “We got word from several credible sources that there was a lawsuit in the works against myself personally,” he explained.

Buying textbooks is lame.  People should do what I do and just not buy them (or torrent them either).  Although, I did actually buy my combinatorics book this year.  That puts me at about $90 I’ve spent on information this year.  I’m going to try to keep it under $100.

• TorrentFreak

Jammie Thomas and Lawyer - Credit: mightyomedia on Flickr

U.S. District Judge Michael Davis of Duluth, Minnesota, has declared a mistrial in the case of Jammie Thomas. This (at least temporarily) gets rid of the $222,000 penalty 24 tracks she made publicly available on Kazaa.

“Jury Instruction No. 15 was erroneous, and that error substantially prejudiced Thomas’ rights. Based on the court’s error in instructing the jury, it grants Thomas a new trial,” the judge ruled (.pdf).

Still, Judge Davis’ decision does not derail the RIAA’s case against Thomas on retrial or any other pending or future case. Davis ruled that the downloads from Thomas’ open share folder that RIAA investigators made, 24 in all, “can form the basis of an infringement claim.” The RIAA’s investigators make downloads in every case.

This is a pretty big deal. I’m not getting too optimistic yet though.

• Wired
• EFF
• Recording Industy vs. The People

Introducing:

The CK-12 Foundation’s solution to the age-old problem of uneven shoulders. The Flexbook is a free and open source textbook platform where one can build and edit collaborative textbooks. This is the textbook of the next generation:

CK-12 allows one to customize and produce content by re-purposing to suit what needs to be taught, using different modules that may suit a learner’s learning style, region, language, or level of skill, while adhering to the local education standards. Flexibility + Textbook = Flexbook.

All CK-12 content will be licensed CC BY-SA!

Key Benefits:

• Access to free textbooks
• High quality educational content created by educators
• Content customized to reflect “today” and the different needs of students
• Quality ensured by CK-12’s Community of Educational Practitioners
• Increased pedagogic choice for all teachers, aligned to state standards as well as developmentally correct content
• Supported by publishing tools that facilitate quick and easy content creation and distribution
• Collaborative learning via a community where authors, teachers, and students create, access, share, rate, recommend, and publish

In related news:

Commonwealth of Virginia announced their partnership with the foundation to build an open physics flexbook for all of Virginia.

This post was remixed from CC’s post on Flexbook by Jane Park

Ohio will be using the same broken that can’t count.  They will not be able to fix them by election day.

The maker of touch-screen voting machines used in half of Ohio’s counties has admitted that its own programming error is to blame for votes being dropped in some counties.

The problem can’t be fixed before the Nov. 4 election, so Premier Election Solutions and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner are issuing guidelines to counties for how to avoid the problem.

“We will continue to monitor the situation and provide boards of elections with the instruction and support they need to ensure an orderly and efficient election and an accurate count of Ohioans’ votes,” Brunner said in a memo released today.

Premier, formerly Diebold Election Systems, initially speculated that the problem was a conflict between its system and anti-virus software.

But in a letter Tuesday to Brunner, Premier President David Byrd admitted that further testing showed a source-code error that can cause votes not to be recorded when memory cards are uploaded to computer servers under certain circumstances.

“We are indeed distressed that our previous analysis of this issue was in error,” Byrd wrote.

Brunner is suing to recover the millions of taxpayer dollars spent to buy Premier touch-screens after she said an investigation this year showed that votes in at least 11 counties had been dropped in recent elections.

Premiere Election Systems (AKA Diebold), forget your future.  If these things were open, someone would have you a whole new system written up right now.  The XKCD comic about these machines is perfect.

• Columbus Dispatch
• Slashdot
• Gizmodo

Students for Free Culture Conference 2008
October 11 and 12
Berkeley, CA

They are currently raising money to fly out as many students as possible.
Any ideas for funding sources are deeply appreciated!

URL: http://freeculture.org/blog/2008/07/24/save-the-date-oct-11-12-sffc-conference/

More details coming soon…

Terms of Use violation = copyright infringement in WOW case:

Blizzard has won its summary judgment motion against World of Warcraft bot maker MDY on copyright grounds.  Blizzard also prevailed on its tortious interference claim.  This means that liability for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement and tortious interference is completely off the table and will not go to the jury at trial in September, assuming that the parties do not settle before then.  The only issue before the jury on these two claims will be damages. This is a major setback for MDY, which originally brought this action seeking a declaratory judgment that its WowGlider (now MMOGlider) bot software did not infringe Blizzard’s copyright.

The Court ultimately held that:

Blizzard owns a valid copyright in the game client software, Blizzard has granted a limited license for WoW players to use the software, use of the software with Glider falls outside the scope of the license established in section 4 of the TOU, use of Glider includes copying to RAM within the meaning of section 106 of the Copyright Act, users of WoW and Glider are not entitled to a section 117 defense, and Glider users therefore infringe Blizzard’s copyright. MDY does not dispute that the other requirements for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement are met, nor has MDY established a misuse defense. The Court accordingly will grant summary judgment in favor of Blizzard with respect to liability on the contributory and vicarious copyright infringement claims in Counts II and III.

This is a scary ruling for three reasons:

1. Terms of Use become a very powerful contracts for software makers if software companies get copyright damages for breaches… up to $150K per infringement
2. This ruling is one more hit against a first sale doctrine with regards to software (although this issue appears not to have been fully litigated)

Read more:
Virtually Blind

Best Buy is selling Ubuntu, the “Complete Edition” for $20.

Synopsis

You’re right in the middle of an important procedure when your computer freezes and crashes, erasing your data and costing you hours of extra work. For the thousandth time, you wish you had an easy-to-use alternative to your current operating system. Look no further than Ubuntu Linux, a community-developed, Linux-based operating system designed to give new life to your old PC or Mac.

Ubuntu Linux offers all the power of Linux in a package that’s simple to use and easy to learn, even for users who’ve never used Linux before. The OpenOffice complete office productivity suite includes word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software to provide you with all the key desktop applications you need for success, while still allowing you to open, edit and share files with users of Microsoft Office, WordPerfect, KOffice or StarOffice. Surf the Web with ease using Mozilla FireFox, which features tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking and more. Easily instant message people on your AIM, MSN, Napster and Yahoo buddy lists from a single window with Gaim instant messaging. Manage e-mail, photos, music and more easily, and keep your computer safe with powerful firewall and antivirus programs. With Ubuntu Linux, your computer operates smoothly and efficiently, saving you time and preserving your peace of mind.

They’ve been selling it since May 6th, but this just showed up on Slashdot. This is *hilarious*. I wonder if there’s a way to see how many they’ve sold. I love this quote from a customer review. “That is when I said enough is enough I need to look for a new Operating System. A friend of mine pointed me to Best Buy’s site and send me a link to Ubuntu. I purchased the OS and also Installation by Geek Squad for only $150.00.” Haha, is he *serious*? What a terrible friend he has! It goes on. “Even though I paid $170, I can tell you the included software was worth it. It includes office productivity software similar to Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Not only that, updates are free. Which means when they come out with a new version of Ubuntu, I don’t have to pay more money - which I gladly will if I had to! I would highly recommend this product. My only question is why doesn’t it come in different flavors? I would be willing to pay for features like Media Center and stuff like that.” Ah, wait…he’s from “Moronville”. It was too funny to be true.

• Best Buy
• Slashdot

Creative Commons is collecting stories on how using the licenses have contributed to the success of people and organizations:

Over the past few months several of us at Creative Commons have been collaborating with our colleagues at Creative Commons Australia to create a collaborative system for promoting the great CC stories that will help the world understand how great Creative Commons licenses are for creative works. To highlight the global nature of this launch, it coincides with the CC Australia’s conference today (June 24, 2008), “Building an Australasian Commons” where this project is to be presented.

CC’s CEO, Joi Ito, said in the press release for this project that its important to realize that CC is not just a “cute idea,” but a crucial fact in the success of many businesses, artists, authors, and professionals. So, highlighted in the Case Studies Project are examples such as the Blender Foundation and their success with applying Creative Commons Attribution license to both of their Open Source 3D animations. Also, there are specific highlights on authors like NYTimes bestselling author Cory Doctorow’s overall usage of CC to support the dissemination of his books, all the way to detailed casestudies about Luxembourg-based (but global!) Jamendo and of course studies on Nine Inch Nails Ghost I-IV and The Slip album releases. Remember: The goal is to focus on the story of these successes.

The best part is that they are taking submissions from the community at large. Check out the case study page and contribute to the project.
Disclaimer: I, Brian Rowe, work at CC as the Legal Intern.