Copyhype

No sympathy for the creative class — There is a lot of overlap between debate over copyright issues and debate about art and culture itself, especially the existence of a professional creative class within a society. This is an interesting article from Salon by Scott Timberg that explores the latter. Says Timberg, “Our image of the creative class comes from a strange mix of sources, among them faux-populist politics, changing values, technological rewiring, and the media’s relationship to culture – as well as good old-fashioned American anti-intellectualism.”

IMAGiNE BitTorrent Piracy Group Indicted, Face Years In Prison — Following an investigation by ICE, four US individuals have been indicted for allegedly being part of a piracy group. All four are scheduled to be arraigned May 9.

GEMA v YouTube continued — Last week, a German court found YouTube liable for infringement by its users. Monika at the 1709 Blog offers some thoughts on the decision. “ I fully agree that the services mentioned might not have been developed if they had had to comply with the standards set by the Hamburg judges in GEMA v YouTube. However, I am pretty sure many industries would never have developed if they had had to comply with today’s health and safety standards, but that does not necessarily mean that current health and safety standards should be abolished.”

Google Says “It’s Our Web”–and they bought it fair and square — Google has already spent $5 million lobbying this year. What does this mean for creators, and what does this mean for the future of the web? Chris Castle takes a look at these questions.

A Sergey update: we misunderstood him — Dominic Young follows up on the Google founder’s interview with the Guardian earlier this month. “In truth, unfair advantages lead to unfair outcomes. Google is a massive and mind-bogglingly rich company, run by some of the most mind-bogglingly rich young scamps in the world, and the largest and most powerful aggregator of content and data ever seen. It has become so by exploiting content created by others. Even if this has by-and-large been done with tacit or “implied” permission, the idea that it doesn’t require permission in law or in reality, has never been true.”

Pirate Politician Says Party ‘Rising as Fast as Nazis’ — Straight from the “you can’t make this stuff up” department.

‘Just Shut Them Down, Man’ — Also from Der Spiegel is this engrossing debate between German pop star Jan Delay and German Pirate Party member Christopher Lauer about copyright. The entire thing is worth a read; I especially like this quote from Delay: “To be honest, I got you on most of the points we’ve discussed so far. I don’t mean to be nasty, but apart from the copyright issue the whole Pirate Party thing is like someone going round saying, ‘Hey! We’re a party that wants free chocolate for everyone.’ A few non-voters might say, ‘Cool! Free chocolate! That’s the sort of politics I can relate to.’ But do you guys really have any solutions? Do you even know what you’re talking about? I believe you when you say you understand computers. But that’s about it.”

A Short History of Intellectual Property’ in Relation to Copyright — Justin Hughes traces the development of the term “intellectual property” in this scholarly paper. Copyright skeptics are quick to embrace a bumper-sticker version of history to make any point, such as the idea that this term is relatively recent. But as Hughes discovers, the truth is far more nuanced. An interesting read.

How Not To  Fix Copyright – My Response to William Patry — Here’s a great piece on William Patry’s latest book. William Patry offers a response in the comments.

Halestorm — Finally, I want to send some Pennsylvania love to an area band. Halestorm dropped their latest album earlier this month. If you like modern rock with a touch of glam, fronted by a fiery female singer, check them out. Their tune “Here’s to Us” was featured on an episode of Glee earlier this year. Go PA!