Copyright Implications of Yahoo Buying Tumblr — PlagiarismToday’s Jonathan Bailey examines the copyright issues raised by Yahoo’s purchase of Tumblr earlier this week. The move won’t result in any drastic changes, though Bailey does point out “the consolidation should still give us all pause to worry. Every time we agree to a TOS, we’re giving away a license to our work and as those rights become more and more centralized, that gives companies an amazing amount of power not just in terms of what they know about us, but also what they can use that we create.”
Larry Page wants you to stop worrying and let him fix the world — Ars Technica profiles the growing desire to influence public policy displayed by Google co-founder Larry Page at a recent event. “But there’s more to debate over issues like health care data and immigration and consumer privacy than people not ‘getting it.’ And I’m not sure anyone would really be happy in a world that’s a mash-up of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and Cory Doctorow’s Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom—except maybe Larry Page and the tech startup execs who want to emulate him.”
Debunking the “Stifling Innovation” Myth: The Music Business’s Successful Transition to Digital — A brief but thorough response in this month’s Wisconsin Law Review Online responding to an earlier law review article that repeats the tired claim that copyright stifles innovation.
Copyright Principles & Consensus? — Blistering and brilliant observations of last week’s copyright review hearing from David Newhoff. “So one can sit in tech-industry funded ivory towers and ruminate over the proposition that a novel by Steven Millhauser is of equal value to the random bits of personal detritus shared on social media, but if we consider for a moment that copyright ought to be amended based on this childishly whimsical proposition, then we might as well start burning the libraries this afternoon.”
Hey Derek…the Tech Industry is a “Special Interest†too! — Vox Indie’s Ellen Seidler looks at tech’s latest poster boy Derek Khanna and his response to last week’s copyright hearings. Seidler asks Khanna to “please remember that artists ARE innovators and that the tech industry represents a big ‘special interest.’ Next time hearings are held in Washington let’s hope that a diversity of creator’s voices is heard rather than a panel of legal theorists.”
Trichordist Bookshelf – Essential Reading for Artists Rights — The Trichordist highlights a handful of must-reads, many of which I’ve heartily endorsed on this site.
Thanks for the inclusion! Always makes my week when PT appears in your endnotes!