EFF Doubles Down on Barlow Declaration — “Cyberspace, like physical space, is a world in which people act like people; and unfortunately, this includes criminal, morally depraved, or just plain dumb behaviors, some of which were not possible prior to the opening of this new frontier. Human trafficking, identity theft, intellectual property theft, cyberstalking, the expansion of yellow journalism, terrorist propaganda, and child abuse are all beneficiaries of Barlow’s sacred “home of Mind.†We have to accept that and deal with it; and absent our participation in society through government, I am at a loss to know what realistic alternative might exist. Letting the six guys who own the most popular sites make all the decisions? Because that’s what’s happening now. Governance of cyberspace exists; it’s written in the Terms of Service, and you didn’t vote for anyone who wrote those terms.”
Building the Sets of Middle-Earth for the Battle of the Five Armies — “The creation of a film like Battle of the Five Armies is not only an adaptation of the source text, but hundreds of adaptations within the production itself. Howe and Lee produced thousands of Middle-earth illustrations, which are then adapted by Hennah into detailed designs, which are then adapted into practical sets. The illustrations are adapted by costume designers Anne Maskrey and Bob Buck who dress the actors, and then those actors are filmed in 3D by Lesnie at 48-frames-per-second using Red Epic digital cameras, and that imagery is augmented with the visual splendors (and horrors) created by Weta Digital, and on and on it goes.”
Reps. Chu and Collins Praise Economic Contributions of Core Copyright Industries — Representative Chu says of the recently released report, ““Employing more than 5.5 million people, our creative industries contributed more than a trillion dollars to our economy last year. This is a significant portion of our GDP, none of which would be possible without strong copyright protections. As co-chair of the Congressional Creative Rights Caucus, I am so proud of the talented minds and innovative workers that produce arts and entertainment admired around the world. We need to continue working to guarantee the protection necessary to help this industry continue to thrive.”
Flickr Sorry for Selling Creative Commons Photos as Wall Art, Will Stop and Refund All Sales To Date — Flickr originally rolled out a feature allowing Creative Commons images that were licensed to be reused commercially to be sold as wall art through the site, but the plan was met by outrage by a number of photographers.
2015: The year of blocking injunctions? — Eleanora Rosati notes, “Improving the legal framework for online enforcement of IP rights, notably copyright, has been probably the most debated policy topic in a number of jurisdictions in 2014, and will likely be so also in 2015. The recent decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Telekabel [here and here] clarified once and for all that blocking orders are compatible with EU law, and that it is left to the concerned internet service providers (ISPs) to determine how best to achieve the result sought by the relevant rightholder(s).”