Happy New Year, Copyhype readers!
Among the Disrupted — 2015 starts out strong with this searing call for a humanist dissent against technology. “We can no longer roll over and celebrate and shop. Every phone in every pocket contains a ‘picture of ourselves,’ and we must ascertain what that picture is and whether we should wish to resist it. Here is a humanist proposition for the age of Google: The processing of information is not the highest aim to which the human spirit can aspire, and neither is competitiveness in a global economy. The character of our society cannot be determined by engineers.”
How postmodernism destroyed journalism — Odd title aside, this is a great introduction to Scott Timberg’s soon-to-be released Culture Crash, which looks at the crumbling “middle class” of creators.
A Year in Empowering Creators: Artists Speak Out — All types of artists and creators were vocal in 2014 about the importance of their craft and the need to be fairly compensated for it. Here are some of the highlights.
Digital Business Models Should Have to Follow the Law, Too — “[B]y YouTube’s own analysis, removing infringing content would reduce video views by 80% or even more. Copyright compliance, or lack thereof, was the key battleground: Users wanted copyrighted clips, rights-holders and royalties notwithstanding, and the market tipped towards the service that gave it to them.”
Copyright 2014: the year in review — Barry Sookman provides a comprehensive look at court decisions from across the globe dealing with substantial issues in copyright law.
Court Filing Ends AG v. HathiTrust Copyright Litigation — “‘Our pursuit of this claim was ultimately a success,’ said Authors Guild Executive Director Mary Rasenberger. “It led directly to HathiTrust’s 2011 abandonment of the Orphan Works Project. Moreover, the stipulation filed today resolves one of our biggest concerns with the HathiTrust Digital Library—namely, that its copying wasn’t done in accordance with the rules for library copying laid out in the Copyright Act.'”