New Paper Takes on the Myth of Free — David Newhoff looks at a new paper by law professor John M. Newman that critiques the idea that the internet has ushered us into a post-scarcity economy.
Controversial Fair Use Copyright Ruling Faces Appeal — It’s rare to see a court decision that is so consistently erroneous. But we got one last month with Brammer v Violent Hues Productions, which held that defendant’s copying was protected by fair use. That decision is now being appealed.
Surprise! Pirate Sites Are Affected By Market Forces Too — Torrentfreak writes, “Pirate sites are regularly painted as places where markets are turned on their heads, with premium content being made available for free to the sounds of birds tweeting and lambs skipping across meadows. But try telling that to the users of FreeTutorials and KissAnime, who are now expected to pay for content using either hard cash or enforced advertising.”
The Death of the Public Square — Franklin Foer, author of the recent book World Without Mind, writes, “t took centuries for the public sphere to develop—and the technology companies have eviscerated it in a flash. By radically remaking the advertising business and commandeering news distribution, Google and Facebook have damaged the economics of journalism. Amazon has thrashed the bookselling business in the U.S. They have shredded old ideas about intellectual property—which had provided the economic and philosophical basis for authorship.”