Morrie the Toupee Salesman » Intellectual Property http://www.owenbyrne.com By Owen Byrne Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:33:29 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 From the “Our Conservatives are bigger dumbasses than your Conservatives” department http://www.owenbyrne.com/2008/06/03/from-the-our-conservatives-are-bigger-dumbasses-than-your-conservatives-department/ http://www.owenbyrne.com/2008/06/03/from-the-our-conservatives-are-bigger-dumbasses-than-your-conservatives-department/#comments Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:25:19 +0000 Owen http://owenbyrne.com/2008/06/03/from-the-our-conservatives-are-bigger-dumbasses-than-your-conservatives-department/ “The federal Conservatives are set to introduce new copyright legislation as soon as this week that will include provisions to target users with a $500 fine for all illegal files transferred online, a move that legal experts say could see Canadians sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars if found guilty of infringement.”

That’s the Conservative party, protecting the rights of American corporations, since 1867.

Hilarious Update: A commenter on Michael Geist’s blog points out that Jim Prescott demonstrates his support for intellectual property by having a google map on his site with the copyright and branding removed.

]]> http://www.owenbyrne.com/2008/06/03/from-the-our-conservatives-are-bigger-dumbasses-than-your-conservatives-department/feed/ 0 Who is Michael Eisen? http://www.owenbyrne.com/2008/02/05/who-is-michael-eisen/ http://www.owenbyrne.com/2008/02/05/who-is-michael-eisen/#comments Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:14:31 +0000 Owen http://owenbyrne.com/2008/02/05/who-is-michael-eisen/ Techmeme has a link to a password-protected piece of what looks like it’s going to be “Canada needs to adopt more draconian US-style measures like the DMCA” piece. Not sure why the abstract merits appearing at all. But the piece is written by someone named “Michael Eisen”

One and the same? It’s common practice in the US to see position papers written by large corporations and then presented as government policy, but I think it’s a new trend in Canada.

]]> http://www.owenbyrne.com/2008/02/05/who-is-michael-eisen/feed/ 0 Pigs want their trough back… http://www.owenbyrne.com/2008/01/29/pigs-want-their-trough-back/ http://www.owenbyrne.com/2008/01/29/pigs-want-their-trough-back/#comments Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:51:26 +0000 Owen http://owenbyrne.com/2008/01/29/pigs-want-their-trough-back/ An entertaining article in the Financial Times today. While I have gained some sympathy for the rank and file who might see their job threatened by the decline of the music industry, I have little respect for the braying of the bigwigs. I love the apt simile chosen by the speaker talked about in this article:

“We must shame them into wanting to help us. Their snouts have been at our trough feeding free for too long”

The pigs (hogs or sows also work) want their place at the trough back. It’s THEIR trough after all.

]]> http://www.owenbyrne.com/2008/01/29/pigs-want-their-trough-back/feed/ 0 Tantek Çelik praises digg’s use of the CC public domain license http://www.owenbyrne.com/2008/01/11/tantek-celik-praises-diggs-use-of-the-cc-public-domain-license/ http://www.owenbyrne.com/2008/01/11/tantek-celik-praises-diggs-use-of-the-cc-public-domain-license/#comments Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:50:58 +0000 Owen http://owenbyrne.com/2008/01/11/tantek-celik-praises-diggs-use-of-the-cc-public-domain-license/ Here. I can honestly say “I did that.” Picked the license, got approval from our lawyers, changed the copyright notice. I remember feeling a bit subversive at the time. I told people over and over – public domain – public domain – just so I wouldn’t get the blame later if there was blame to be had.

]]> http://www.owenbyrne.com/2008/01/11/tantek-celik-praises-diggs-use-of-the-cc-public-domain-license/feed/ 0 I used to buy CDs… http://www.owenbyrne.com/2007/12/30/i-used-to-buy-cds/ http://www.owenbyrne.com/2007/12/30/i-used-to-buy-cds/#comments Sun, 30 Dec 2007 15:11:24 +0000 Owen http://owenbyrne.com/2007/12/30/i-used-to-buy-cds/ and immediately rip them to my computer. Now the RIAA is telling me not to buy their product. I’ll miss ‘em a little.

]]> http://www.owenbyrne.com/2007/12/30/i-used-to-buy-cds/feed/ 0 Article on Scraping, APIs, etc. http://www.owenbyrne.com/2007/12/21/article-on-scraping-apis-etc/ http://www.owenbyrne.com/2007/12/21/article-on-scraping-apis-etc/#comments Sat, 22 Dec 2007 04:06:20 +0000 Owen http://owenbyrne.com/?p=10 Interesting article on the intellectual property issues involved with scraping and APIs. The discussion with the Yelp guy and his discussions with Google highlight something I’m interested in. APIs are invariably for non-commercial use only, which makes them less useful, since if you actually have any success with a service built on top of other people’s APIs, then you leave yourself open to shakedown.

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