'Megaupload is just the latest corporation to feel the brutality of early 21st century state-run justice. The point, of course, (in our view) is not actually to provide “justice” so much as to make people fearful of using the Internet and sharing information that may someday be deemed “criminal.” In fact, copyright laws were developed by royalty to counteract the spread of information (in books) after the invention of the Gutenberg Press. The same tactics that applied then are being applied now. But we have long argued that as entrenched as the dominant social theme is, it will come under increasing scrutiny as what we call the Internet Reformation proceeds. Just as the state’s other memes are coming under question – the fear-based promotions that frighten middle classes into giving wealth and power to global repositories – so the “state-justice” meme shall come under fire, sooner or later. In fact, we would argue the battle has already been joined on this issue of copyright infringement. We’ve also enunciated a practical perspective that we believe would resolve the issue in a pertinent and appropriate way. Let those who are OFFENDED by copyright infringement enforce their copyright themselves! Let them use their OWN assets to enforce their position.'

'When it comes to copyright, we would argue for private justice... If someone wants to sue an individual or group for "stealing" intellectual property, the person should be able to do so. But there is no need for state laws or international treaties regarding the matter. ... This would mean that only very large commercial enterprises would end up being sued. Nobody would bother with individuals downloading files, etc. This is probably as it should be. Legal injury should follow natural law. What is "yours" is mostly what you can protect: your family, your property, etc. But launch a book or article into the world and protecting it becomes a good deal more arbitrary and difficult. We would argue that successful artists can still make a living even were intellectual property rights enforced privately rather than through statist mechanisms. Sure, it would be a less efficient and merciless system. People would pilfer songs and articles and even books. But so what? They do it anyway.'

'In 2008, lawyers Davenport Lyons courted the mainstream media with the news that a court had found a woman guilty of sharing the game Dream Pinball 3D, an action which cost her around £16,000. Anyone with an understanding of these cases knew that something was wrong and now, thanks to yet more information from the leaked ACS:Law emails, we learn that this ‘conviction’ was built on foundations of sand.'

'Friday night the anti-piracy law firm ACS:Law accidentally published its entire email archive online, effectively revealing how the company managed to extract over a million dollars (£636,758.22) from alleged file-sharers since its operation started. On average, 30% of the victims who were targeted paid up, and this money was divided between the law firm, the copyright holder and the monitoring company.'

"My Fuhrer... Parodies are 'fair use' and doing improper takedowns will get us in legal hot water." -- http://ideas.4brad.com/hitler-tries-dmca-takedown

'Mr. Murdoch added the fair-use doctrine, which allows for use of copyrighted materials "could be challenged in the courts and barred altogether." -- THE most powerful media titan is seriously considering severing the foundational cord of Western science and literacy to preserve his power base and his sponsors. Fair use is at the heart of the tradition of Western science and rational thought. If one cannot quote (or even reference) the thought and findings of others, then the conversation of literature and science virtually dies. All scientific research is referential, as is all academic study. What Murdoch is suggesting is a nightmare scenario where the courts will be empowered to decide, absent fair use, what constitutes a legal summary of a document, what constitutes appropriate vocabulary for that summary, etc. ...the result would be a legal mess that would take decades if not centuries for the West's tradition of scientific and academic thought to recover from.'

'Topics: Fed says "it was all an illusion;" will China lead us out of the crisis? and the Damien Hirst rip off industry'

'"The dojinshi (nonprofessional self-published manga) are creating a market base, and that market base is naturally drawn to the original work," ... the anmoku no ryokai (unspoken, implicit agreement) arrangement provides publishers with extremely cheap market research. To learn what's hot and what's not, a media company could spend lots of money commissioning polls and conducting focus groups. Or for a few bucks it could buy a Super Comic City catalog and spend two days watching 96,000 of its best customers browse, gossip, and buy in real time... These settings often provide early warnings of the shifting fan zeitgeist... the established publishers and the dojinshi creators [relationship works like] something resembling the prisoners' dilemma: If they cooperate — that is, if they honor the terms of anmoku no ryokai — they both gain. But if one overreaches — if publishers crack down aggressively or if dojinshi creators go too far — they both suffer.'

"Why let all of your ideas die with you? Current Copyright law prevents anyone from building upon your creativity for 70 years after your death. Live on in collaboration with others. Make an intellectual property donation. By donating your IP into the public domain you will "promote the progress of science and useful arts" (U.S. Constitution). Ensure that your creativity will live on after you are gone, make a donation today."

"The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit organization established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms."

"two core questions: #Did the unlicensed use 'transform' the material taken from the copyrighted work by using it for a different purpose than that of the original or did it just repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original? #..."

"Linden Lab allows you to keep the IP (copyright) of the art you create, the scripts you write, or the textures you upload. They do not grant you ownership of the objects in the world (which can be deleted at their discretion)" -- Nice clarifation

On Trusted Computing: “Treacherous computing” is a more appropriate name, because the plan is designed to make sure your computer will disobey you. Some versions would require the operating system to be specifically authorized by a particular company"

"a Digg-like system for voting" taken out of context, but it could happen... umm, perhaps not!

"And then it hit me: Keen is our generation’s greatest self-parodist. Keen’s [book] has passed through all the rigor of modern American publishing, yet which is perhaps as reliable as your average blog post."

"... this commodification of truth and the corrosive consequences of Web 2.0's cultural relativism. Absolute truth, decency and values are all casualties of the Web 2.0 upheaval. We ignore this descent into PR heaven at our peril."

"REVOLUTION OS tells the inside story of the hackers who rebelled against the proprietary software model and Microsoft to create GNU/Linux and the Open Source movement."

The DATA browser series presents critical texts that explore issues at the intersection of culture and technology. (Note to self: Get #3)

"The BBC, the bfi, Channel 4 and the Open University set up the Creative Archive Licence Group to make their archive content available for download under the terms of the Creative Archive Licence"

"... mark my words, YouTube will get sued. And it will lose. The tools it is talking about, that identify and remove copyrighted content, will have to be rushed into practice. And when nearly every clip that has copyrighted content -- music in the backgro