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Google scares parents away from using their copy rights
by
Andrew Orlowski
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Imagine if you walked into Scotland Yard to report a crime involving children, only to be given a telling off, before you’d opened your mouth, about the dire penalties for wasting police time. And that your complaints would be forwarded to a watchdog – and that you’d better come back with a lawyer. That’s how…
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Creative Commons sued for deception
by
Andrew Orlowski
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A Texan family has been handed a harsh lesson in what the Creative Commons “movement” really means for creatives who use its licences. Filmmaker Damon Chang uploaded a family photograph of his young niece Alison to Flickr, only to discover weeks later that it was being used by Virgin Mobile in an expensive advertising campaign.…
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Why ‘Microsoft vs Mankind’ still matters
by
Andrew Orlowski
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For all but three of the past 17 years, Microsoft has been involved in antitrust litigation with government agencies. That’s enough to wear anyone down. But as Europe’s highest appeals court delivered its judgement on Monday, I did notice some ennui – not from dogged old hacks, but from a new generation of pundits. Take…
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How the ‘Jesus Phone’ was really John The Baptist
by
Andrew Orlowski
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So was nine months of relentless iPhone hype and froth just a distraction? Not quite, but you could be forgiven for thinking so. I believe Apple’s most important product of 2007 was actually announced this week, and its significance has been slow to sink in. It might be one of the cleverest moves Apple’s ever…
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We sneer at your global standards, and your economies of scale…
by
Andrew Orlowski
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More dismal news for the US consumer. After the simultaneous failure of Municipal Wi-Fi projects in three major US cities – something we predicted four years ago – faster, cheaper mobile data looks further away than ever. So why are Google lobbyists advocating for the next wave of collapsing wireless initiatives – rather than helping…
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Rick Rubin’s subscription strategy: Right idea, Wrong price
by
Andrew Orlowski
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The record producer and co-founder of Def Jam has only been “co-head” of Sony’s Columbia Records since May, but he’s already setting about destroying the old business so a new one can be built in its place. It remains to be seen how effective he will be, but for now Rubin is prepared to say…