Tag: copyright
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Citizen Killock misleads MPs
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Parliament’s Business Select Committee heard some interesting news today, as they mulled the Hargreaves Report’s recommendations. Executive director of the Open Rights Group Jim Killock told MPs that the UK’s copyright laws were deterring investors and new businesses. Alas, he could have picked a better example.Killock said Netflix had looked at the UK market and spurned it for South America instead.
“Our digital market in film is falling behind Colombia,” he told MPs.
This is mystifying, since 10 days … Read More
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Wolfie of the IPO
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Britain could have invented the iPod – if it wasn’t for a copyright law that everyone ignores. So says the UK government in a remarkable economic justification of the so-called “Google Review”, the Review of IP and Growth led by Ian Hargreaves. The document was written for the government by civil servants at the IPO, part of the business department BIS.… Read More
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Free Ride: Disney, Fela Kuti and Google’s war on copyright
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Wars over creators’ rights are pretty old – much older than copyright law. In one of the first “copyfights”, in 561AD, about 3,000 people died, writes Robert Levine in his new book Free Ride. St Colmcille and St Finnian clashed over the right to make copies of the Bible, with the King castigating Colmcille for his “fancy new ideas about people’s property”.Levine’s book is a story of the digital copyright wars.
“I tried to write in an analytical way … Read More
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Copyright and the psychology of victimhood
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Of course, there’s real oppression, then there’s having to pay for music you want to keep. You can listen to almost anything for free, anyway.… Read MoreYour reporter’s view is that file-sharing is a real joy – that should be legally available. The music industry should concentrate on innovation, and delighting the substantial majority of us who are prepared to pay with new services, as its Number One priority. But it’s their stuff, and they’re entitled to go after the