Tag: legal p2p

  • Web requires Brunel-scale thinking

    Web requires Brunel-scale thinking

    by

    Three years ago I caught a glimpse of a new social network built around music. You could follow people, chat with them, and enjoy the same music stream in real time.

    There were many other clever things about it, such as a very slick integration of music news. But the killer feature, one that made it unique, was that you could also drop songs you liked into a little box, and keep permanently. This was genuine P2P file sharing. There … Read More

    Continue reading »

  • Free Ride: Disney, Fela Kuti and Google’s war on copyright
    ,

    Free Ride: Disney, Fela Kuti and Google’s war on copyright

    by

    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

    Continue reading »

  • Legal P2P fails (again)

    by

    “The EFF doesn’t have a plan, they barely have a theory,”

    Jim Griffin’s bold plan to take P2P file sharing out of the black economy, and into the one that deals with green folding stuff, flopped because it couldn’t explain to songwriters how they’d get paid.… Read More

    Continue reading »

  • After Napster, bringing P2P in from the cold
    ,

    After Napster, bringing P2P in from the cold

    by

    Snocap

    “The technology was sort of there. That software was there, and it was good – I wouldn’t do it that differently now. The basic model was just as appropriate then as it is now.”

    – Chris Castle.

    Read more at The RegisterRead More

    Continue reading »

  • Lords mull Hail Mary penances for file-sharers

    by

    Lucas is a self-styled libertarian, so he must realise the inherent contradiction of the state acting in this way.

    The Lords this week discussed new compensation for copyright holders this week – including a voluntary ‘Hail Mary fine’ payable by file sharers, instead of suspension – but nobody noticed.

    It was late on Wednesday night, and the Lords were six hours into their fourth session this month discussing the Digital Economy bill. Lord Lucas moved Amendment 156, giving an infringer … Read More

    Continue reading »

  • On the occasion of the Pirate Party’s first UK address

    by

    In The City

    Opening Comments for the In The City P2P Panel, Manchester, on Sunday 18 October:

    Although Rik [Falkvinge]’s in front of us in flesh and blood, he wouldn’t exist – the Pirate Party wouldn’t exist – without enforcement policies being the primary goal of the music business. The programme bills this as “two sides of a debate”, but as a journalist I get incredibly suspicious when I hear there are just two sides, because usually there are two, three or four

    Read More

    Continue reading »