Posts by phulshof 16 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Nov 2009
If you truly believe Amazon's the bad one when it comes to taking money from authors, then this blogpost should be an eye opener.
It's not about whether or not it's in the public domain. It's about being able to find the copyright holder to negotiate a license. If society deems it important that documentaries can be made, it's only logical that laws are written to make this easier, while making sure the rights holder gets paid. Note also that even under this law, if the rights holder says no, the work cannot be used.
You know, perhaps this will stimulate people to properly register their works in a central database so document makers don't have to spend a fortune trying to figure out who the copyright holders of certain works are. It's simply not understandable that in this day and age it's so hard to find out who to contact if you want to use a clip for a documentary.
As well they should. I have no problem with him being prosecuted for jumping bail, nor for being prosecuted for the rape charges. I do have a serious issue with the way the US has been handling this entire leak situation, starting with Manning.
As for the extradition to the US: I seriously doubt Sweden could not find a political solution here. Besides: if he's as likely to be extradited to the US from the UK as he is from Sweden, then my proposed solution would either expose him as a liar or it would solve this whole mess.
Currently however he's been granted asylum in Equador. Not exactly a place I'd want to be, but it's certainly created a situation that requires some serious political negotiation.
I see no reason why Sweden couldn't give out a guarantee not to extradite him to the US, and simply return him to the UK after the trial (and punishment in case he's found guilty) has been completed.
Considering what has happened to Manning, not to mention Guantánamo Bay (didn't Obama make a campaign promise to close that place down?), I wouldn't want to run the risk of being extradited to the US over "terrorist" charges either.
Now there's a straw man argument if ever I saw one. Where and when did Assange state that he or his staff shouldn't be prosecuted for any and all crimes they may or may not have committed? He only states, and I agree with him, that they should not be prosecuted for bringing the truth to light via Wikileaks. He's been more than willing to go to Sweden if they would promise not to extradite him to the US. Considering how the US has been handling these kind of cases lately, I wouldn't want to be extradited there either.
You know, these problems could all easily be prevented if copyright holders would simply agree to a searchable database (automatically indexed by search engines too) where one could look up the owner of a certain work. It would certainly help reduce the cost of trying to figure out who all need to give permission before you can use a work (documentaries anyone?).
I'm quite disappointed in the Register for posting an article with so little research behind it. As several have already mentioned: TPB doesn't care one bit that they're being copied. They're just warning people away from sites that resemble TPB, yet who try to squeeze money from unsuspecting users.
Ah, the good old ACAP discussion again. Where did I read about that? Oh yes: http://searchengineland.com/head-to-head-acap-versus-robots-txt-for-controlling-search-engines-30816
ACAP hardly brings anything new to the table, and nothing useful. Hardly anyone uses it, so why should anyone wish to invest the time and resources to implement it?
It's nice to hear of the sad state of copyright in the UK, but that does not mean that the rest of us are jumping to join you. ACTA takes the worst case scenario of current legislation, adds a bit on top of that, and makes that obligatory to all assigned countries. I for one will do everything I can to prevent that from happening.
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