History is not copyrightable
One to watch: Potential lawsuit regarding a movie coming out this summer, "Kingdom of Heaven." A book author claims the movie is substantially similar -- and that the screenwriter had access to the book. Question is really, what part of history is copyrightable? Here is the potential plaintiff's answer:
"History is not copyrightable," Mr. Plonsker said. "But if the manner in which you tell about a historical event is a particular expression of character or sequence of events, that is copyrightable. If you can show that the defendant had access and that the works are substantially similar, which is the legal standard, then you can win."
I'm having a hard time buying it, myself. We'll see if they file suit.
Watch & wait.
Sabbatical
Postings will soon be few & far between, as I'll be in almost constant travel from now until May 2. Look for a few postings, but not many! Between now & then, I'll become a California resident (hello Governator), see a new Women's Basketball champion be crowned, and go through the Panama Canal! Oh yes, and work. Start a new job.
Cancer mapping
Move over genome project. . . you're old and evidently we know all we can. Now we move onto
Cancer Mapping. Only it has no money. Hey, all you billionaires out there, interested in taking this one on? Who wants to be the next Craig Venter?
My new home tackles pharma industry
The LA Times
is reporting that there is a ballot initiative coming in CA which aims to reduce the price of health care by going after drug manufacturers, and the drug companies are already mobilizing to defeat it. (Am I surprised? I am moving to the Land of Initiatives.) Should be interesting -- how will IP play a role? Will CA just say they can infringe? It would bring the Florida Prepaid Supreme Court cases to an interesting place.
Where are judgements enforceable?
Yahoo! stands on principle and tries to have the US courts rule that a French court's judgement against them
will not be enforced in the U.S. Good idea, only it seems that the French aren't pressing the issue. Thus, seems more like a trial balloon test case. . try it when the stakes are low. My question is: don't the stakes seem
too low? Don't you have to do something that is important to get a real ruling which can be applied in other cases? Time will tell -- we'll have to see how applicable the facts are in this case to future incidences. Evidently Yahoo thinks it is close enough.
Open source donor companies may take action?
A
think tank report says that companies whose programmers give away code to open source efforts may at some point come after users, since the companies IP is being compromised. While I believe it is true that some employees "give away" code to open source initiatives, I suspect it's more likely that the employees are taking such action at the request of their employer. And most licenses these days state that the "author" has the rights to grant these licenses. . . so I'm unsure how a user would be harmed a great deal in the end. The report suggests that music company style lawsuits are coming. . .but I am more doubtful. However, I read only the summary you see above, and not the whole dang thing. Perhaps the full report better manages these issues.
Google programming habits
For my friends considering employment at Google. . . here's a view (well, something) from the
inside.
GPL version 3 fosters fear
Fear of forking has already started, although GPL version 3 will not be out for months, if not years. I've advised UW developers that they should carefully consider using GPL-licensed software now, since "GPL 3 is coming" but we don't know when, why, or if the software currently under GPL license will (or will not) change their terms.
Licenses change all the time, so a change in the GPL ought not to foster so much worry. Every community has to be willing to accept that things change in licensing, in law, in business strategy, etc. All "stock licenses" must change or they are not being responsible to the users of those licenses.
Canada reforms copyright law
Canada announce their proposal for copyright law reform.
Not exactly like the DMCA. It seems to provide more moral rights, but fewer "take down" provisions. Perhaps they will reach a better balance than the U.S. -- have they learned from our experience? Or will the US bully Canada into compliance?
Patenting the internet
The Public Patent Foundation
criticizes Microsoft for filing a patent 5 years ago on new aspects of the Internet. It's hard for me to understand why Microsoft should be criticized. 5 years ago was a different time. Would the PFP rather an unknown, probably bankrupt company have this patent, and an aggregator buy it in bankruptcy?
Export law challenges
Microsoft challenges what it means to
export software/information. Oh, they also asked for a rehearing of the Eolas case. Export law is a tough thing -- and I wonder what kind of hearing can be had under the current "terror" regime. . .
Wellcome Trust endorses/forces open access
Welcome to the open access debate, Wellcome Trust. Running
your own archive, though? Is that the best use of resources? What we don't need is all the sponsors running their own initiatives and further fragmenting access. Interesting to consider: Now all policies regarding what you with an article are essentially the same (read, photocopy under limited rules, etc.) but there are a handful of places to
look for articles -- we all know the biggies. Now we're headed toward
freer access to papers, but more fragmented places to
look for the papers. Perhaps sometime we'll have a happy balance of both!
Bill Nye is back!
http://www.eyesofnye.org/
How open does science need to be to be validated?
I often argue that early stage technology, and early stage science, needs to be validated. I am simply echoing the scientific method. What is unique about the approach I advance is that I believe technology transfer and adoption of new approaches is contingent on this validation -- and thus publication is good. One more traditional view is that publication kills interest, when I think it is the opposite. Slashdot is having a
debate about a new climate tool -- and whether or not it can be trusted because it was not released "open source". It's an interesting debate, as I usually would not agree that validation requires open source. I often encourage researchers to share more broadly and freely with colleagues who can assist in the validation process. . .but this debate raises a good question of how free should it be? Who has a role in the validation process -- and who gets to decide?
Good Standards article
In the class that I teach with Chuck Williams, we've often had difficulty having people understand why standards are useful and important. The Firefox browser gives a new opportunity to explain and understand why standards can be preferred, and
this article does as good a job as I've seen in an explanation and justification. In as mature a market as browsers, it's curious why Microsoft continues to ignore the established standards. But are "regular" people consciously choosing a standards-compliant browser? I'm not so sure.
We're doomed
Hatch has a
prominent role in drafting new IP legislation -- takes the head of a Senate committee on IP. Now I've used the concept of him being a songwriter (since it is true) in my
IP management class for the past few years -- and the students have always enjoyed this. But putting the person who put forward the Induct Act in charge? This is a horrible idea. One area where I agree with Lawrence Lessig is we cannot criminalize further activity surrounding IP, such that kids learn to ignore all IP law.
First ANWR, then IP. What a great Congress we have. . .
Backlash against Creative Commons?
We saw UCITA "bomb shelters" form after UCITA was being widely introduced and only occasionally adopted. Now a
group (equivalent to the Screen Actors Guild) bans their members from participating in a production to be licensed under Creative Commons. What will the impact be? Australia is growing in popularity for productions. Is this significant enough to make a difference? How will CC react?
Donate your time, money and ideas to Lessig
Update a groundbreaking book, Code, for free with Lessig's blog. Is this a way to involve the community, so they will buy more books? To encourage peer review? How will contrary comments be managed? Not brand new, but an interesting approach.
Google open source!
Here is a thing to watch.
Google open source page. What will Google release? What timing is involved? What does Google want to achieve? Too soon to tell what will happen. . we should check back in next month.
Java gets closer to open source
Java is closer to open source, but no cigar. They create
a new license (or two). Why do folks think that it's possible to come up with a limited set of "flavors" of licenses? When people have the same goals, then licenses can be the same. Should folks be limited in what they want to achieve?
GPL enforcement
Who's enforcing the GPL? One
guy speaks out about his recent enforcement actions. Seems these actions are not that uncommon, and many actions settle out of court. Who's footing the bill for these lawsuits? Read
more. . . It will be interesting to watch enforcement actions and compliance for the GPL. No one knows what the right "mix" is -- how much infringement to allow? How much to crack down?
News on the CA Front
Timing is good. . and bad. . with these two pieces of news from UC.
More money for the UC system. . good. .
California Budget Picture Looks up for Colleges, Universities The state budget outlook for California's four-year public colleges and universities appears to be brightening after several years of deep cuts and student fee increases, and system leaders are optimistic about the funding deal struck a year ago with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The University of California and the California State University systems have seen hundreds of millions of dollars in budget reductions that have forced cuts in enrollments.
But strikes to protest the Governator's plan to change the retirement system.
U of California service workers OK strike Service workers at the University of California have voted to authorize a strike following an impasse in contract negotiations. The vote, which took place at UC campuses and medical centers over the past week, was 92 percent in favor of authorizing the strike, said officials with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents 7,300 service workers and 10,000 patient care workers.
Will patent law be reformed?
Microsoft is the latest of the parties
putting forth a proposal to reform patent law to better meet software needs . . . at least that is what they say. Interesting aspects: change to harmonize with the rest of the world by adopting first to file instead of first to invent; allow prior art submission by third parties during prosectuion; keep fees for small/independent inventors very low; and establish a central court to hear patent cases. Curious to consider, but I'm jaded. I wonder what it will take to reform patent law.
Information is property in CA
The Uniform Trade Secrets Act says that information leaked (in some way) about Apple's new products to a blogger is owned by Apple, and
there is now a subpeona pending for how that information was leaked. Judge dismissed thoughts that a blogger was a journalist, making many question what a journalist is and is not. With the proliferation of free email accounts, why would anyone use their real email for this anymore? When the law doesn't protect you, it's pretty easy to get around this one!
Who will send me?
This conference seems to have possibilities -- global access to IP.
It looks interesting, although the page is in French.
Modeling social behavior
Social behavior is often modeled to enable profit -- oops, better communities. What will we be able to learn from modeling based on
disease transmission? When will all the science communities connect?
How much community is necessary for success?
How will Firefox survive unless it builds a community?
How much community is necessary? Firefox v "mother" Mozilla v other open source projects -- if we start getting enough information about how these projects are developed, perhaps we'll get about how to support this kind of initiative -- head it in the right direction, kill off bad directions (if such a thing is possible). .
Doctors should learn to act
Can't help pushing UW's findings: Doctors need to
learn to act! It makes them better healers. Amazing, the liberal arts helps science! (Shock! Surprise!)
How far should your university go to stop spam?
Surprising actions from UT Austin to
stop spam -- block emails from a company they *sold* the names to, then block access to the site when the company refuses to stop? Surprising for me to see the overt, proactive action UTA took. Curious how other universities might react.
Unintended consequences. . .
Ohio authored a law to
regulate auctioneers, but it also now regulates eBay participants. A 50K bond is required! Registration! New ways to regulate e-commerce all the time. . .
Update your site or pay!
A New Zealand business is
fined for having old information -- menus & prices -- online. May violate the Fair Trading Act. Hilarious! Think about the enforcement problems with a plan like this. Or a business opportunity for "certification" and "update" services?
Open Access
IEEE contemplates
opening access to their rich archive. They query how it will be paid for. Interesting to consider how commercial publishers will manage this issue. I applaud them for thinking about it.
