"In this article the author examines the impact that copyright law has on the issue of censorship and government regulation of mass media. The author states that copyright legislation pits international media conglomerates that control the availability of their products, against the consumer right to have access to information resources at a reasonable charge. It is suggested that the court cases Huntsman v. Soderbergh and Universal Studios v. Reimerdes tilted the advantage toward the proprietors of mass media outlets and away from consumers."

"Open Government Data Principles Government data shall be considered open if it is made public in a way that complies with the principles below: 1. Complete All public data is made available. Public data is data that is not subject to valid privacy, security or privilege limitations. 2. Primary Data is as collected at the source, with the highest possible level of granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms. 3. Timely Data is made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data. 4. Accessible Data is available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes. 5. Machine processable Data is reasonably structured to allow automated processing. 6. Non-discriminatory Data is available to anyone, with no requirement of registration. 7. Non-proprietary Data is available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control. 8. License-free Data is not subject to any copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret regulation. Reasonable privacy, security and privilege restrictions may be allowed."

"The internet was created to share and distribute data. It's the whole reason the world wide web exists. Of course some of that data is going to be copyright-protected work. If it can be digitized, it can, and will, be shared. What continues to amaze me is how freaked-out authors are by this. The thought that someone is sharing their work--without paying for it--seems to evoke the same reaction as having someone hack your bank account and drain your life savings."

Definitely a must-read. Valenti, for instance, claims that home recording is *not* a crime, but then a few years later, sues Sony for assisting infringement. There's Clint Eastwood too.

"Meeting of the 14th session of the Intergovernmental Committee on the Universal Copyright Convention as revised in 1971 . 7-9 June, 2010 UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France. "

"Today I want to make three points about the theory of access to knowledge. First, Access to Knowledge is a demand of justice. Second, Access to Knowledge is both an issue of economic development and an issue of individual participation and human liberty. Third, Access to Knowledge is about intellectual property, but it is also about far more than that."

Using open source software was about "better and more effective government". He criticised government IT procurement for lacking "open standards" and making it difficult for small companies to get the contracts. "All too often a government IT system is incompatible with other types of software, which stifles competition and hampers innovation. "Looking at the litany of IT projects that have collapsed or spiralled over budget, it's clear too that this has meant billions of pounds wasted and public service reform being hampered," Mr Osborne said. "The government's approach needs to be overhauled."

"But what's missing from the whole debate is some data. Just how much unlawful file-sharing is going on in the UK and what effect is it having on the creative industries? It's hard to be sure really - the music industry often says that twenty unauthorised tracks are downloaded for every one that's paid for, but I'm not sure how that figure was worked out. The government, too, seems hazy, unable to say how it will know when file-sharing has been reduced by 70%, the target to be attained by the initial deterrence campaign before stronger measures are contemplated."

"When Canada started a consultation on implementing these treaties in June, 2001, one of the first books I read was Jessica Litman's book "Digital Copyright". The website for the book is Digital-Copyright.com, and the similarity to the Digital-Copyright.ca name is not a coincidence. This book is the journey in the United States from 1993 and the Bruce Lehman Working Group, through the policy-laundering of their harmful ideas through WIPO in 1996, to the passage of the USA's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998. This is likely the best book to understand how the USA got their DMCA, and by extension why this harmful policy is now being pushed into Canada. It should be noted that even Bruce Lehman has stated publicly that his Clinton-era policies didn't work out well. Probably the best resource for understanding how the DMCA has harmed (and continues to harm) the United States is to read the DMCA archives of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This includes the paper Unintended Consequences: Seven Years under the DMCA from April, 2006."

"As the world economy increasingly centers on "memes, genes, and bits," new technologies permit new production models that threaten entrenched interests. As a consequence, we face a looming political battle that could reshape the information society. There are three main barriers to democratic participation in setting the rules of the information economy that bias the playing field in favor of entrenched interests and old models. The first is that the harms of bad A2K policy often take a long time to manifest themselves, making it difficult to instill a sense of urgency in the body politic and among policy elites. The current experience of "information overload" obscures increasing regulation of the use of knowledge. The second is that information policy issues tend to be highly technical and esoteric to the uninitiated, and difficult even for the initiated to analyze effectively. The third is that the promises of a world where knowledge is free as the air we breathe seems ephemeral in the face of the concrete harms claimed by those who would fence off the information commons."

These are two speeches given by Thomas Macaulay in Parliament in 1841, when the issue of copyright was being hammered out. They are, no other word for it, brilliant - and cover everything fundamental which is involved in the issue.

A Google Patent application in June 2008: A computer-implemented method is disclosed that includes receiving on a mobile device a search query associated with a geographic location, providing one or more search results in response to the search query, the search results each being associated with a geographic location, and presenting on a graphical display of the computing device icons corresponding to each search result and also corresponding to a key on the computing device.

63% of urban students spend over an hour online daily; 93% are aware of social networking; Orkut and Facebook are most popular online destinations; 46% use online sources to access news; TV, Newspaper users at 25%; 62% have a personal computer at home; 1 in 4 students own laptops in metros; 2 of 3 own music players; IT and engineering remain overwhelming popular career choices; Media & Entertainment, Travel and Tourism are emerging careers; USA, UK top list of international destinations for higher studies.

NRK, Norway's public broadcaster, has decided that its BitTorrent distribution experiment has gone so well that the company will launch its own tracker in order to distribute its programming. Norway's commitment to openness means that the files are DRM-free and even available for fansubbing.

EFF's Teaching Copyright curriculum was created to help teachers present the laws surrounding digital rights in a balanced way. Teaching Copyright provides lessons and ideas for opening your classroom up to discussion, letting your students express their ideas and concerns, and then guiding your students toward an understanding of the boundaries of copyright law. In five distinct lessons, students are challenged to: * Reflect on what they already know about copyright law. * See the connection between the history of innovation and the history of copyright law. * Learn about fair use, free speech, and the public domain and how those concepts relate to using materials created by others. * Experience various stakeholders' interests and master the principles of fair use through a mock trial. Teaching Copyright will require your students to think about their role in the online world and provide them with the legal framework they need to make informed choices about their online behavior.

Charles W. Bailey Jr.'s linked to CIS's Delhi "Open Access to Science Publications" videos on Blip.tv.

"Stephen Fry, a highly respected actor, comedian, writer, presenter and author yesterday admitted to downloading TV shows for free using BitTorrent. Speaking at the iTunes Festival in London last night, Fry told the audience that he's grabbed episodes of 24 and the series finale of House, starring his former comedy partner Hugh Laurie." And he admits that he feels a bit guilty about it, but the reason is that he can't really get that content elsewhere. The fault is with the industry, and yet the gov't is trying to protect that industry, rather than recognize that the real problem is the industry not giving people what it wants. Having the gov't come up with a plan to try to stomp out file sharing misses the point. The problem isn't the file sharing -- it's the industry not responding to the market.

Copy-paste from mailer sent out by Sunil.

There are two common assumptions about the relationship between age and technical competency that rear their heads whenever the internet is discussed. The first assumption is that young people have a natural affinity for technology and both understand and use it in ways that older people cannot. The second is that anyone over the age of 60 is not only technically incompetent but also uninterested in the internet, using it only under protest. Both of these assumptions are flawed, yet have worked their way firmly into the public consciousness. Because they seem like 'common sense', these concepts are spread by policy makers, the media and technology companies alike. But if civil society associations take them at face value, they risk forming strategies and policies that are as flawed as the assumptions they are based on.