Climatology of a Cultural Ice Age, core sample #2
- A trial is convened in Sweden, in which the co-founders of filesharing directory The Pirate Bay face two years in jail and a €100,000 fine for “assisting copyright infringement”.
- YouTube begins crippling the audio on all of its content, whenever it auto-pattern-matches with any audio pattern claimed by a record company, sparking fears of the ‘End of Mashup Culture‘ and reports of the first massacres of teenage digital dreams. Then, just weeks later, as if to reassure any who might be in doubt as to whether there is room in their new regime for even the uncontroversially, legally-specified ‘fair’ forms of fair use, YouTube starts censoring film critics for arguing from example.
- Apple joins the RIAA and the MPAA in asking the US Copyright Office to deny exceptions to the DMCA, in Apple’s case making it specifically illegal for users to add independent applications to the iPhone outside of its own strictly-censored App Store.
- The final week for Canadians to voice an opinion on content-neutral communications for the CRTC’s Net Neutrality Hearings in July.
- The American Author’s Guild lays claim to the whole dominion of having any of their work personally read aloud to anyone, by anything.
- An Irish ISP begins counting accusations against its users, and promises to deny internet access to anyone who has had more than two fingers pointed at them, as the British consider making it illegal to photograph the police. Thankfully, the Isles are also the source of this month’s notable counterpoint, from the Open Rights Group, on the proposed UK Copyright extension to an incredible 95 years…
[Submitted by The Laroquod Experiment.]
Wanna send a letter to the CRTC regarding its hearings?
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/crtc_submission
is a good place to start.