Adactio: Links

Like A Rounded Corner (Bruce and The Standardettes) - YouTube

Bravo, Bruce, bravo.

I heard Glen Campbell’s “Like A Rhinestone Cowboy” on the radio and began absent-mindedly singing “Like a rounded corner” to it.

A Patent Lie: How Yahoo Weaponized My Work | Epicenter | Wired.com

A superb scathing piece by Andy, who has a personal perspective on Yahoo’s massively dick move in deploying the patent nuclear option against Facebook.

A List Apart: Articles: Say No to SOPA

A superb piece of writing from Jeffrey, scorching the screen with righteous anger. THIS. IS. IMPORTANT!

SOPA approaches the piracy problem with a broad brush, lights that brush on fire, and soaks the whole internet in gasoline.

PROTECT IP Act Breaks The Internet on Vimeo

If you live in the States, please, please, for the love of the internet, write to your representative at fightforthefuture.org/pipa

School surveillance: how big brother spies on pupils | UK news | The Guardian

Having just seen Anna Debenham’s superb but scary presentation at Update about the shocking state of UK schools, this is a timely piece of journalism.

EU law change regarding use of cookies | Torchbox

A translation into plain English of the recent changes in the law regarding cookies in the UK. In short, keep calm and carry on.

Nanolaw with Daughter (Ftrain.com)

A superbly written piece of near-future legal-dystopian speculative fiction. Damn, that Paul Ford can write!

2011/03 Mike Monteiro | F*ck You. Pay Me. on Vimeo

A great presentation on contracts and payment by Mike Monteiro …and his lawyer.

Law and the Multiverse | Superheroes, supervillains, and the law

Two lawyers attempt to answer the legal questions raised by the fictional conceits of superheroes. What is Superman’s immigration status? Who foots the bill when a hero damages property while fighting a villain? What happens legally when a character comes back from the dead?

Unlicense.org » Unlicense Yourself: Set Your Code Free

A handy template for releasing code into the public domain.

Wikileaks is not about secret information; it’s about insiders versus outsiders | technosociology

Much like the Umberto Eco piece I linked to recently, Zeynep Tufecki describes how Wikileaks exposed what so many in the media already knew.

Everything Is a Remix

It's well worth paying attention to this site, the accompaniment to the four-part series of videos entitled "Everything is a Remix."

MPEG LA’s AVC License Will Not Charge Royalties for Internet Video That Is Free to End Users Through Life of License | Business Wire

Well, well, well. It looks like h264 is not going to be torpedoing us with any submarine patents anytime soon ...but this only applies to end users, not browser makers. Sigh.

Google Public Policy Blog: A joint policy proposal for an open Internet

Google reaffirms its commitment to net neutrality ...except when it comes to wireless broadband, of course, because that's *totally* different, right? This disgusts me.

ThinkGeek :: Blurgh! The ThinkGeek Blog - Officially our best-ever cease and desist

Sending a cease and desist letter to an obvious parody just makes the parody even funnier.

Daring Fireball: GIF, H.264, and Patents

A thoughtful piece by John Gruber on HTML5 video: yes, software patents are toxic to the web but perhaps H.264 isn't the worst offender.

Open Letter From OK Go - OK Go

I believe it was the philosopher Conflicticus who said, "Only stupid bastards help EMI."

French Anti-Piracy Organisation Hadopi Uses Pirated Font In Own Logo | The FontFeed

Oh, the irony! Unconstitutionally draconian French "anti-piracy" organisation uses a pirated font in its logo.

Atheist Ireland Publishes 25 Blasphemous Quotes | blasphemy.ie

I can't believe how forehead-slappingly stupid my home country can be sometimes.

SPARKLINES IN THE GRID - Patent Application 20090282325

Microsoft are trying to patent sparklines. Twunts.

Bruce Lawson’s personal site : Impasse on HTML 5 video

The spectre of patents is hurting progress on the web.

Sense About Science | The law has no place in scientific disputes

An example of just how messed up libel law in the UK is.

USA, Canada and the EU attempt to kill treaty to protect blind people's access to written material - Boing Boing

I feel a rant coming on...

Bloomsbury Academic

Lawrence Lessig's newest book, Remix: Making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy, is now available as a free PDF download.

Caroline Lucas MEP » Blog Archive » Green MEP Joins Forces With Music Legend To Protest ‘Corporate Bully’ Copyright Proposals In Euro-Parliament

My representative in the European Parliament is full of WIN!

Fuck the foundries [dive into mark]

Mark Pilgrim knows the score.

Accused! - Jon Engle

A logo designer accused of ripping off his own work — kind of like what happened to Dan.

Crowd-sourcing a "fair use" case (Lessig Blog)

The Fair Use Project needs your help in defending Shepard Fairey. Have you seen other photographs similar to the iconic Obama "hope" pose? Send 'em to shep_use@pobox.com.

Amanda L. French, Ph.D. » Blog Archive » Facebook terms of service compared with MySpace, Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter

Social networking Terms Of Service compared and contrasted.

Facebook's New Terms Of Service: "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever."

Facebook's terms of service used to say that when you closed an account on their network, any rights they claimed to the original content you uploaded would expire. Not anymore.

Our Goal: No Guilt Upon Accusation Law — Creative Freedom Foundation (creativefreedom.org.nz)

New Zealand is enacting one of the most draconian unfair ISP policing policies in the Western world. "Section 92 of the Copyright Amendment Act assumes Guilt Upon Accusation and forces the termination of internet connections and websites without evidence, without a fair trial, and without punishment for any false accusations of copyright infringement."

Google, Microsoft, Apple sued over preview icons | Business Tech - CNET News

Further proof, as if any were needed, that the patent system turns into a steaming pile of shit as soon as it has dealings with software.

IESB Sues Over Unauthorized Use of Spy Photo in Iron Man - Film Junk

Here's a depressing counterpoint to my feel-good story about Iron Man: someone else who's picture was used in the film (in good faith) decided to sic the lawyers on Jon Favreau.

Say “No” to Starbucks on St James’s Street | Clagnut § Brighton · War & Politics

Starbucks has opened a branch in Brighton by disregarding planning permission, ignoring planning laws, and by asserting is not in fact a cafÃ© or coffee shop but a retail outlet.

Locus Online Features: Cory Doctorow: Why I Copyfight

This is a brilliant and inspiring essay by Cory on the why the copyists—avid consumers who are branded as criminals—are not our enemy. Please read this; it is important for the survival of our culture.

A List Apart: Articles: This is How the Web Gets Regulated

Joe has written a rousing call to arms on the state of online captioning. It's a lengthy article but well worth reading.

United States Patent: 6941562

A wonderful example of why the patent system is so totally b0rked and completely unsuited to software. Someone patent Ajax (or Remote Scripting, if you prefer) back in 2001. Un. Bel. Eeeevable.

Typography for Lawyers

Trying to teach legibility, one legal document at a time.

Judge Backs Fox on Rights to Superhero Movie - NYTimes.com

I hope this doesn't pan out: "The dark heroes of Warner Brothers’ “Watchmen,” set for release next March, have a new problem on their hands: A federal judge has ruled that they may belong to 20th Century Fox."

Fun (and Fraud Detection) with Benfordâ€™s Law | Data and the Web

Benford's law blows my mind. Be sure to watch the video. This is all related to network theory and power law distributions ...I'm just not sure how.

New Statesman - Obscenity trial?

In the course of defending a porn site owner, a defense attorney has come up with an interesting way of trying to define "community standards" ...using Google search stats.

How Egypt, U.S. got all a-Twitter over Cal student - Inside Bay Area

Twitter for great justice!

Music Recording Industry Will Be First Traditional Media Industry To Be Utterly Destroyed By Digital Technology - Publishing 2.0

The RIAA now says it is illegal for you to put that CD you bought onto your own computer. Asshats.

do i look like a terrorist? on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Brighton's Lomokev narrowly avoids a 30 day jail stretch without trial... a fellow commuter thought his beard looked suspicious and reported him to the police.

Marc Fisher - Lawyer's Price For Missing Pants: $65 Million - washingtonpost.com

I read this article right after I had been browsing The Onion. I was halfway through before I remembered that I wasn't reading The Onion anymore.

The Promise of a Post-Copyright World | QuestionCopyright.org

The origins and history of copyright. Copyright was originally designed to subsidize distribution, not creation. Not much has changed... until now.

Transcript: Where the rubber meets the road — Web Accessibility and Pragmatism / Geek in the Park 2006 / Bruce Lawson and Patrick H. Lauke / splintered - freelance creativity and design / the portfolio and experimental playground of patrick h. lauke aka

This transcript of Pat'n'Bruce's talk at the Geek in the Park makes for a great, thought-provoking read.

Tags: law

More information

About this site

Customise

Search

Subscribe