Slashdot Mirror
Captain Copyright Expires
The Canadian superhero Captain Copyright has finally expired, not due to pirates or to the passage of 50 years after the death of the author, but because "the current climate around copyright issues will not allow a project like this one to be successful." The cartoon was intended to provide an education in copyright law for children, but it became a focus for criticism when even the Canadian Library Association condemned it for lacking balance because it ignored issues like Fair Dealing (Canada's version of Fair Use). Personally, I was hoping we'd see them get sued by DC & Marvel, who claim to own the trademark on the word "superhero", and vanish in a puff of logic.
So, Captain copyright is dead.
Is it 85 years after death that his copyright expires and we can create our own free version of him?
Only 84 years 11 months and 3 weeks to go...
liqbase
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
It said they were training kids at grade 1. LOL. What are they going to brain wash them with? "Remember kids, even your parents can't be trusted. If you suspect your mom or dad to be illegally using music or software, call 911 and report them."
God spoke to me.
If anyone will make a spoof of him where he gets killed by pirates? :-)
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - stalwart champion of the free market Captain Copyright was found dead in his Ontario home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't agree with his point of view, there's no denying his contributions to corporate culture. Truly a Canadian icon.
Who will now protect us from the evil Dr. Copyleft?!
Where's "Captain Put-"Haha"-Descriptor Man"?
Captain Copyright expired when a melting glacier fell on him.
Yet another Canadian superhero suffering from copyright climate change. Can you still deny the truth after this?
Did Captain Copyright even have "super powers", or was he just a muscular and dandily-attired dude who took it upon himself to educate kids? Even if you can't use the term "super hero", which probably shouldn't apply in this case, there's always the term "masked adventurers" a la Watchmen .
...Tenille Copyright, is said to be inconsolable. And they thought love would keep them together. The fools.
"Oh boy! Are we going to try something dangerous?"
back when I was a college student in Canada. And still have first editions of many Canadian comix from the 80s that friends of mine published.
Remember when patents and copyrights only lasted a reasonable amount of time? I do.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Despite the significant progress we made on addressing the concerns raised about the original Captain Copyright initiative, as well as the positive feedback and requests for literally hundreds of lesson kits from teachers and librarians, we have come to the conclusion that the current climate around copyright issues will not allow a project like this one to be successful. It is difficult for organizations to reach agreement on copyright issues at this time and we know that, in the face of continuing opposition, the materials will not be used in the classroom. Under these circumstances there is no point in our continuing to work on this project.
We began this project because teachers told us that copyright had become too much a part of their students' daily lives for it not to be taught in the classroom, and they told us they needed a teaching tool to help them do it. We still believe that creating such a tool is important, but we also now believe that no single organization can take the lead on such an initiative. We truly hope that there will come a time when the copyright community - including educators, librarians and copyright collectives - can work together to provide a unbiased teaching tool that provides teachers and students with a balanced view of copyright.
Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
The climate was too hot for Captain copyright?
Quick, someone put together a super hero to defend the public domain, fair use, and/or call for the outright abolishment of copyright.
How we know is more important than what we know.
should be renamed to Peanut Gallery (beta)...this one will definitely be "haha"
Finally a funny spin on the stupid troll.
A friend was curious and checked it out. Marvel never trademarked the term "superhero". That was ten years ago so it might have changed since. Each of their characters are trademarked but not the term in any fashion. It's debateable if the term can be in of itself be trademarked at this point. He was trademarking some things at the time and I know he was tempted to establish a "Superhero" trademark but it would mostly be a logo trademark.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Copyright
It details all of his various "adventures", including stealing (that is what they want us to call it isn't it?) content from wikipedia and breaking the licensing terms by not providing a source. Also the pesky little scamp attempted to tell us that we were "not permitted to copy or cut from any page or its HTML source code to the Windows [TM] clipboard (or equivalent on other platforms) onto any other website." - what a wonderful place the web would be if we all followed the rules of the captain.
May he rest in hypocritical peace - or is that phrase copyright someone?
Come on, you know you wanna. ;)
Great Intellect...
Did we see a body? NO! This is comics, so it guarantees that, a year or several down the line, a new writer will bring Captain Copyright back, revealing that his death was faked, surprising allies and enemies alike with his return to glory!
Even if there were a body, all it means is they'd wait six months and pass the identity on to a new, teenage Captain Copyright, whose only link with the original is the name and the costume's color scheme -- and, of course, the same villains will show up, gunning for the All-New Captain Copyright.
Something about sharks and professional courtesy come to mind...
What?
They've been fighting for citizen privacy also with the authorities wanting to check library records..
Pfft! Even a body means nothing. The dead body could still have been a clone, for example, or a robot, or from an alternate timeline / dimension, or even a real dead body could be resurrected with alien technology... or all of the above.
Superheroes don't die, their books just go on hiatus...
I am the man with no sig!
It is official; Netcraft now confirms: Captain Copyright is dying
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Captain Copyright community when IDC confirmed that Captain Copyright market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming close on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that Captain Copyright has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Captain Copyright is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict Captain Copyright's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Captain Copyright faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Captain Copyright because he is dying. Things are looking very bad for Captain Copyright. As many of us are already aware, Captain Copyright continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
Yeah. In comics, death is the least permanant injury.
But, but, but... without Captain Copyright who will step forward to encourage 1st graders to turn their parents in for Copyright violation and pirating!?!?
Letter To Iran
I'm sure the story ended on a cliffhanger. Or am I getting confused here? Does anyone have a copyright infringing mirror of this?
From the Wayback Machine:
0 pages found for http://captaincopyright.ca/
struck down by his evil undead nemesis Rictus Stalemate, a Greater Power Lich with a hideous visage and devious mind.
Can we stop with the sensationalistic and 'catchy' (read misleading) headlines on Slashdot? ..it's starting to feel a bit like Digg around here. Next step will be the OB row of bangs!!!!!!!!!!
I guess he and is faithful sidekick, DRM Boy, were defeated by his arch nemeses, The Internet Pirate and Public Domain Woman.
Look, you stupid Bastard. You've got no arms left.
Captain Copyright: Yes I have.
*Look*!
Captain Copyright: It's just a flesh wound.
If they had their way, in Soviet Canukistan, Captain Copyright would expire YOU! Unfortunately the Wayback Machine doesn't have a copy ... only in Canada you say? Pity ...
that phraseology is patented by douglas adams estate, to "induce laughter by use of said phrase and profit from sales of advertising connected with display of said linguistical construct (joke)"
you guys owe his publisher and widow BIG BUCKS
his brother, Professor Patent.
Dog is my co-pilot.
I think we all see the irony in this....
"Stallman says add to this code and you are one of us. Gates says use this code and you belong to us."
Superhero comic characters to teach the masses to abide by their master. First, they'll teach about copyrights, then about laws, then about the holocaust, then they'll censor dissent. Wait, this is already happening. Censorship is also becoming America's favorite past-time. The US gov't (and their corporate friends), already detain protesters, ban books like "America Deceived" America Deceived (book) from Amazon and Wikipedia, and fire 21-year tenured, BYU physics professor Steven Jones because he proved explosives, thermite in particular, took down the WTC buildings. Free Ernst Zundel and David Irving.
It's truly remarkable that they decided to forgo basic due-dilligence prior to launching this campaign.
It gladdens my heart to see this level of incompetence among the ranks of the opposition.
Our minds order the world. Rather. The world meets our minds halfway. The world is full of patterns, and we pattern the world as we go about our everyday business. Thus spirituality is often orthodox for the culture, but rarely outside the culture, even though cultures differ as to was is considered to be true.
In Mexico, you'd most likely have experienced the "Decent of the Great Spirit", if you hadn't filtered it out. Truth is meta to all of this. The truth is that the mind and the universe interact, as we also influence one another. Sometimes we find a deeper truth than the mere affirmation of our own culture's religious pattern, such as the universality of such pattern.
See if you can go beyond a single book. I have a friend who swears by the infallibility of the I Ching. The truth is not in the books, but (in some sense) between them.
millions are, and were, wasted on copyright propaganda
if copyright is so damn good, why is it oversold so bad?
But isn't a clone pure copyright infringement of my DNA sequence?
After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
- The Tao of Programming
No, you can't copyright a DNA sequence, as it's not something you explicitly created.
Patenting's all good, though :-P
Gee, that would be good. An X-Men storyline about the patent litigation following Jean Grey's next resurrection...
I am the man with no sig!
It's a nerd! It's a lame! No, it's actualy both! Captain Copyright! Ignoring all of the muderers, rapists and real issues in the world, Captain Copyright breaks into the homes
of 14 year olds downloading MP3s and thrashes them around in persuit of "justice" and the
(new) American (er, Canadian) way!
It's actually pretty simple: If you're going to use something copyrighted to create something new that you use for educational or non-profit purposes, you can do that - and your creation becomes copyrighted itself so any commercial use still requires both your and the original copyright owners' permission.
A teacher can use clippings from newspapers and textbooks to create his own teaching materials. As long as he doesn't sell it, and all the sources are paid for, this is fair use.
A fan can create a free fansite for his idol featuring copyrighted pics and audio/video clips. As long as it is run not for profit or official promotion, this is fair use. This means that ads on the site isn't allowed by the way.
The first example is constructed but the second example comes from real life, backed up by $1.500/hour entertainment lawyers.
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
Didn't any of you motherfuckers read the title of the parent post? It says to mod it -1 Pedantic, yet you stupid fucking cunts all modded it +1 Insightful. CAN'T YOU EVEN READ??!!? What kind of smegging nerds are you miscreants, anyway?
... and then they built the supercollider.
What the hell is that snake with the raised eyebrows doing in the background? And why is Captain Copyright raising his eyebrows back at the snake?
... and then they built the supercollider.
My parents created my by "writing" my DNA sequence: A-G-T-T-G-A-C-C-T-A-G-G-A ...
Anything you write is implicitly copyrighted, right?
After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
- The Tao of Programming
I think you man Descent, not Decent. Though Descent was indeed a decent game. If more people played Descent in their childhood they wouldn't get nausea from moving around in an FPS anymore.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Every kid should at least read all the stuff from Captain Copyright, so it's a bit ashamed that this site is now down. Of course, I don't mean the cartoons, I am talking about the more than terrible copyright page of the captain himself. After they have read all of that they know what is wrong with society.
Of course there's no body!
He didn't really die!
It's just that the effect of the super transformation formula has gone and he went back to his original identity of Evil Dr. RIAAlity!
They could have been much more successful if they haven't tries to reverse the role of a superhero into one that is protecting those that want to rule the planet from the evil public...