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Amazon Fights Piracy Tool, Creators Call It a Parody
jamie points out an interesting story which started a few days ago, when a pair of students from the Netherlands released a Firefox add-on which integrated links to the Pirate Bay on Amazon product pages. Customers who had the add-on would see a large "Download 4 Free" button next to items which were also available on the Pirate Bay. The add-on quickly drew notice, and the creators were hit with a take-down notice and threats of litigation from Amazon. Now, the students have removed the add-on, and they are claiming an unusual defense: "'Pirates of the Amazon' was an artistic parody, part of our media research and education at the Media Design M.A. course at the Piet Zwart Institute of the Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It was a practical experiment on interface design, information access and currently debated issues in media culture. We were surprised by the attentions and the strong reactions this project received. Ultimately, the value of the project lies in these reactions. It is a ready-made and social sculpture of contemporary internet user culture."
... running a confidence scam, successfully robbing banks, the finer points of mugging, or the detailed design of a botnet/phishing/money laundering operation could be similarly defended as "art". B-)
Not that I have anything against freedom of speech. But I bet this "art work" is in direct violation of a number of laws and is about to get the "artists" into a lot of legal difficulty.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Students from the Netherlands develop and post an addon to Firefox that links to torrents on a Swedish torrent tracker site, and has to take it down because of the American DMCA?
Since when does American law apply universally?
Looks like these guys showed how hard it is to innovate something easier than the patented "one click shopping." Anyone, anywhere can have any song, book, movie or other piece of culture if we all just share what we have to create the electronic equivalent of the best public library ever known to man. No one ever need be ignorant again. Will the USPTO reward the creators for their great gift to mankind or will they be thrown in jail?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Anyone who buys an mp3 or movie off Amazon when it's available on Piratebay is a fool, anyway.
expandfairuse.org
You either believe this:
"The Amazon site is not being changed in any way whatsoever"
or this
"The Firefox addon only modifies the way the page appears to the user of the browser where that addon is installed"
The mental gymnastics that some people perform are worthy of an Olympic gold medal...
IANAL but write like a drunk one.