Personal Copyrights
on
SSSCA Hearing
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
As I understand the law, if I record myself singing in the shower, I have the copyright on that work. If this law passes, how would the following scenario play out?
Assume I do record myself and, for whatever reason, someone else wants to hear this. So I make an mp3 without any copyright info watermarked/whatevered into it, and give it to this person. Now their mp3 player has DRM built in and sees no copyright info - and thus won't play this recording.
As the copyright holder, I'm well withing my rights to distribute the recording (that is, after all, one of the main reasons for copyright), yet I can't because I don't have access to any watermarking technology (don't think for a minute there won't be license fees for this technology).
OK, this brings up another question. Copyright was created to "promote the progress of science and useful arts" (US Constitution). Most proprietary software products are sold/licensed in executable form only - thus we can't see HOW they do . How does this promote progress? We'd need to see the source to find this out ("we" being programmers).
Should a condition of copyright protection of a computer program be to put the source in escrow? (so that when the copyright runs out, it truly will fall into the public domain).
This is something I've always wondered about. If you get a software patent, you have a government granted monopoly on that for ~20 years - at which point it becomes public domain (when the patent expires everybody can reproduce it - this is the whole point of patents). What happens if that software is also copyrighted? Does the turning over to the public domain trump copyright? Does copyright trump patent law? How can something be an invention (patentable) and also speech (copyrightable)? Does anyone know? Is elvis dead?
Companies may not be individuals, but they are "people" in the eyes of the law (check the tax code). Why do you think they can contribute to political causes? They are people and have the right of free speech.
On the other hand, if what the poster said was true, the company should have very little recourse. If it was his opinion, the company has almost no recourse.
If I were the poster, though, I would talk to HR at my current employer to advise them of the situation; and talk to a lawyer (you can bet the former company has lawyers involved).
ARPANET *was* over phone lines (at least all the site interconnects). IIRC, from reading _Where_Wizards_Stay_Up_Late_, they were using 56k leased lines from AT&T. You don't get much more phone oriented than AT&T in 1968.
Jon
To the Southern District of New York? I was under the impression that federal court rulings only applied to the district they were issued in (see the Bernstein case and other crypto cases). In which case, I would think most of these letters would have no standing (if mailed outside the Southern District of New York).
Jon
Check out this link. Also interesting (about a quarter of the way down is links to propulsion tech). I even remember seeing an aluminum disk being shot straight up into the air on a documentary about next gen space propulsion systems (the documentary was on Discovery (I think) sometime late last year. I know they had Lawrence Kraus on it). The only difference I see is the material for the sail. Jon
HP OpenMail. I haven't used it, but from all I've heard, it's a drop in Exchange replacement that works better, is cheaper, and generally sucks less. Jon
Slashdot Mirror
As I understand the law, if I record myself singing in the shower, I have the copyright on that work. If this law passes, how would the following scenario play out?
Assume I do record myself and, for whatever reason, someone else wants to hear this. So I make an mp3 without any copyright info watermarked/whatevered into it, and give it to this person. Now their mp3 player has DRM built in and sees no copyright info - and thus won't play this recording.
As the copyright holder, I'm well withing my rights to distribute the recording (that is, after all, one of the main reasons for copyright), yet I can't because I don't have access to any watermarking technology (don't think for a minute there won't be license fees for this technology).
Does anyone see problems here???
Jon
OK, this brings up another question. Copyright was created to "promote the progress of science and useful arts" (US Constitution). Most proprietary software products are sold/licensed in executable form only - thus we can't see HOW they do . How does this promote progress? We'd need to see the source to find this out ("we" being programmers).
Should a condition of copyright protection of a computer program be to put the source in escrow? (so that when the copyright runs out, it truly will fall into the public domain).
Jon,
think on these things...
This is something I've always wondered about. If you get a software patent, you have a government granted monopoly on that for ~20 years - at which point it becomes public domain (when the patent expires everybody can reproduce it - this is the whole point of patents). What happens if that software is also copyrighted? Does the turning over to the public domain trump copyright? Does copyright trump patent law? How can something be an invention (patentable) and also speech (copyrightable)? Does anyone know? Is elvis dead?
Jon
On the other hand, if what the poster said was true, the company should have very little recourse. If it was his opinion, the company has almost no recourse.
If I were the poster, though, I would talk to HR at my current employer to advise them of the situation; and talk to a lawyer (you can bet the former company has lawyers involved).
Jon
ARPANET *was* over phone lines (at least all the site interconnects). IIRC, from reading _Where_Wizards_Stay_Up_Late_, they were using 56k leased lines from AT&T. You don't get much more phone oriented than AT&T in 1968. Jon
To the Southern District of New York? I was under the impression that federal court rulings only applied to the district they were issued in (see the Bernstein case and other crypto cases). In which case, I would think most of these letters would have no standing (if mailed outside the Southern District of New York). Jon
I just clicked on the download a PDF reprint, and got the text of the article. No login or anything. Jon
Check out this link.
Also interesting (about a quarter of the way down is links to propulsion tech).
I even remember seeing an aluminum disk being shot straight up into the air on a documentary about next gen space propulsion systems (the documentary was on Discovery (I think) sometime late last year. I know they had Lawrence Kraus on it).
The only difference I see is the material for the sail.
Jon
HP OpenMail. I haven't used it, but from all I've heard, it's a drop in Exchange replacement that works better, is cheaper, and generally sucks less. Jon