rights

On the fringes of copyright

The New York Times has an article about a chef who has tried to sue a competitor for infringement of intellectual property.

The suit…charges that Edâ??s Lobster Bar copies â??each and every elementâ?? of Pearl Oyster Bar, including the white marble bar, the gray paint on the wainscoting, the chairs and bar stools with their wheat-straw backs, the packets of oyster crackers placed at each table setting and the dressing on the Caesar salad.

There has been a growth in restaurants and chefs attempting to use of intellectual property arguments (copyright trademarks, patents and trade dress) to protect their businesses. As far as I have seen they have had little success.

Copying someone else’s bar or restaurant idea or menu may be a bit tacky and sad but this cannot be used to create intellectual property rights in these areas. If we were to begin protecting restaurants in this way then why not all parts of the service industry? Why stop there when we could begin using intellectual property to prevent our peers from dressing or behaving in the same way as we do?

Restaurants, food manufacturers, wine makers etc etc regularly explore, reverse engineer and learn from their competitors. There is no intellectual property limiting their ability to conduct these activities. Despite this lack of property protection there seems to be no limit to the amounts of human ingenuity and creativeness in relation to food and drink.

Maybe intellectual property should consider limiting the scope of protection and return to free market systems as opposed to creating false monopolies.

Posted on by mklang

New Computer

Getting a new computer is a fun and, at the same time, annoying experience. On Monday I got a shiny new Macbook Pro and spent the day organising and customising it to make myself feel at home. Now when I think that I have almost installed all the software I need and customised most of it I am beginning to grow accustomed to my new machine. But one major step remains…

On my old computer I engraved an image of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza based on drawing entitled â??Reflectionsâ?? by Gene Colan. After some minor changes the engraving looked like this:

Â

Rather nice! But here is the dilemma. The new laptop is this blank empty space. I need to put something there. So the question is what image shall I engrave on my new shiny laptop? The imagery and metaphor of Quixote is excellent but maybe it’s time for a change?

Posted on by mklang

Stone Cities

Coming from Sweden we may take space, grass and greenery for granted. Old city Dubrovnik, on the other hand, is the opposite. Everything is made of stone all spaces seem to be paved with stone and surrounded by stone walled houses with small windows (reduces the heat in the houses).

 

 Interestingly enough this does not stop children from playing football. Naturally a children’s game of football can be played almost anywhere and the rules tend to be flexible, but I really enjoyed the more permanent football arrangement created in a small open space in the old town of Dubrovnik.

Opposite this goalpost was another – they were not far apart but a workable solution for a game of football.

I also like the peace sign painted inside the goalpost and the word “ghetto” is painted on the outside – symbolism?

Posted on by mklang

Old city Dubrovnik

While the conference continues the Mediterranean sun  is glaring outside and the sea is appealingly blue. The lecture hall is relatively cool while the discussions are lively and interesting. On the way to the city in the bus this morning I managed to capture this wonderful image of Dubrovnik’s old town.

Before breakfast this morning I managed to go swimming but right now I really wish I could go to the seaside again. Maybe the iSummit should be held on the beach with wifi…

Ok, enough goofing off it’s time to get back to the legal salt mines…

Posted on by mklang

Free Aunty Beeb

The BBC is one of those world institutions, a social and cultural backbone which we almost always take for granted. Naturally one does not achieve such status without making wrong turns. Thankfully there are those who are quick to point out the errors and attempt to show the correct path. Much like one may lead an old aunty to the table there are activists who disagree with the BBC’s use of DRM technologies.

The site Free the BBC contains a letter to the BBC with the main arguments (relevant to the BBC) against DRM. Many of the arguments have been heard before but I particularly liked this new one:

The BBC royal charter establishes a number of goals and operating conditions including “promoting education and learning”, “stimulating creativity and cultural excellence”, and “bringing the UK to the world”. DRM runs contrary to all of these purposes. DRM limits education by restricting copying for public educational purposes, and even inhibits private study. It stifles creativity by trying to make even incidental remixing impossible. Finally, it arbitrarily limits the BBC’s reach by forcing viewers to use particular proprietary software applications. DRM advances corporate interests over the public interest, which is in flagrant opposition to the charter.

So what are you waiting for? Go there, read the letter containing the arguments and sign it!

For those of you who found the title slightly cryptic: The BBC is sometimes referred to as Aunty Beeb.

Posted on by mklang

Blocked!

According to a site that checks the great Firewall of China my blog is being blocked by the great Chinese firewall.

How it works: Weâ??ve opened a website in China and route your url request on greatfirewallofchina.org through to our server in China. The server in China opens the url and the result is send back. Our testing is only based on one server on one location in China. We have different backup servers in different locations in China might one go down.

Try it yourself…

Posted on by mklang

Open Source Cinema

Open Source Cinema is a collaborative documentary project to create a feature film about copyright in the digital age.

Several years ago, I began researching the intersection of culture and creativity – exploring how in the digital age, everything we know about copyright has been turned upside down. From mash-ups to filesharing, creation to distribution, everything is in flux.

 

This all came in to sharp relief when I attended the MGM vs Grokster oral argument in 2005. Outside, the music industry and file-sharing supporters alike protested in large numbers. One music industry veteran declared â??music is like a donut. Pay for the donut, you get to eat itâ??. Meanwhile, a 16 kid told me â??I donâ??t think you can own music – its just feelings. How can you own that?â?? So whoâ??s right? Is culture a product? Will the next generation ever settle for anything less than free? Thats what I want to explore in this documentary, which is tentatively titled Basement Tapes.

 

 

For more information about The Film – check out the WikiFilm.

 

For more information about the philosophy of the project, check out the Maninfesto

Posted on by mklang

Robot Ethics

Some people seem not to be able to find anything to write about. Me on the other hand I am stuck with the problem of finding too many things fascinating. The topic of Robot Ethics is one which I would love to have time to engage in. I was reminded of this by the Humlab Blog

Peter Asaro will present a lecture on â??Robot Ethicsâ?? in the HUMlab.

This lecture will be an overview of his research at the HUMlab on Robot Ethics, particularly on the ethics of military robots. Peter is one of the new Postdoctoral Fellows at the HUMlab and the Department of Philosophy.

His film Love Machine will be shown in HUMlab at 15:30 on this Friday, June 1.
This is part of the â??Love, War & Robots Film Seriesâ??

Love Machine flyer

Love Machine (2001), directed by Peter Asaro, 110 min,

My fascination with robot ethics is the border between man and machine. When does a machine become complex enough to be granted rights on its own? Some may argue that no matter how sophisticated the software the machine will always be a machine. Fair point. But what happens when we begin to mix tissue in the machine. What happens when we begin to put more foreign objects into the human body. At what stage will the limits between man and machine become blurred enough for us to seriously discuss the limits of the man/machine dichotomy.

I have used some of these questions in my computer ethics courses but I never seem to have the time to explore this more deeply.

Posted on by mklang

About time too…

Via the Resistance Studies blog:

The Alabama Legislature on Monday approved a bill that would pardon Rosa Parks, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists convicted of violating Jim Crow laws in the state. During the â??second Civil Warâ?? in the 1950s and 1960s against desegregation, thousands of African-Americans and white people were arrested while standing up for freedom.

The protesters were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, criminal trespass, inciting riots, loitering and more, as they peacefully marched, staged sit-ins and protested to bring an end to the Southâ??s oppressive Jim Crow laws.

For exercising their rights as American citizens, they unjustly ended up with criminal records.

Recently, some Southern states, including Tennessee and Alabama, have moved to offer pardons to those convicted of acts of civil disobedience during the civil rights movement.

The House and Senate this week passed the Rosa Parks Act, named after the mother of the civil rights movement that would grant pardons to individuals who sought them.

The full text of the legislation is here:

http://alisdb.legislature.state.al.us/acas/searchableinstruments/2006rs/bills/hb592.htm

About time too…

Posted on by mklang

Academic Language

Every now and then academics revive the discussion on the readability, dissemination and usefulness of research. Most researchers write for a small group of peers. Most of the peers are already aware of what is being done before they actually read the research article. Add to this the depressing thought that only about eight people (this is a commonly cited figure, probably an urban myth) ever read an academic work (research article or phd thesis) and that is counting the reviewers and editor.

All this makes the practice of academic writing seem rather pointless.

PhD Comics by Jorge Cham

Part of the reason for this is that academics tend to become linguistically narcissistic (Oops, sorry – see what I mean). Instead of writing clearly and plainly they fill their pages with complex jargon from within their research field. They then have the arrogance to be annoyed when others have a difficulty reading their texts.

So, now that I have reached this insight (again!) I shall strive to be more clear in my writing (again!)

Posted on by mklang