January 24, 2012
In recent weeks, the Internet has been up in arms about the proposed SOPA/PIPA legislation. Many people see these measures as incredibly powerful and therefore dangerous to businesses and individuals online. While most people will agree it’s worth protecting the income of artists, history shows that the entertainment industry is somewhat overzealous with their accusations of copyright infringement.
January 22, 2012
As the day of online activism opposing SOPA and PIPA continued, supporters quickly began to have second thoughts. Now, the final blows have been struck. Senator Harry Reid has decided to put the Protect IP Act on permanent hiatus, and Representative Lamar Smith pulled his support for the Stop Online Piracy Act. In doing so, the bills have been effectively killed.
January 18, 2012
If you visit any tech news sites, you might have heard about a pair of bills proposed in the United States called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). These bills could give United States law enforcement the authority to go after international sites committing or facilitating intellectual property infringement by obtaining court orders to block domain names.
December 15, 2011
Ever since the Internet began, online piracy has been a big problem with the two biggest casualties being the music industry (RIAA) and the movie industry (MPAA). The Internet made it extremely easy to download whatever people wanted and the music & movie industries responded with copy protection measures, including the infamous and universally hated Digital Rights Management (DRM).
November 11, 2011
Creative Commons has succeeded in championing the cause of open content. So much so that large swathes of intellectual properties are being kept open in the public domain…all licensed under Creative Commons. Let’s take a look at ten Creative Commons projects that could give you great content to look over and share for the price of a credit byline.
April 28, 2011
The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a major slice of law put in place by the United States government in order to crack down on piracy. Chilling Effects is an information portal and compendium of cease-and-desist or DMCA “takedown” notices, submitted by the individuals who sent or received them. Would you know what to do if you received a takedown notice?
April 25, 2011
Creative Commons content isn’t always as easy to find as you think. In fact, most things that you find and copy are copyrighted in a way that makes it illegal to copy it without asking the owner for permission. However, the Creative Commons license can help you with that and make you feel better as a person by being a good citizen of the internet.
January 21, 2011
Ah, copy protection. This technology, also known as Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a necessary but often overdone part of our digital world. In theory, DVD or CD copy protection software is a tool that protects the content creators from losing sales to piracy. In reality, it’s a sometimes obtrusive technique that can alienate customers. [...]
December 19, 2010
If all the portfolio themes are anything to go by, WordPress can often be a solid choice for photographers who need to put together a portfolio, the quick and easy way. Using a blogging platform like WordPress you can have your portfolio up and running in no tme, while also giving you complete freedom in [...]
April 30, 2010
I have long been a fan of Morguefile and their approach to image licensing. Basically, Morguefile has a huge database of photographs that are open for use without attribution. The photographers may enjoy some recognition but the creative license does not require it. So basically you can search the database of free images, modify them [...]
