“Intellectual property”‘s worst excesses

(via BoingBoing)

Mother Jones, a left-wing magazine, has published a Harpers-Index-style guide to copyright’s worst excesses; it’s notable that this week both they and their ideological opponents at the libertarian Cato Institute have both published material supporting the copyfight. It’s truly a nonpartisan fight:

  • A DAY AFTER Senator Orrin Hatch said “destroying their machines” might be the only way to stop illegal downloaders, unlicensed software was discovered on his website.
  • BILL GATES had the 11-million-image Bettmann Archive buried 220 feet underground. Archivists can access only the 2% that was first digitized.
  • AMONG THE 16,000 people thus far sued for sharing music files was a 65-year-old woman who, though she didn’t own downloading software, was accused of sharing 2,000 songs, including Trick Daddy’s “I’m a Thug.” She was sued for up to $150,000 per song.
  • MICROSOFT UK held a contest for the best film on “intellectual property theft”; finalists had to sign away “all intellectual property rights” on “terms acceptable to Microsoft.”

By the way, I ripped this entirely from BoingBoing. None of that is my writing. I don’t want anyone to think I’m pretending this is my work. But I couldn’t do a better job writing it up. I’ll get back up to serious posting in the next couple of days. I’ve been too busy to keep up to date the past couple of days.

[tags]IP, Intellectual Property[/tags]