Posts in "Copyright"

Dislike: Facebook Sued for Patent Infringement

Joseph S. Diedrich
Mar 4, 2013 at 2:03 PM
By Joseph S. Diedrich

"Like" button

You can bet Mark Zuckerberg won’t “like” this.

According to BBC, Facebook is being sued for its use of the "Like" button.

It seems that Joannes Jozef Everardus van Der Meer—a quintessential Dutch name if there ever was one—patented a "Like" button for his primitive social networking site Surfbook in 1998.

Van Der Meer passed away in 2004, leaving his patents in the hands of Rembrandt Social Media.

Tom Melsheimer, an attorney for the patent holder, said the following:

We believe Rembrandt's patents represent an important foundation of social media as we know it, and we expect a judge and jury to reach the same conclusion based on the evidence.

This case highlights the gross absurdities of the idea and system of intellectual "property," a topic that has come under increased scrutiny as of late, what with the SOPA and PIPA uproar and the infamous battle between Apple and Samsung, in which millions upon millions of dollars were spent on arguments over objects that looked alike.

A Response from Copyfighter Alan Wexelblat

Jayel Aheram
Feb 9, 2012 at 3:56 PM
By Jayel Aheram

Alan Wexelblat from Corante’s Copyfight blog responds to my SOPA-related post:

As I am not libertarian, I was interested to read their point of view. In particular, Aheram asserts that copyright itself, by virtue of its government-granted monopolistic status, is an illegitimate infringement on sovereign private property rights. I suspect that others - even other libertarians - might not agree there, though I see the logic that is being followed.

I am reminded of arguments made by Stewart Baker (whom I read through Volokh Conspiracy, itself often a home for libertarian thought). In an op-ed published in the Hollywood Reporter, Baker argues that Tea Party conservatives played a major role in swinging Republican sentiment against SOPA.

[…]

If Baker is right, then we really do need more pieces like Aheram’s to reach out to untapped or skeptical communities and help them see where their political freedoms and Internet freedoms overlap.

As I noted before, I really hope that young libertarians will realize that copyright laws are being used vehicles to develop the tools of oppression which will pose massive threats to free speech and private property rights. With the near-passage of SOPA, libertarians of all stripes cannot afford to remain ignorant of the Copyfight.

Michael Geist on the Global Copyfight

Jayel Aheram
Feb 7, 2012 at 3:44 PM
By Jayel Aheram

Michael Geist’s keynote address discussing “the role of digital activism in countering bills like SOPA and the ongoing copyfight over the use of WIPO, ACTA, and aggressive laws to promote restrictive copyright rules.”

A Libertarian Primer on the Copyright Wars

Jayel Aheram
Feb 6, 2012 at 2:21 PM
By Jayel Aheram

CopyfascismOn Jan. 18, the world was audience to the one of the most visible online activism yet in Internet history. Taking part in the 24-hour protest were thousands of websites and millions of Internet users going head-to-head with Hollywood to oppose a pair of anti-piracy bills — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) — currently making its way through Congress.

Leading the charge were Wikipedia, Google, Craigslist and several other Internet heavyweights which blacked out their websites or otherwise called attention to the anti-piracy bills. More important than just calling attention to these bills, the many websites mobilized users to directly contact legislators’ offices.

Just how effective were the protests? According to the Los Angeles Times, 162 million people directly experienced Wikipedia’s blackout. Additionally, 8 million users looked up their representatives in Congress. Reports suggest that the online activism led to an avalanche of real-world activism as thousands took to calling their representatives’ offices.

Copying Is Not Theft

Bonnie Kristian
Oct 27, 2010 at 8:14 PM
By Bonnie Kristian

Hat tip.

New Zealand Minister Announces Software Cannot be Patented

Peter Anthony Tariche
Jul 15, 2010 at 10:39 AM
By Peter Anthony Tariche

A discussion of an IP bill in New Zealand from Beehive.govt.nz:

During its consideration of the bill, the committee received many submissions opposing the granting of patents for computer programs on the grounds it would stifle innovation and restrict competition.

It also considered that companies investing in inventions involving "embedded" computer programs should be able to obtain patent protection for these inventions.

The committee and the Minister accept this position.

Intellectual Property is often debated amongst libertarians.  How do you feel about IP?

Swedish Pirate Party Hosting Pirate Bay inside Parliament

Peter Anthony Tariche
Jul 3, 2010 at 7:55 AM
By Peter Anthony Tariche

From Torrent Freak:

The party has announced today that they intend to use part of the Swedish Constitution to further these goals, specifically Parliamentary Immunity from prosecution or lawsuit for things done as part of their political mandate. They intend to push the non-commercial sharing part of their manifesto, by running The Pirate Bay from ‘inside’ the Parliament, by Members of Parliament.

The Pirate Party is best known for its copyright activism. Roderick T. Long has long argued copyright is an infringement on freedom of speech; many other Austrians share this perspective as well.

Hayek wrote in The Intellectuals and Socialism, "It would be interesting to discover how far a seriously critical view of the benefits to society of the law of copyright ... would have a chance of being publicly stated in a society in which the channels of expression are so largely controlled by people who have a vested interest in the existing situation."

Movie Piracy

Bonnie Kristian
Feb 23, 2010 at 2:17 PM
By Bonnie Kristian

I've noted here before that I have mixed feelings on IP law -- though I know that many libertarians are firmly against some or all forms of intellectual property, I haven't read enough into the subject to have a firm opinion one way or another.  Nonetheless, this graphic is interesting (click on it for a larger view):

image

Judge Proposes Outlawing Linking...

Bonnie Kristian
Jul 3, 2009 at 12:46 PM
By Bonnie Kristian

...yes, linking.  Linking like this.  Richard Posner, who is apparently a well-known "conservative" judge, has suggested on his blog that linking to copyrighted materials online should be made illegal when the copyright holder has not given explicit consent.  The point of this, it seems, would be to protect the dying newspaper industry by keeping people from reading newspaper articles online for free.  That this would actually be effective in practice is highly unlikely, as Lew Rockwell points out:

So what would happen if Posner got his way (impossible, I guess, given all the great hackers, etc.)? We’d all link to foreign sites only, which would then cover US goings-on even more fully, because they would want the traffic. The Washington Post, the New York Times, and all the rest of the CIA’s house organs would continue to decline until they are bailed out by some Obama stimulus, thus making clear what has long been the case, that they serve the state.

That his proposal might eventually be successful is perhaps a little more likely:

Congress has been known to act with great alacrity on copyright matters when they affect corporate interests. And newspaper owners have been remarkably successful in calling attention to their plight.

But though tax breaks, special non-profit status and other federal goodies will likely go nowhere, a law aimed squarely at the linking practices of sites such as Google News and the Huffington Post would probably prove popular, the facts be damned.

It's ominous that those would push for such a law now have an ally as brilliant and influential as Posner.

Read more here.