Copyright
Using the Precis article and (optionally) other sources, answer the following questions:
1. Do you think the Swarthmore students were exercising their freedom of speech or were violating copyright laws? Why?
2. What is CopyLeft and what is its purpose?
3. Describe the issues that proponents of CopyLeft have with the current copyright laws.
4. What effect did the CopyRight Act of 1909 have?
5. What is the Creative Commons? Describe its purpose.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Cybersquatting
Jerry Fairwell, a man who blamed the Sept. 11 attacks on gays and other groups that he didn't agree with, sued Gary Cohn for opening up a web site domain in his name saying it violated trademarks by using the Jerryfalwell.com and Jerryfallwell.com Web addresses. Gary Cohn used the web sites to post parodies of Jerry Fairwell. In the end the lawsuit was thrown out because the court Cohn's site did not target a virginia audience and that court did not have jurisdiction over this matter. Many people praised this find because they would have found it against the freedom of speech if Cohn was found guilty.
I believe the courts were right in this decision because first of all I hate Jerry Fairwell and his anti-common sense preachings. I find him insulting to think that 9-11 can be related in some way that the gay community did it. Also the other reason I find that the courts were right is that it would have been a violation of free speech and that's one of the most important things in this country.
I believe the courts were right in this decision because first of all I hate Jerry Fairwell and his anti-common sense preachings. I find him insulting to think that 9-11 can be related in some way that the gay community did it. Also the other reason I find that the courts were right is that it would have been a violation of free speech and that's one of the most important things in this country.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Précis 3
Around the fall of 2003 a group of students had found and posted a bunch of emails from Diebold Election Systems saying that their machines could be at risk at hackers. The students posted them on a web site so that they could tell the world what happened and they thought that the public should know about this, but because of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act the company threatened copyright infringement and the web site was taken down with out any trial or public hearing. Although after complaints from the students and some bad press from the company, the company told them they were not going to sue them. The letters were yet again posted on the web site.
The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act is when a private company threatens to sue an internet service provider on copyright issues the internet service provider can remove the copyrighted material so they can't be sued. This means that private companies has the most power over any of their information on the web because internet service provider usually doesn't want to be brought to court so they just delete anything that the private companies don't want up on the internet.
I personally find this 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act to be a offense to freedom of speech on the web. If the information is there it should be able to be shared with anyone on the web without threat of a lawsuit.It is just another example of how the big corporations can hide their mistakes from the public. Also it is not exactly fair when a 12 year old child is sued for downloading music or trying to sue a girl scout camp for royalties for the songs they sing. I find it to be a disgusting practice for big companies to go after people who want other people to know the truth.
The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act is when a private company threatens to sue an internet service provider on copyright issues the internet service provider can remove the copyrighted material so they can't be sued. This means that private companies has the most power over any of their information on the web because internet service provider usually doesn't want to be brought to court so they just delete anything that the private companies don't want up on the internet.
I personally find this 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act to be a offense to freedom of speech on the web. If the information is there it should be able to be shared with anyone on the web without threat of a lawsuit.It is just another example of how the big corporations can hide their mistakes from the public. Also it is not exactly fair when a 12 year old child is sued for downloading music or trying to sue a girl scout camp for royalties for the songs they sing. I find it to be a disgusting practice for big companies to go after people who want other people to know the truth.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)