“All we know is that if more trademark complaints were handled like this, the world might be a better place.” - True story.
(via Jack Daniel’s Sends the Most Polite Cease-and-Desist Letter Ever)
“Owners of Cisco/Linksys home routers got a nasty shock this week, when their devices automatically downloaded a new operating system, which locked out device owners. After the update, the only way to reconfigure your router was to create an account on Cisco’s “cloud” service, signing up to a service agreement that gives Cisco the right to spy on your Internet use and sell its findings, and also gives them the right to disconnect you (and lock you out of your router) whenever they feel like it.”
—
um, ‘scuse me?
“An international telecommunications treaty is being re-examined. Why should you care? Because it could affect the future of the Internet.”
— A new treaty could cost you Skype, freedom or both | Marketplace.org
“It is a system designed to favor the more powerful, better informed, more lawyered party,” she says, “which is almost always the record label.”
— George Clinton Fights For His Right To Funk : The Record : NPR
“The analysis sounds as if they are prioritizing to say nothing of not counting against the caps,” he wrote in an e-mail. “I am disturbed by what I have heard so far and hope to get a much more detailed summary from Comcast about this practice.”
— Extra lane: how Comcast assures that Xfinity TV on Xbox 360 works well | Ars Technica
WFUD is today!
The 3rd annual World’s Fair Use Day is about to kick off!
For those of you who want to watch at home, enter the Pew’s online meeting center to watch the livestream.
“
Raise your hand if you think Hermès actually lost $100 million of profits to this group of online foreign defendants. Anyone?
Raise your hand if you think it’s possible that Hermès could lose $100 million in profits to the entire collection of online counterfeiters throughout the world. Think about the market size in total and the mixed empirical results about counterfeiting as beneficial marketing/price discrimination. Anyone?
Raise your hand if you think Hermès will collect more than $1 in cash from any defendant in this case (other than seizing cash in the hands of third-party payment service providers). Anyone?
”— Designer group Hermès gets $100M default judgment against alleged counterfeiters
Announcing our 2012 Schedule!
9:00am - 9:30am | Registration
9:30am - 9:45am | Welcoming Remarks
- Michael Weinberg, Senior Staff Attorney and Innovation Evangelist, Public Knowledge
9:45am - 10:45am | Journalism & Fair Use
- Angela Chuang, Assistant Professor, School of Communication, American University
- Ryan Grim, Washington Bureau Chief, Huffington Post
- Josh Voorhees, Editor, The Slatest
- Moderated by: Joe Torres, Senior External Affairs Director, Free Press
11:00am - 12:00pm | Keynote: Robert Pinsky
- Robert Pinsky, poet and former Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, spearheaded the Favorite Poem Project, to which thousands of Americans have submitted readings (both video and audio) of their favorite poems.
12:00pm - 1:00pm | Lunch
1:00pm - 2:00pm | Fashion & Copyright
- Nora Abousteit, Co-Founder, BurdaStyle
- Ilse Metchek, President, California Fashion Association
- Moderated by: Marissa Gluck, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Radar, USC
2:00pm - 2:30pm | Coffee break
2:30pm - 3:30pm | Poetry & Fair Use
- David Fenza, Executive Director, Association of Writer’s & Writing Programs
- Peter Jaszi, Professor of Law, Faculty Director of the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Clinic, American University
- Casey Smith, Assistant Professor of Arts & Humanities, Corcoran College of Art + Design
- Susan Tischy, Author, Professor, The Graduate Writing Program, George Mason University
- Moderated by: Sherwin Siy, Deputy Legal Director, Public Knowledge
3:30pm - 4:00pm | Keynote: Kirby Ferguson
- Kirby Ferguson is the producer of the four-part series Everything is a Remix.
4:00pm - 4:30pm | Closing Remarks
- Gigi B. Sohn, President & CEO, Public Knowledge
FYI: Here is how WFUD 2011 attendees self-identified, based on the choices available on our RSVP form. As tends to be the case here in Washington, the wonks walked away victorious.
WFUD 2011 | I Did it for the Lulz: Fair Use and Internet Humor
WFUD 2011 | Keynote: DJ /rupture
WFUD 2011 | This is the Remix: Fair Use in Hip-Hop Culture
WFUD 2011 | Keynote: Aram Sinnreich, Rutgers University