[drn-discuss] Some recent press stories

Tue Oct 11 17:12:32 CDT 2005

Would it be worth setting up a wiki page to track stories on 
copyright/DRMs/enforcement/piracy ? (eg along similar lines to FFII's 
software patent news page,  http://wiki.ffii.org/SwpatcninoEn )

Some recent stories that have caught my eye:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20051009/ts_latimes/piracyspinsaglobalweb
"Piracy spins a global web"
-- tracking the speed at which bootleg copies of "Spiderman 2" appeared 
across the world after the film's release

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4330826.stm
"How can papers afford to give away DVDs?"
-- the economics of newspaper DVD giveaways; estimates of just how low 
the costs can go with this massive distribution; and discussion forum as 
to whether this is a good thing (!)

http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/05/364&type=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
EU Commission proposals to strengthen Customs action against bootlegs - 
a FAQ.

"... [Businesses] also claim that there are not sufficient legal 
deterrents in place to prevent travellers from importing low volume 
personal use items which may be counterfeit. A further legislative 
concern relates to the attribution of costs. Businesses currently take 
responsibility if consignments are stopped without due justification, 
whereas they think that more of the onus should be placed on the 
wrongdoer rather than on the right holder".

(link from CP Tech's e-commerce list)

http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2005/10/conference-reminder-fake-book-review.html 

-- Short review of "Knockoff", a new book highlighting some of the 
worst-case issues that can be caused by counterfeits and pirates - be 
sure that this very emotive stuff that will be played on again and again 
at MPs and MEPs to try to stampede them into maximal sanctions.

A links board, along the lines of Swpatcnino at FFII, IMO could be 
useful to gather and track such stories...