People Still Pirated Arrested Development Because People Pirate — It’s a common refrain. “People only turn to unauthorized sources of entertainment when authorized sources are unavailable.” But as Gizmodo points out, Netflix, which unveiled exclusive new episodes of cult phenomenon Arrested Development this weekend, was available in 4 of the top 5 countries in terms of Arrested Development piracy.
National Federation of the Blind, MPAA join forces to back book treaty — Despite efforts by copyright skeptics to derail an international treaty focused on making works more accessible to the visually impaired in order to erode copyright protections, the MPAA and the National Federation of the Blind announced yesterday that they are working together to make sure the treaty moves forward.
Google cashes in on hate videos: Internet giant puts ads alongside thousands of terror rants on YouTube — The Daily Mail reports, “Google is profiting from adverts which appear alongside vile terror videos on YouTube, it emerged last night. The Mail has found adverts for reputable companies on videos of Al Qaeda fanatics calling for jihad.”
Exclusive: Pandora Paywall Pays Off, Research Shows — Internet radio service Pandora capped the number of hours available to its free subscribers and the number of paying subscribers… increased? Good news for Pandora, though the result might cut into its argument that it needs Congress to cut the government-set license rates it pays to sound recording owners in order to remain profitable.
Did Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow Even Read the IP Commission Report? — Cory Doctorow is the worst thing to happen to Boing Boing.
Why 3D Printing Is Overhyped (I Should Know, I Do It For a Living) — For some reason, hyping 3D printing (and its projected effects on intellectual property law) has become something of a cottage industry online. Nick Allen, founder of 3D printing company 3D Print UK, says don’t believe the hype.
Yes, Silicon Valley, You Are as Exactly as Vain as They Say — “Tech’s greed is a generally thoughtless one, the greed of children who don’t realize that by hoarding toys, the rest of the class gets less—the greed that sees itself as progress, as a thrill, never as greed at all.”
Live: Google, David Lowery and the BPI talk ad-funded piracy — Musically reports on a recent panel discussion featuring David Lowery, Theo Bertrand (UK policy manager at Google), Alexandra Scott (public policy manager at the Internet Advertising Bureau in the UK), and James Barton (artist manager at The Blue Team) on the subject of brand sponsored piracy. Some provocative remarks from Google’s Betrand, including this one: “It does seem to me to be an entirely sensible way to tackle piracy… most people doing piracy are not some guy in his bedroom altruistically sharing music with his friends. It’s people making money out of piracy, and it’s big business: some of these sites have 2m visitors regularly, and they’re not doing a bad business from advertising.â€
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Challenge on Copyright Royalty Board — Two weeks ago, I noted that SCOTUSBlog had named Intercollegiate Broadcasting System v. Copyright Royalty Board, a case involving the appointment of Copyright Royalty Judges in charge of setting royalty rates for a number of compulsory licenses, including webcasting licenses, as its petition of the day. But this week, the Court denied the cert petition, leaving the DC Circuit Court’s decision to stand.