Tales From Your Police State: Prosecutorial Malfeasance in the Aaron Swartz Case?

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aaron swartz, copyright law, freedom of information, jstor, justice department, police state, reddit

When JSTOR dropped the charges, why did the Justice Department decide to double down on prosecuting Reddit founder Aaron Swartz?

More importantly, what is the point of an academic paper that is suposed to enhance human knowledge when its dissemination is limited by a small group of university collections? Isn’t the mission of the university to release information?

I’d also point out the majority of academic papers don’t end up in remuneration for their authors — it just helps you “get your name out there.”

Copyright Disconnect Between the People and Copyright Industry

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copyright law, property law

So if the piracy “battle” is a load of crap, ask yourself what the actual goal might be…

Yet Again, Copyright Restrictions Cause Piracy

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copyright law

I’ve had this issue int he past where I couldn’t get albums from British artists I liked in the United States — or hell, a copy of Comfort & Joy, an excellent little comedy by Bill Forsythe that is simply not available in the United States…the entertainment giants are so busy trying to wring the last bit of tuck out of their customers by going after them for everything from piracy to fair use of their products that they miss the main reason they have trouble with the internet: stupid copyright restrictions.

The webmaster for Depeche Mode and head of BRAT Productions had this to say, after he tried to buy a copy of a song:

The issue is more with the middlemen that collect royalties on (allegedly) behalf of the artists: these dimwits view the world as a group of markets, instead of realizing there is one market online. Accessing material on iTunes shouldn’t matter if you are in the United States, Britain, Canada, or wherever. It’s not conducive to business, it’s not good for the artists…it’s stupid and 20th Century.

Here’s the rest of his rant:

I am so fucking sick of this shit! I am a music lover! I love to buy, and own, music. If I can not buy an actual CD, I buy WAV format, so I can have the best possible quality (fuck mp3/aac). More often than not, when I want to buy something legally, I get this shit. You want illegal downloads to stop? STOP FUCKING PUTTING REGION RESTRICTIONS! Figure out a way to talk to your labels in other regions, make a FUCKING DEAL, AND GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER! There is a globe full of people who want the opportunity to hear new music. Stop selling to only one region! Fix this, and watch. You will you see less piracy. GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR COLLECTIVE ASSES!

Copyright Group Wants Libraries to Pay

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copyright law, sabam

I’ve been tweeting about the copyright wars raging around the world. It started with the contemptible RIAA and MPAA groups here in the United States, who started out by suing 7 year old and grnadmothers for downloading a song or two off the internet (remember when you taped stuff off the radio..? Same thing.) Then they sought to protect their clients’ intellectual property by apparently preventing you from using your bought material in any way at all. Now it’s not just songs and movies — it’s books, public domain property, open source properties, anything that media companies and governments (France, in particular) can snag to “own” and control information.

Now comes SABAM, a Belgian bunch of copyright claim jumpers who want libraries to pay royalties for book readings. Because public libraries are always rolling in money. But that’s the mentality of these groups — they have the right, in their minds, to charge people for anything and everything, even activities that, up ’til now, were considered “fair use.” They are, essentially, turning over people’s couch cushions, looking for money to steal.

As traditional media formats and business formulas become increasingly obsolete, we’ll see more and more complaints from these dinosaurs of entertainment about the new order. And we’ll see more of these lawyer fleas — jumping about the international judicial systems looking to siphon off what little extra profit they can from their customers. It’s what SOPA, PIPA, ACTA were about.