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Tech NewsNewsSupreme Court Sides With Google in Historic API Copyright Fight Against Oracle
The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with Google over Oracle in one of the highest-profile copyright disputes to ever hit Silicon Valley. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that Google didn’t violate copyright law when it used around 11,000 lines of Oracle-created code when developing its Android system back in 2005. The ruling stands to … Continued
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Tech NewsWhen the Internet Archive Forgets
On the internet, there are certain institutions we have come to rely on daily to keep truth from becoming nebulous or elastic. Not necessarily in the way that something stupid like Verrit aspired to, but at least in confirming that you aren’t losing your mind, that an old post or article you remember reading did, … Continued
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Tech NewsNewsPopular ‘Pickup Artist’ Comedian Loses Huge Lawsuit Against YouTubers That Mocked Him
Matt Hosseinzadeh (a.k.a. Matt Hoss) is easy to mock. The parkour-loving comedian runs a YouTube channel full of misogynistic videos, including “a comedy series about a confident and funny man who picks up women, beds them, and gets into all sorts of crazy trouble.” But when two other YouTubers made a video mocking him and … Continued
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Tech NewsOlive Garden Backs Down From Silly Legal Fight With Review Site, All of Garden
For three years, self-proclaimed Olive Garden connoisseur Vincent “Vino” Malone has used his blog All of Garden to share his love for the Italian-American restaurant chain. But last week he was bit by the hand that feeds him when he received a cease-and-desist letter. Malone started his blog after Olive Garden released the first Never … Continued
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Tech NewsMormonLeaks Goes to Battle With Mormon Church Over Leaked ‘Enemy List’
On Tuesday March 14th, a group of former and inactive Mormons—who have leaked dozens of internal documents exposing the inner workings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—sent a legal letter to the LDS Church warning that MormonLeaks has no intention of ending their crusade for transparency. Since launching in December, MormonLeaks has … Continued
Jennings Brown -
Tech News
Google Dodges $9 Billion Bullet
Google just won a major court battle with software giant Oracle over Google’s use of elements of Oracle’s Java programming language. If Google had lost, it could have held major ramifications for the ways in which almost all software is developed. Oh, and Google would have had to cough up $9 billion in damages. For … Continued
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Tech NewsYouTube’s Putting Its Money Where Its Mouth Is on Fair Use
YouTube announced today that it’s going to cover the legal costs of copyright lawsuits facing a few videos that they believe are strong examples of fair use. This is one of those situations where good PR and good work actually coincide. YouTube could not exist without the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Sites that host … Continued
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io9
The DMCA: How It Works and How It’s Abused
Earlier this week, we learned about the latest in DMCA takedown notice scandals: Randy Queen using them to get posts about his work taken down from the Escher Girls tumblr. This is not how the DMCA is supposed to be used. And, in theory, it has mechanisms to prevent that. But they aren’t winning the … Continued
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io9Movies10 Years Later, You Can Finally Buy The Best Documentary About L.A.
Los Angeles Plays Itself is a story of how L.A. has been portrayed on screen, its thesis unfolding through hundreds of iconic film clips. But the biggest reason that Thom Andersen’s legendary documentary has reached a near-cult status is that, due to copyright issues, the film has never been properly released in theaters or on … Continued
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Tech News2 Live Crew: Pretty Woman
While 2 Live Crew is arguably best remembered for their on-stage antics and contentious court battle against obscenity charges, the Miami-based hip-hop group actually played a vital part in creating the Internet we know today—even if they didn’t realize it at the time. The group’s parody of Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman” landed 2 Live Crew … Continued
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io9A musical history of sampling, in 3 minutes
This 3-minute video from Eclectic Method takes us on a brief musical history, starting from the introduction of the mellotron in the early ’60s (featuring the Beatles), then moving quickly to James Brown, up through the Beastie Boys. As a bonus, as the songs play, the songs their samples gave rise to are mapped out … Continued
By Ria Misra -
io9
Comment of the Day: USA! USA! Edition
Today, we pitted Mockingjay against Catching Fire for the ultimate prize (bragging rights), closely observed a stunning showdown between two praying mantises, and pondered the legal ramifications of defamation of (fictional) characters. Georgetown law professor Rebecca Tushnet joined us for a Q&A on the legalities of fan fiction, artists’ mash-ups, and musical sampling. In response … Continued
By Ria Misra -
io9
Ask a Law Professor Your Questions about Fan Fiction and Mash-ups
Rebecca Tushnet is a law professor at Georgetown and one of the founders of the Organization for Transformative Works, a nonprofit that promotes and supports fanworks. She’s here today to answer your questions today about fair use, fanworks, and the internet. Tushnet’s currently working on a project looking at the benefits and legal issues of … Continued
By Ria Misra
