But I thought I'd kick off the thread. Remember : Be Nice to each other, we're all we've got.

keep to the Fen Causeway

Me:  "I just came up with a good topic for a paper."

Herself:  "Oh?  What is it?"

Me:  "The use of Categorical Syllogisms in a non-Frozen Boolean network."

(Pause)

H/S:  "Who would read it?"  

Me:  "Who cares as long as it get published."

H/S: "There is that."

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

Anyway, three interesting posts by Iand Brown, on IP and the tories in the UK:

 Tory spouts nonsense on intellectual property

John Whittingdale MPI suppose it is hardly news that the Conservative chairman of the Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport (and chairman of the All-Party Group on Intellectual Property) has been entirely captured by the copyright lobby.

I had the misfortune last week to hear John Whittingdale spout five minutes of decade-old clichés about copyright infringement, ranging from the tired old comparison between filesharing and CD theft, to the "fact" that car boot sales are funding terrorism, and that Digital Rights Management tools are the answers to everyone's prayers. David Cameron had somehow caused me to expect better at this year's Conservative party conference.

Only slightly less absurd were the claims from the British Phonographic Industry: they need longer copyright in sound recordings to create a larger asset base to allow riskier investment decisions regarding new bands. They really seem to believe this phony piece of economics; it is obviously convincing enough to politicians to cause them to keep repeating it in public.
[...]

Another one on the very important but not much discussed relation between IP and competition in the european commission policy:

 Does IP trump competition?

Which? has sent an excellent letter to the European Commission's Directorate-General on Competition (via A2K). It asks for clarification of how intellectual property monopolies will be regulated under competition law, which I have always thought is a key way to keep IP under control:

    We believe that the time is ripe for competition authorities to start shaping the intellectual property rights regime to ensure that it protects innovation without unnecessarily thwarting competition and overcharging consumers.

    We would be grateful if the Commission could clarify the extent to which competition rules apply to products carrying intellectual property rights and which rules it considers being superior when there appears to be a conflict between the two regimes.

Competition lawyers and economists are some of the smartest people you ever meet!

Last one on WIPO and Russia:

 10% 'pirate' downloads are causing discord in world trade

The US ıs standıng ın the way of Russıan membershıp of the World Trade Organısatıon untıl ıt shuts down the AllofMP3.com websıte. Sınce WTO membershıp requıres countrıes to adhere to TRIPS (whıch sets ıntellectual property standards) I cannot see why thıs should be a legıtımate demand. When wıll the US stop ınterferıng ın the ıntellectual property affaırs of other states, lıke Norway, Sweden and now Russıa?

LINK

"When the abyss stares at me, it wets its pants." Brian Hopkins

you are the media you consume.