Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom

The heroic EFF is battling the efforts of the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors (SMACNA) to use copyright law to prevent the online publication of its 1985 standard on air-duct leakage, even though the standard is federally-mandated and ”an integral part of model codes, such as the International Energy Conservation Code.” As EFF notes: “The [...]

  Networking technologies Thomas L. Knapp It’s never really possible to understand all of a person’s problems or how those problems might play into the decision to take his or her own life, but it’s a good bet that the 35-year prison sentence and $1 million fine hanging over Aaron Swartz’s head played a significant [...]

Charles Johnson (aka Rad Geek) has a great sally against copyright up at his site (see below). Johnson, like most of the libertarian left (along with the Austrians and anarchos), has been consistently great on IP for a long time now (unlike the minarchists, Randians and utilitarians). E.g. see his “Patents Kill” (I) and “Patents Kill“ (II), [...]

Five years ago I noted that tiny Antigua was engaging in clever copyright manœuvering to use copyright law against the mighty United States in a trade dispute. You see, the US, in its fascist, maniacal zeal to Control Everything, including online gambling, retaliated against Antigua for not sufficient punishing its subjects for engaging in online gambling. [...]

From readwrite play: 5 Absurd Copyright Takedowns That Make The Law Look Outdated. But it’s not “outdated”; it’s immoral and unjust. These are just examples to illustrate that. Whenever you have unjust, non-objective law, you will have bad consequences.

For all the IP dupes out there who think patent copyright are necessary to protect the “little guy” against big companies…. see this boingboing post… maybe one of these days Cory Doctorow will actually oppose all copyright, not just want to reform it. School system seeks copyright ownership of students’ work in Maryland Xeni Jardin at [...]

We enemies of copyright are understandably upset by the Aaron Swartz tragedy. He was an innocent, heroic Internet freedom activist. He downloaded some files from JSTOR—not a real crime by any reasonable standard of justice—and then his Javert-like federal persecutor hounded him and threatened him with decades in a federal cage and a lifetime as [...]