Last week on the internet: how copyright will protect you from pirates, Ubuntu’s new smartphone, Snowden’s new leak, Document Freedom Day campaign

Copyright

• An interesting look at what Fifty Shades of Grey has become, shows some insights into the advantages of fair use. But, as history shows, “Copyright will protect you from Pirates” still seems to be the norm, for the moment.

• The Grammy Awards brought for the first time in discussion the problems of recording artists and the broken copyright in US. Can Congress Fix It? Well, that we’ll have to see, but what is obvious is that Hollywood wants to put people in prison for file sharing, TPP leaked documents show. The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) issues are felt and addressed in Japan as well.

• In UK, academics take on copyright education challenge and we’ll have to wait and see if the values of 21st century possibilities and needs will prevail over the ones based on the scarcity mentality of the 20th Century. But by judging the trends set both by the industry and most of the regulatory institutions, the change will need quite some time and effort. For example ISP’s “Three Strikes” in Irland or Taylor Swift’s lawyers threatening the singer’s fans on Etsy and other singers following the recipe or YouTube’s Content ID system flagging a copyright infringement on an hour-long YouTube video of a cat purring. 

• Tumblr users also see a wave of tougher responses to music sharing.

• In the Megaupload case, there’s a first conviction, Kim Dotcom declaring: “an innocent coder pleads guilty after 3 years of DOJ abuse”. Meanwhile a U.S. copyright lobby group accuses Canada of being a “haven” for online piracy.

• A new study shows that piracy shifts from downloading to streaming. With a suspicious care for users’ online security, the study warns about potential ID theft and complicity to copyright infringement. At the same time, we see the Swedish Police’s crusade for closing down torrent sites and as a Pirate Bay ripple effect, the giant site Rapid Share shuts down.

 Surveillance

• After a long period of planning, Ubuntu finally releases its new smartphone. That means we have a new device running free software and open source apps. Even if, for now, Ubuntu settled for Ubuntu mobile OS, it’s not far fetched to predict a smartphone running a complete GNU/Linux OS.

• The advantages of using free software could be seen in many instances, but the biggest case of what closed systems could lead to, was the NSA leaks, revealed by Edward Snowden. Now, thanks to Snowden’s great contribution, it seems that the internet industry considers the intelligence community an adversary, not a partner and that could bring about some positive changes.

• These much expected changes continue to be enforced by new released documents provided by Snowden. This time, Canadian spies infiltrated the internet’s core, gathering huge amounts of information.

• On the same page, there is the UK counterpart, GCHQ, that didn’t consider journalists and their sources, when developing the surveillance systems. “I can confirm we didn’t talk about journalists”, said Sir David Omand, a former GCHQ director.

• While we find out about these undemocratic and dangerous practices, Russian researchers expose breakthrough U.S. spying program.

• Luckily there are organizations like Privacy International, who had a recent victory against the UK intelligence agency in court, making possible for anyone in the world to find out if GCHQ illegally received information about them from the NSA. “Did GCHQ illegally spy on you?” is their campaign, and you can fill in your name to find out if GCHQ illegally spied on you.

• In order to enable freedom, the FreeSoftware community is always a great resource to tap in. This time, Free Software Foundation Europe already started the campaign for the Document Freedom Day. It is the international day to celebrate and raise awareness of Open Standards.

Featured image: published in the early 20th century. From Digital Music News