IP, patents, copyright, you

theconversation.edu.au | 3:10 am Feb 20, 2012

The concept of protecting ideas and innovation by legal means dates back to antiquity. But in the age of the internet and multinational business models, many of the existing laws are under strain, their suitability and ultimate purpose called into question.

Bruce Arnold kicks off a new series on The Conversation looking at where we are, where we were and where we’re going with regards to patents, copyright, trademarks and IP.

It’s become a cliché that most Australians are part of an information society or information economy. In fact, we’re all part of an intellectual property society. Intellectual property (IP) affects what we consume and what we create. It also affects when we’re born and when we die, given modern medicine is founded on pharmaceuticals and devices that are encouraged by intellectual property law.

This article offers a snapshot, quick and irreverent, of what IP is, why it’s controversial, and the difference between some key terms.

In essence, IP law provides rights owners with the power to stop unauthorised copying. That power is for a finite period of years. At the end of the period (which can be as little as five years) the owners’ rights evaporate.

Read the full article at The Conversation.

Pinterest Might Be Enabling Massive Copyright Theft

businessinsider.com | 10:16 pm Feb 17, 2012

Launched about six months ago, the site already has more than 10 million monthly visitors and, among social networks, is ranked below only Facebook and Tumblr in terms of average time-spent-per-user per month. Choire Sicha at The Awl brought up the…

Universities Agree To Email Monitoring For Copyright Agency

slashdot.org | 4:31 am Feb 20, 2012

New submitter fish waffle writes "The universities of Western Ontario and Toronto have signed a deal with Access Copyright that allows for surveillance of faculty correspondence, defines e-mailing hyperlinks as equivalent to photocopying a document, and…