random quotes ... to amuse, inspire, enrage:
  Slavery itself ... is not at all contrary to the natural and divine law. ... The purchaser [of the slave] should carefully examine whether the slave who is put up for sale has been justly or unjustly deprived of his liberty, and that the vendor should do nothing which might endanger the life, virtue, or Catholic faith of the slave.

tagged: slavery, evil, religion, Catholicism, Christian justifications for slavery, nutjob
  —Vatican , Vatican statement, 1866.

Archive for February, 2007

surprise! more copyright stuff!

Friday, February 23rd, 2007

People have called my attention to a few more copyright & related matters lately: * Darren Barefoot, who did the project “GetAFirstLife.com“, received a

universities and copyright

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

Suddenly there’s a lot of press about the rights enforcement companies and their P2P notices — this Washington Post article and this AP story are just two of the recent press. How timely — I just finished a report on exactly this issue. I spoke with representatives from 25 different educational institutions and online service [...]

copyright in a baseball pitch (not)

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

In a NYT article on the alleged “gyroball” pitch, I saw this note: Tezuka feels so strongly about the gyroball that he has tried to get it copyrighted. “I couldn’t get that,” he said through Masa Niwa, an interpreter. In Japan, I presume? I wish I had more details on this.

US copyright lobby madness

Wednesday, February 21st, 2007

The US copyright lobby (as represented by the “International Intellectual Property Alliance”, a confusingly named consortium of US copyright lobbying groups) has just done a report on the failures of the rest of the world to properly protect its members’ intellectual property. We care, because it submits this report (solicited? unsolicited?) to the US Trade [...]

McDonald’s “coke spoon” C&D

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

One might think it would sometimes be in the best interests of a corporation to take the high road, but McDonald’s has chosen to go for the glory. McD’s slapped a cease and desist letter on an art gallery selling “Cokespoon #2″ — a gold-plated versions of a 1980s vintage McD’s coffee stirrer that was [...]

Introducing the book

Saturday, February 17th, 2007

For the bibliophiles and geeks. Credits posted on YouTube: It’s from a show called Øystein & Meg (Øystein & I) produced by the Norwegian Broadcasting television channel (NRK) in 2001. The spoken language is Norwegian, the subs in Danish. It’s written by Knut Nærum and performed by Øystein Bache and Rune Gokstad.