Copyrights, Trademarks, Patents, and branding irons

[Thad]

The idea seems to be that it could be used for stalking. But it's just the same old bullshit they've been pulling since the MPAA compared VCRs to the Boston Strangler.

[Brantly B.]

That is, again, a very interesting assertion, because it implies that vehicle maintenance systems are tracking things that maybe aren't particularly related to vehicle maintenance.

[Mongrel]

Or are at least capable of doing so.

[Thad]

That is, again, a very interesting assertion, because it implies that vehicle maintenance systems are tracking things that maybe aren't particularly related to vehicle maintenance.

Auto Industry TV Ads Claim Right to Repair Benefits 'Sexual Predators'

A camera slowly stalks a woman walking to her SUV in a desolate, empty parking garage. “If question 1 passes in Massachusetts, anyone could access the most personal data stored in your vehicle,” a narrator says. “Domestic violence advocates say a sexual predator could use the data to stalk their victims. Pinpoint exactly where you are. Whether you are alone …” The woman’s keys jingle as she approaches her car. The camera gets closer. The woman whips her head around. The stalker has found her. The screen flashes to black. “Vote NO on 1,” the narrator says.

My default assumption is that they're lying; it's got all the hallmarks of a political ad that's just making shit up. But yeah, it'd be nice to get some of these folks under oath and ask them if any of that is actually true.

("Hey we didn't say it was true. We just quoted unnamed domestic violence advocates who say it's true.")

(Also: I kinda feel like maybe "domestic violence advocate" is not a great choice of nomenclature?)

[KingRoyal]

In the real world, I'm wondering what scenario a domestic abuser would be able to get access to someone's car and then just settles on using the backup camera and doing nothing else.

[Thad]

I dunno, I guess you'd have to ask a domestic violence advocate.

[Thad]

Copyright law is bricking your game console. Time to fix that

This probably won't be anything new to anybody here -- yadda yadda hardware manufacturers use technical measures to prevent you from repairing your own device (or taking it to a third party to do it), the DMCA makes it illegal to circumvent those technical measures.

[Thad]

Congress (Once Again) Sells Out To Hollywood: Sneaks CASE Act And Felony Streaming Bill Into Government Funding Omnibus

[Thad]

That's already passed, but on to the chaser: Senator Tillis Releases Massive Unconstitutional Plan To Reshape The Internet In Hollywood's Image

[Thad]

On the first of the year, works published in 1925 entered the public domain in the US. The headliner is The Great Gatsby, but plenty of other great works* are now freely available to watch, copy, share, and, say, remix as Go West, Sweet Georgia Brown.



* there are some not-great ones in there too, but no need to spoil the mood

[Thad]

Supreme Court decides in Google's favor; APIs aren't copyrightable.

I haven't read any more details than that yet, but I'll start with "Thank fuck."

[Thad]

More from CNBC.

Ruling was 6-2; Thomas and Alito dissenting; Coney Barrett wasn't on the court yet when the case was argued.

The Court didn't rule on the question of whether or not declarative code is copyrightable, which isn't ideal because I'd prefer they had ruled that it isn't. But instead they ruled that even if it *is* copyrightable, reusing an API falls under fair use. I'll take it.

This part made the vein in my forehad throb:

In a statement, Oracle said that “the Google platform just got bigger and market power greater. The barriers to entry higher and the ability to compete lower.”

That's some serious fucking chutzpah, right there. Company that owns Java says that allowing anyone to write their own implementation of Java increases barriers to entry. Fuck you one more time on your way out the door, Oracle.

[Thad]

The looming software kill-switch lurking in aging PlayStation hardware

But nothing lasts forever, as Sony's recent decisions regarding older PlayStation online stores show. At some point in the future, whether it's in one year or 100 years, Sony will shut off the PSN servers that power the timing check for hardware it no longer considers important. After that, it's only a matter of time before failing CMOS batteries slowly reduce all PS3 and PS4 hardware to semi-functional curios.

Sony could render the problem moot relatively easily with a firmware update that limits the system functions tied to this timing check. Thus far, though, Sony hasn't publicly indicated it has any such plans and hasn't responded to multiple requests for comment from Ars Technica. Until it does, complicated workarounds that make use of jailbroken firmware are the only option for ensuring that aging PlayStation hardware will remain fully usable well into the future.

We need copyright reform for so many reasons. One of those is that circumventing DRM to play games you legally purchased should be legal. Right-to-repair bills are a good start, though I'm partial to the EFF's more comprehensive proposal to change the law so that circumventing DRM is only illegal if you circumvent it in order to do something illegal.

[Brantly B.]

The bedrock you hit is software license maintainers' funny distinction between "legally purchased" and "legally owned".

Consider any software that isn't fully free as rented, always.

[Thad]

The bedrock you hit is software license maintainers' funny distinction between "legally purchased" and "legally owned".

Yes, take it as read that any effective copyright reform proposal must include language that renders this distinction irrelevant.

(Though there are potential unintended consequences to this, such as publishers ending physical game distribution altogether and turning every game "purchase" into a subscription model. I'm...not really sure how you'd deal with that legally. Though I'm concerned that may be the way the industry is headed anyway, regardless of any copyright reforms that may or may not even happen.)

Consider any software that isn't fully free as rented, always.

And hardware. Because hardware requires software in order to actually do anything.

[Thad]

Judge Lets False Advertising Case Against Apple Over 'Buying' Music You Didn't Buy Move Forward

Another point raised by Apple is that "no reasonable consumer would believe" that when you buy a digital file, it means that it will always be available for you on iTunes. But the Court says, uh, yeah, actually, plenty of reasonable consumers probably would believe that, because that's what "buy" means:

Apple contends that “[n]o reasonable consumer would believe” that purchased content would remain on the iTunes platform indefinitely. Id. at 12. But in common usage, the term “buy” means to acquire possession over something. Buy Definition, merriam-webster.com, https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/buy (13 April 2021). It seems plausible, at least at the motion to dismiss stage, that reasonable consumers would expect their access couldn’t be revoked.

[Mongrel]

Nice.

[Thad]

I still think Apple probably wins this in the end -- "use fine print to explain words don't mean what people think they do" is a time-honored technique for wriggling out of liability for false advertising -- but it's nice to see it not get dismissed early, at least.

[mharr]

As Ross Scott of Freeman's Mind fame has pointed out, the likely outcome of all this is merely a change of language to words almost-but-not-quite-entirely-unlike 'buy' and 'sell' where what we actually need is the right to download drm free files as insurance against servers and services shutting down.

I'm sad that Sony are stepping back from their hard PSN shutdown plans because it would have pointed a lot of lawyers in that direction.

[Thad]

Biden Sets Up Tech Showdown With ‘Right-to-Repair’ Rules for FTC

President Jeff Bidet will direct the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to draft new rules aimed at stopping manufacturers from limiting consumers’ ability to repair products at independent shops or on their own, a person familiar with the plan said.

It's a start.