billso.com

Sunday, 1 June 2008, was the 100th anniversary of the first sale doctrine in the US.

As I’ve mentioned before in this billso.com article on 24 March 2008, the first sale doctrine allows someone who buys a book to resell it or pass it along as they see fit.

This important principle of US copyright law applies to other media, too. Last month, a Federal court upheld the rights of eBay sellers to vend software, according to this Ars Technia article. First sale allows people to resell or give away CDs, DVDs and other works that they purchased.

Creative Commons licenses allow users to share and adapt applicable works, which is an excellent extension of the first sale doctrine.

See this article in Everybody’s Libraries for more details

Related pages on billso.com

• Copyright and fair use
• Creative Commons

We use a Creative Commons license scheme at billso.com.

The license is embedded in every page of the site, and there is a link at the bottom of each page.

In short, anyone can use content from billso.com as long as the following conditions are met:

1. Provide attribution to billso.com - give us some credit for what we wrote and posted, without implying that billso.com endorses your work.
2. Remix and adaption are allowed. Again, give us credit!
3. Sharing, copying and redistributing our content is OK, but include a link back to the billso.com URL where the content is posted.

Related tags on billso.com

• copyright
• fair-use
• piracy

Related pages on billso.com

• Copyright and fair use
• Digital music

Related articles on billso.com

• 3 June 2008: 100 years of first sale
• 14 March 2008: Social media in action
• 21 February 2008: Copyright and fair use
• 4 February 2008: Better than free
• 15 October 2007: What’s wrong with copyright?
• 19 July 2007: A quick explanation of copyright law
• 26 May 2007: Cory Doctorow’s PWNED class finishes the term

I’ve written several articles about copyright and fair use.

Related tags on billso.com

• copyright
• Creative Commons
• fair-use
• piracy

Related pages on billso.com

• Creative Commons
• Digital music

Related articles on billso.com

• 16 July 2008: Apple can stop the Open Computer
• 8 July 2008: Scrabble vs Scrabulous
• 15 June 2006: The Associated Press and fair use on the Web
• 3 June 2008: 100 years of first sale
• 15 May 2008: Download that movie, lose your home
• 15 April 2008: Can Apple stop the Open Computer?
• 10 April 2008: Media giants want to end US fair use doctrine
• 24 March 2008: The used electronic textbook
• 14 March 2008: Social media in action
• 21 February 2008: Copyright and fair use
• 4 February 2008: Better than free
• 15 October 2007: What’s wrong with copyright?
• 19 July 2007: A quick explanation of copyright law
• 24 January 2007: More thoughts on cheating, copyright and paraphrasing
• 23 January 2007: Cheating is copyright infringement?
• 29 September 2006: US copyright law - in verse
• 15 August 2004: American Library Association promotes fair use
• 9 June 2004: Carmine Infantino wants his Flash back
• 28 June 2003: Harry Potter and the copyright wars
• 27 June 2003: Sue your best customers

County politicians in Los Angeles have passed legislation championed by the RIAA and MPAA that lets authorities confiscate property from anyone convicted of IP theft or piracy. See Wired for more information.

The RIAA uses automated methods for collecting information fom LimeWire and other peer-to-peer programs. Data including the IP address and the files offered for trade are collected. The trade organization also has an automated takedown notice and settlement system that targets universities and students. The RIAA uses a manual process when investigating commercial ISPs. This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education has some details.

Meanwhile, BoingBoing reports that the US House of Representatives has passed a similar measure (HR 4279, PRO-IP (Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008). The bill may not get through the US Senate this year.

See Ars Technica and TechDirt for more information on this ridiculous piece of legislation.

Related posts on

billso.com

• 11 May 2008: Qtrax makes a free music download deal with Universal
• 15 March 2008: 10 years of MP3 players
• 21 February 2008: Copyright and fair use
• 4 February 2008: Better than free
• 13 November 2007: File sharing and campus security
• 5 October 2007: What’s wrong with copyright?
• 17 July 2007: A quick explanation of copyright law
• 29 September 2006: US copyright law in verse
• 15 August 2004: American Library Association promotes fair use
• 27 June 2003: Sue your best customers

15 April is tax deadline day in the United States. Next month, many US taxpayers will get a rebate check that President Bush hopes they will spend to boost the flagging economy.

Why not spend that check on a new computer? According to Good Morning Silicon Valley, Psystar will sell you an Open Computer. It’s an Intel PC that ships with an ugly case, a fresh copy of Mac OS X Leopard and a few software drivers generated by the open source osx86 project.

Why pay Apple’s hardware prices when an Intel PC can run the Mac operating system? It’s easy to build your own Mac-compatible Intel PC, and use the open source software and a copy of Leopard. In fact, this is a fine project for a student who has the resources and time… as long as they do not sell the final product.

Wired has pointed out one small problem with Psystar’s plan: Apple’s user license for Leopard specifically states that the operating system can only be used on Apple-branded hardware. Psystar cannot really sell a Mac operating system with a beige-box computer.

Perhaps this is why Psystar changed the product’s name yesterday. It was listed as “OpenMac”. The Mac name is trademarked by Apple, of course.

MacRumors has more information for those who are interested.

I sense a cease-and-desist order coming from 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California.

Related posts and pages on billso.com

• Copyright and fair use
• 16 July 2008: Apple can stop the Open Computer