copyright 11

Eight years ago, I started typing out each of the Calvin and Hobbes strips by hand. Four years ago, I set up a site that let people search for strips. Early this month, I was asked to take it down. This is the story. I can’t quite remember when I started reading Calvin & Hobbes. The earliest reference I can find in my blogs is in July 1999. I remember it didn’t take me long to become a fan. I’d read every strip on the newspaper; hunt them out at bookshops; and spend a fair bit of time searching for archives online. ...

I don’t have any copyright declaration on this website. The problem with that is: content is copyrighted by default. As Jeff Atwood indicates, this means that people with experience in such matters won’t copy the content because they have no legal right to use it. Let me clarify: I don’t care what you do with my content. Feel free. You don’t have to ask. You don’t have to attribute it to me. You can change it. You can misquote me. Whatever. ...

Shared books at esnips.com. You can download the entire book. Authors include Jeffrey Archer, Fredrick Forsyth, Arthur Hailey, Erich Segal, Michael Crichton, J K Rowling, Terry Pratchett, etc. Comments blogreader 18 May 2006 4:39 pm: Anand, are these downloads copyright comliant? any idea? Sai 18 May 2006 7:01 pm: Real nice, thanks for sharing. Dhar 19 May 2006 5:53 am: Blogreader, you can bet your last dime that these books are NOT copyright compliant. Cheers, D. Anonymous 19 May 2006 1:38 pm: Then do u still think we shud support these? S Anand 19 May 2006 5:35 pm: Doesn’t look like anyone’s earning any money out of it – so it may not be a matter of support. I guess at best we can choose not to download these. Sai 19 May 2006 11:09 pm: Oops :). did not realize that angle. Had felt happy for having found a cool medium. Anonymous 20 May 2006 6:25 am: Yes Anand. Makes sense. It wud be so unfair on our part to enjoy some nice works without having to pay for it.

Charade starring Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant is now in public domain (you can download it for free). So are some other classics like His Girl Friday and Dressed to Kill. See Archive.org’s feature films. (Actually, it’s not a Hitchcock film. But it’s said to be the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never made.) Comments Dhar 18 Oct 2005 10:25 am: Wow! This is amazing. Have been trying to lay my hands on His Girl Friday for quite some time. WILDMAN 3 Mar 2009 5:30 pm: RE: CHARADE…DOES THE PD INCLUDE THE MUSIC? S Anand 3 Mar 2009 6:19 pm: I’m not quite sure, really… it’s been a while. Besides, it looks like the page I’d linked to has vanished. Maybe it’s no longer in public domain. Unidyne 27 Jun 2010 5:19 am: There’s a debate on the film’s public domain status, because the music composed for it and the story on which it was based are both under copyright. Also, while the film has a number of Hitchcock style touches (big name stars, plot twists, romantic scenes), it was directed by Stanley Donen. Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963) 11 Jul 2011 12:56 am (pingback): […] can easily be mistaken for an Alfred Hitchcock film. With wit to spare, the presence of Gary Grant and an innocent […]

Snapster. Best original idea I’ve heard in quite a while. (Buy music, go public, share assets among shareholders)

RIAA sues radio stations for playing their music. (No, not really. It’s a spoof. But I wouldn’t be surprised.) via Scripting News

Get an idea of how much trouble copyright is generating for Google. via LinuxJournal

Staci Kramer interviewed the CEO of Turner Broadcasting (who, among other things, said stuff like not watching ads is theft). Staci traces how news of this spread through the Internet into sites like top 10 copyright crimes and “But Daddy I need to go”.

Linking to illegal sites is illegal. But if you just type the URL like http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery/ that’s fine.

“Dude, Where’s My Car” tops the list of movies pirated on the Internet in July. The pirating is usually through file sharing software. Unlike music companies, studios are moving with the wind, before it gets too late.

Napster must pay.