logo

Against Monopoly

defending the right to innovate

Monopoly corrupts. Absolute monopoly corrupts absolutely.





Copyright Notice: We don't think much of copyright, so you can do what you want with the content on this blog. Of course we are hungry for publicity, so we would be pleased if you avoided plagiarism and gave us credit for what we have written. We encourage you not to impose copyright restrictions on your "derivative" works, but we won't try to stop you. For the legally or statist minded, you can consider yourself subject to a Creative Commons Attribution License.


back

President Obama - Copyright Violator?

President Obama reportedly gave an iPod, loaded with 40 show tunes, to England's Queen Elizabeth II as a gift. Did he violate copyright laws when he did so?

Read here for a great analysis.


Comments

I'm dismayed to see Fred von Lohman miss the overreach of licenses. A license cannot further restrict the liberty of a purchaser of a copy, it can only restore liberties suspended by copyright (subject to conditions). If you have a purchased copy then you have first sale, a license has no power to prevent that.
There's another angle that no one seems to have picked-up on. DRM has caused an international incident. Think of it, the President of the United States has given an "innocent" gift of DVDs to the Queen of England and they won't work!!!! Clearly we have protected US intellectual property to the point that it can't even be exported. Good old regional DVD restrictions has had the unintended consequence of an international Faux Pas. Now if Obama had only given a book, the Queen could read it.

I hope that Obama will learn something from this "mistake" and realize that DRM is ludicrous.

Toby Harnden reports: "There was widespread criticism in Britain and from Anglophiles in the US of Mr Obama's recent present to Mr Brown of a box set of classic American movies on DVDs that were not compatible with British DVD players."

Barack Obama's gift for the Queen: an iPod, your Majesty

Brown's DVD Gift From Obama Wrong Format

Obama's International DRM Embarrassment


Submit Comment

Blog Post

Name:

Email (optional):

Your Humanity:

Prove you are human by retyping the anti-spam code.
For example if the code is unodosthreefour,
type 1234 in the textbox below.

Anti-spam Code
NineQuatroZeroTwo:


Post



   

Most Recent Comments

A Texas Tale of Intellectual Property Litigation (A Watering Hole Patent Trolls) Aunque suena insignificante, los números son alarmantes y nos demuestran que no es tan mínimo como

James Boyle's new book with his congenial IP views free to download

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1

French firm has patents on using computers to choose medical treatment 1