Not Copyrightable
Boing-Boing has been doing a bangup job on the problems with copyright and licensing agreements. They cover this often, but this week it’s been particularly bad.
* A photographer bans other cameras in his space because he “claims copyright”:http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/16/copyright_protected_.html:
bq. So what is the copyright claim? That the living birds themselves are copyrighted? If so, God created them and holds the copyright, not some overpriced picture booth at a county fair. That somehow the concept of taking pictures of birds on a girl is copyrighted? Sorry, that would be at best a design patent, and no patent office on earth would issue that one. The true answer, of course, is that we are turning into a society where everybody is so brainwashed by Hollywood that they believe everything is subject to copyright protection. [ "Hollywood and the RIAA are brainwashing America":http://feettothefire.com/2006/10/hollywood_and_the_riaa_are_win.html ]
* “Fabric for personal use only.”:http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/17/copyrighted_fabric_n.html
bq. Reprodebot sells fabric that comes with a “license agreement” that prohibits you from making commercial goods out of the material. What this means, at the end of the day, is that they’re not selling you anything at all — instead, they’re licensing the fabric to you, and it isn’t your property, and you can’t do with it what you want. [ "Copyrighted fabric: no selling the stuff you make from it":http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/17/copyrighted_fabric_n.html ]
* “Gallery of license agreements”:http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/17/small_print_project_.html
bq. These “terms and conditions,” “terms of use” and “end-user license agreements” do terrible violence to the noble agreement, backing us into arrangements that no sane individual would ever agree to. Sony’s DRM made you promise to delete your music if your house burned down; Amazon Unbox lets them spy on your computer and shut down your videos if they don’t like what they see. [ ... ] ust last week, I had to cancel a speaking engagement at Disney Studios, whose speaker agreement includes a clause in which you promise never to use the word Disney again in an article or story without their written permission (!). [ "Small Print Project":http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/17/small_print_project_.html ]
I am sick of being “interrogated by stuff”:http://www.thudfactor.com/wordpress/2005/04/26/interrogated-by-stuff/.
