How copyright deprived us of a literary and pictorial mash-up of Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss (real name Theodor Geisel) is one of the best-known writers for children. He died in 1991, but his books remain extremely popular. Publishers Weekly has a…
A fan’s unique recordings of the Beatles won’t be available online, because of “copyright issues”
There’s a story in the Mail on Sunday that underlines why it is important for people to make copies. It concerns the re-surfacing of rare recordings of the…
Why moving to diamond open access will not only save money, but also help to protect privacy
Back in September last year, Walled Culture mentioned the consistently high profit margins of 30-40% enjoyed by the academic publisher Elsevier. That’s problematic because these profits flow from…
How backdated articles abuse the DMCA’s takedown system to remove legitimate news items
Online platforms often give access to digital material that is under copyright. If any of that content is infringing, then potentially the platform would be liable as well…
Like news publishers, magazine publishers want money from Google; here’s why it is happy to pay
Last week, Walled Culture noted that newspaper publishers still don’t understand what has happened in their industry. They labour under the misapprehension that the digital giants like Google…
Even algospeak won’t save us from upload filter overblocking
Over on the EFF blog, Cory Doctorow points to an interesting article in the Washington Post about “algospeak“: “Algospeak” is becoming increasingly common across the Internet as people…
“Red hot music copyrights market” leaves most creators out in the cold
Last week, Walled Culture wrote about the juicy £230 million pay that the head of Universal Music Group (UMG) took home up last year. That may be exceptional…
Applying (artificial) intelligence to the Copyright Directive’s stupid idea of upload filters
Last week the European Union’s top court, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), handed down its judgment on whether upload filters should be allowed as…
Interview | Marc Rees: À la Française, de l’Hadopi par la copie privée, jusqu’aux algorithmes de l’Article 17
Marc Rees est journaliste et rédacteur en chef de Next INpact, le site français traitant de tout ce qui est numérique, y compris les commentaires sur les questions…
Two reasons the snippet tax won’t wash as a solution, and what to do instead
Walled Culture has written a number of posts about the so-called “snippet tax” – the idea that platforms like Google and Facebook should pay for the privilege of…
Universal Music Group boss took home £230 million last year: is that really fair?
Last year, Walled Culture reported on the highly-successful Universal Music Group (UMG) IPO on Amsterdam’s Euronext exchange, which valued the company at €45 billion (over $50 billion). The…