Communications Law
joshua kuepfer
Another look at digital ownership: California district judge entertains lawsuit against Apple re iTunes “Buy” button
Someone is suing Apple over their “Buy” button on iTunes, arguing it’s deceptive in light of the way they license content and reserve the right to stop hosting that content at any time. Apple filed a motion to dismiss on the grounds that no customer would reasonably expect otherwise, and questioned the plaintiff’s standing due […]
Vox article on copyright, ownership, and DRM (TPMs)
Hi friends, Here’s another neat article from a US perspective some impacts of TPMs and fungible users rights in the age of software-driven physical consumer products. It starts a little dull, but eventually reflects on the more creative uses of digital contracts and TPMs, such as Nintendo’s Wii U eventually disabling itself unless users agreed […]
Addendum to presentation: TPM Anxiety
Hi friends, I wanted to post a brief addendum to my presentation, since upon reflection I’m not too satisfied with how shallowly it treats Nintendo America. Definitely erred on the vague side of op-ed styling. As mentioned earlier, the most concerning aspects of Nintendo America are the broad interpretation of TPMs and circumvention, and the […]
Presentation: TPM Anxiety
Hi friends, for my presentation I dug a little deeper on TPMs, particularly their history and critics. Hope you enjoy! https://youtu.be/6dk4T9MWXEs PS: Unfortunately Powerpoint is super inconsistent with audio in exported video, so there’s a few glitches throughout. Should still be entirely understandable though. If you want the pptx version feel free to reach out! […]
US Supreme Court rules APIs are covered under fair use
The US Supreme Court overturned a federal decision on Monday that had found Google infringed Oracle’s copyright by including elements of their Java application programming interface (API) in Android OS. The highest court ruled 6-2 that APIs are a narrow category of software to be treated differently from other software (protected more broadly by fair […]
Two thirds of Google searches last year had no click-through
A small addition to our recent conversations regarding information-aggregators like Google and Facebook: about two thirds of Google searches last year (and likely more) resulted in the user leaving without clicking through to any of the displayed sites, leaving a majority of traffic and ad revenue with Google. This is up substantially from approximately 50% […]
Peak Design is the latest to claim Amazonbasics copied them
Amazonbasics has been earning a reputation of taking unfair advantage of Amazon’s marketplace sellers. The EU is currently conducting anti-trust investigations over their use of sellers’ data, and now the popular bag company Peak Design is the latest to accuse them of dubious respect for IP. (the last high-profile story in this vein being Allbirds) […]