Recently there has been a spate of developments related to fair use, copyright and the Internet. Whilst we know what to expect from the RIAA or the British Music Industry closing down Pandora, new and dubious examples are appearing all the timel, for example; publishing pictures of the Eiffel Tower at night (14,3222 photos currently on Flickr -a lot of lawsuits), whilst Ford are now trying to ban Mustang owners publishing photos of their own cars.
Similarly Prince, and,more recently; ,J K Rowling seem determined to shut
down some fan and discussions sites, apparently refusing to acknowledge that being the creator and
owner of work does not give the right to stop others discussing,
praising or criticising their work. If they are not careful they will either appear as
selfish, greedy or both; which will be to the detriment of their undoubted talent and
achievement, whilst alienating many of their followers.
Hot on the heels of all this nonsense Mattel (UK) and Hasbro (Us & Canada) are
joining in the fray, (they probably have a case). The companies have sent cease and desist letters to the developers of the Scrabulous application on Facebook; but surely they are just plain stupid for;
a) not negotiating a deal or; b) building on the many opportunities for positive marketing. Perhaps they don't understand the Internet is different and things will never be quite the same again. As I blog, the Save Scrabulous group on Facebook has increased within the last few hours to over 5,600, 7,340, 14,443. 15,678.
Well, just like waiting on a bus, we can only wonder what the next idiotic action will be, and how many of them will
come along at the same time.
image credit Iona Sameli
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