Jan 29
I write. As a freelance, I hold copyright on those words. “Ireland’s SOPA” wants to protect those words. But copyright already protects them. My words have been pirated a few times. The first time, articles were cut and pasted wholesale from a website and re-used. Not by a pirate website, but by an old-established company. …
Aug 26
A couple of weeks ago, I uploaded my first video to Youtube – a montage of photographs taken at the Glencolmcille Agricultural Show, set to a music soundtrack by Eunan McIntyre, a local musician. Being a journalist, and living with copyright issues, I first checked with everyone that it was okay to use their work. …
May 21
This week, scientists created artificial life. Well, sort of. Truth is, once you snip away the press release puff and spin, it’s more a case that scientists copied life. Here’s how the BBC reported what happened: ‘The researchers copied an existing bacterial genome. They sequenced its genetic code and then used synthesis machines to chemically …
Feb 27
Earlier this week, I spent half a day sitting in a district court. The district courts can be worthwhile if you’re a freelance journalist, but they’re a bit of a lottery too. Get in well with some of the staff, and you’ll get a tip off if there’s something interesting coming up. On Monday, I …
Feb 04
Sixteen months ago, I wrote a story. It was a nice little story, with some good quotes from the main player. I sold it to a provincial paper. I posted the story on my website. Thanks to the vagaries of thesub editing process, what appeared on the website was different to what appeared in print. …
Oct 24
The definition of chutzpah used to be the murderer who killed his parents, then appealed to the court for mercy during his trial because he was an orphan. That definition may have to be updated in light of the lawsuit brought against Microsoft in China Dong Zhengwei, a Beijing lawyer, is taking a case against …
Jul 04
Several news outlets are quite excited over the court order entertainment giant Viacom secured against Google. The eponymous search engine must hand over details of the videos watched by users of YouTube. Viacom claims Google has infringed it’s copyright, while Google says it is not responsible for YouTube content, and removes any material if there’s …
