The main topic in UF’s campus newspaper today was a suit from the software/textbook publisher Faulkner Press against the note-taking service Einstein’s Notes. Their article details the situation and highlights that a previous suits was unsuccessful.

This issue had been raised in the Fall of 2005 by some professors who felt their copyright was violated, also in the Alligator. One of our chapter’s founders, Gavin Baker, replied to them and argued that these companies were doing novel work by summarizing and that facts are actually not copyrightable.

It is interesting to note how the language in these two articles changed and how the emphasis has now shifted towards how lecture notes and practice questions were “copied.” That reasoning might even be successful in front of a judge, compared to the previous attempt.

Faulkner Press’ side can be heard at their site about “The Future of Higher Ed.” It is currently a sparsely populated Wordpress blog with an unrelated stock image on the front page.

The only reasonable response seems to have come from the paper’s cartoonist, who nicely showed that intellectual property protection, as a primary goal, is absolutely flawed in academia:

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Slashdot reported today that the 44 claims made in Blackboard’s patents have been rejected after reexamintion by the US Patent Office. There is still a period for comment by both Blackboard and the corporation they are suing, called Desire2Learn, which is why this decision is labeled as non-final.

The patents granted were widely criticized as being too trivial and too broad, allowing Blackboard to sue basically any competitor of learning management systems. Blackboard’s is the “Learning System” used by the University of Florida.

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UF’s campus newspaper the Independent Florida Alligator has an interesting Editorial on privacy violations in Tuesday’s issue. They chastise the mainstream press for highlighting the privacy breach concerning the Democratic candidates’ passport snoopings while ignoring the plentiful and massive security breaches of Joe Gator personal information. They point out that “there is still no national law to protect the privacy of the information you share online.”

Even a few years ago such a niche topic would probably not have been taken serious by many students but the increased time spent on social networking sites and the Internet in general seems to have changed that.

The Alligator remains skeptical about any of this changing soon but of course: knowing is half the battle.

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This Tuesday it’s time again to meet for CopyNight! Join us for this fun social gathering co-hosted by Florida Free Culture about copyright, art, technology and much more. Tentative topics include the new Adobe DRM, who is trying to sue TurnItIn and all the tangents we can think of. You’ll find us on the back porch, just enter through the front and go straight.

What: CopyNight Gainesville
When: Tuesday, March 25t 2008 at 7pm
Where: Tim and Terry’s (1417 NW 1st Ave.)

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Tomorrow night is our February general meeting. At 6pm we’ll be showing the documentary Steal This Film, Part II. It covers the technological and cultural aspects of the copyright wars, and the implications of the internet for copying. Come out to Little Hall and participate in freely distributed media with us!

When: Monday Feb. 11, 6:00pm
Where: Little Hall, rm. 239

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It’s once again time for Free Your PC and we would like to invite students, staff, faculty and also everybody who doesn’t fit into any of those categories to come by next week and have their computers “freed”. If you stop by we will tell you what great software is out there and how to get, where to find legal free music, and more! If you bring your computer we’ll install some applications you can choose from a list right there and if you have a valid student ID you can even get free anti-virus software!
When: Wed. Feb 6th & Thu. Feb 7th, 11am—3pm
Where: Reitz Union Collonade

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At our general meeting this Monday at 6.30pm we will be showing the documentary Good Copy Bad Copy which talks about the “the current state of copyright and culture.” It is a series of interviews, an hour in total, that shows you what these subjects are to the various parties involved, from DJ Danger Mouse to the RIAA, to Girl Talk and Russian cammers to Lawrence Lessig and Tecno Braga.

Where: Reitz Union, rm. 286
When: Monday, November 19th, 6.30pm

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