Guy Claims He Owns The Idea Of Oprah Visiting Australia, Plans To Sue. Techdirt (2011-01-18):

When you think that ideas are ownable, you get absolutely ridiculous scenarios, such as the idea that anyone could ever “own” the idea of Oprah Winfrey visiting Australia. And yet, a dive boat operator in Australia is planning to sue Tourism Australia, because of Oprah Winfrey’s recent visit. You see,…

The Australo-Galambosian strikes back. Hey, a man’s got a right to defend his Primary Property.

(Via Kevin Carson, who I will not be paying $5 for the idea. Sorry, dude.)

RT @samablog: The real scandal is that a band that broke up over 40 years ago still enjoys the protection of copyright #Beatles #iTunes. Mark's Firehose (2010-11-17).

But without lifetime-plus copyright, how will Sir Paul McCartney ever manage to put food on the table? If he doesn’t get that extra $0.99/song tariff until decades after his death, how will artists ever be properly incentivized to make music?

(Forwarded thanks to Mark Pilgrim.)

• "That Show By Those Hipster Know-It-Alls Who Talk About How Fascinating Ordinary People Are" Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-10-25). “Most of those broadcasters enjoy support from the government in one form or another (though not all of them do: WFMU is subsidy-free as well as commercial-free). But they’re not a top-down project. They’re a decentralized set of shows that seek funds where they can find them, and they could survive if the CPB were fully privatized. They might even do better, if the new CPB decided to spend less of its money on actual stations (which haven’t always benefited when the corporation funds them) and more on independent producers.” (Linked Monday 2010-10-25.)

• WikiLeaks Removes the Cloak. David D’Amato, Center for a Stateless Society (2010-10-25). Late last week, major media outlets announced, to the bated breath of the world, the latest disclosures of classified materials on the war in Iraq from Wikileaks. The documents — almost 400,000 files comprised mostly of the U.S. military's daily field reports — detail a staggering civilian death toll and… (Linked Monday 2010-10-25.)

• Mantid of the week. Jill, I Blame The Patriarchy (2010-10-26). Greetings from Spinster HQ, O ye commenters and readers of comments! The "Latest Blamer Invective" sidebar function upon which you have come to dote so warmly has experienced a warp core breach. Two female characters with names are discussing it, and should have it back online before the third act…. (Linked Tuesday 2010-10-26.)

• At the bottom of the 178 countries Somalia scored 1.1, just. Captain Capitulation, eye of the storm (2010-10-26). At the bottom of the 178 countries Somalia scored 1.1, just below Afghanistan and Myanmar (1.4) and Iraq (1.5). surely someone somewhere is actually worried about the fact that the countries we invaded and 'liberated' are two of the four most corrupt in the world. we said we brought you this… (Linked Tuesday 2010-10-26.)

Bounty Markets for Open-Access eBooks. Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom (2010-10-25):

From "go to hellman" Bounty Markets for Open-Access eBooks In January 1773, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart placed advertisements asking patrons to "subscribe" to the three piano concertos he was writing. If he received enough support, the concertos would be finished by April, and subscribers would receive beautifully copied manuscripts. More importantly,…

Q: Without intellectual protectionism to sustain a massive system of corporate marketing, record companies, and advances for artists, how will creators ever be able to support their work? In a freed market with freed copying and freed exchange, how would we ever marshal the resources we need to sustain a flourishing musical culture?

A: Let’s ask a minor musician of the past few centuries — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — how he did it.

A broken, top-heavy, capital-intensive business model in music has nothing to do with the needs of a flourishing free culture. It has everything to do with grants of monopoly privilege, by the state, to entrenched incumbent firms, and the systematic distortion and deformation of the whole network of musical commerce around the gravity-well of those coerced monopoly profits. The monopolists’ broken business model is not our problem, and should not be forced on the rest of us. Music will do fine without it — just ask Mozart.

• Inhousepharmacy.com stops shipping to the US. The Bilerico Project (2010-10-06). The Intellectual Protectionism Movement Vs. Human Decency and the Trans Community. (Via Anna Morgenstern.) (Linked Wednesday 2010-10-06.)