CopyNight is a site where copyfighters can list their local events by city, a kind of social calendar from trademark, copyright and patent reform. There's a monthly worldwide event and you can add your own local events as well. This is the brainchild, in part, of EFF Activist Ren Bucholz, and as he says, "building community around free culture is so important for our long-term success."

CopyNight is a monthly gathering of people interested in ensuring freedom for artists and tinkerers, fostering innovation, and restoring the balance between the public interests and intellectual property rights holders for the benefit of all.

We're going to have kick off events on Tuesday, March 29, when the Supreme Court will hear arguments about the future of file sharing. We already have events scheduled in San Francisco, D.C., and New York, but we'd love to have one in your neck of the woods as well. If you're interested, just pick a venue (bar/restaurant/your apartment) and drop me a line with your contact info by Wednesday night (March 16). We'll start publicizing the events this Thursday, and I believe that EFF & other groups sending announcements to their members too. » login or register to post comments | read more

Link (Thanks, Ren!)

The Creative Commons England/Wales licenses lauched earlier this year, and now there's a draft Scottish CC license to accompany them (Scotland's legal system contains key copyright differences from the English/Welsh system that preclude a single UK license). Link

The Brazilian government is funding an open collection of indigineous microrganisms that will stave off the practice of foreign companies coming to the south, taking what grows there, and locking it away in patents that the countries of origin can't afford to license.

The microbe bank — dubbed the Brazilian Collection of Environmental and Industrial Microorganisms — is housed at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and was inaugurated on 24 February.

''We intend to put this collection at the service of the scientific and industrial community, by preserving, identifying, maintaining and distributing these microorganisms,'' says biologist Lara Sette, the collection's curator...

Specimens in the 'public access deposit' will be available to public and private institutions to use for research or teaching. The 'safety deposit' will house specimens whose identity and related information are kept confidential and to which access will be restricted.

The third section will include specimens deposited to satisfy Brazilian legal requirements, which state that a sample of any biological material moved between public or private institutions, nationally or internationally, must be deposited in an institution accredited by the Ministry of Environment.

Link (via Worldchanging)

The current administration has spent the past four years treating the Constitution as though it were a EULA and subject to change without notice. Slate's "Important Changes to Your Citizenship Agreement" reviews some of these changes in a compact and helpful form.

SECTION 5 The Freedom of Speech section of the Agreement is amended to distinguish between Regular Preferred Speech and Non-Preferred Speech. The Non-Preferred Speech rate applies to all speech which is not in good standing as defined under the "Preferred Citizen Rate Eligibility" section of your Agreement. Both the rate and your freedom of speech may vary based on changes in the National Terror Alert Level...

SECTION 16
This amendment affects the Right to Privacy section of your agreement. Under the new terms, the Right to Privacy must be applied for on an individual basis. To apply for your Right to Privacy, you must send your full credit history, a copy of your party registration and church membership, a complete set of fingerprints, a DNA sample, and two (2) passport-size photographs of your bedroom to: National Privacy Registry, Washington, DC, 20012-3006, att: Doris.

Link (Thanks, Lee!)

Southern school board buy their textbooks in a block, lead by the purchase decisions of Texas's board. "Liberal" school boards make individual purchase decisions. That means that reactionary anti-sex-ed and anti-evolution agendas dominate the editorial decisions at textbook publishers, which has led to the elimination sex-ed from every current health text in America and will shortly do in evolution as well.

There is a substantial buying bloc--namely, school boards in southern states--that follows suit with whatever the state school board of Texas does. These states buy textbooks uniformly, statewide. Most "blue states" buy district to district, so there is no unified bloc per se to counterbalance the southern states where points of politics are concerned. So this bloc of southern school boards has an unrivalled power to influence the choices of the major textbook publishers in the country--of which there are only like four, anyhow. Basically, they don't publish anything the school board of Texas doesn't buy.

You can see where this headed, but it's already shockingly total. Right now, a sex ed textbook that isn't "abstinence only" cannot be bought in the United States. Not a current one, not from any major publisher. There are inroads against evolution as well, but sex ed has basically been exterminated.

Link

Thad sez, "This is a torrent of all of the briefs submitted re: MGM v. Grokster, in the zip format provided on the U.S. Copyright Office site." Torrent Link for 74 briefs in 20.7MB

Starbucks has been printing witty and pithy aphorisms on its paper cups, many of them from "liberal" thinkers (it's alarming that Chuck D is considered a "liberal;" if I were him, I'd demand to be considered "radical" -- "liberal" sounds so soppy and weak-kneed).

So right-wing Starbucks customers have gathered to protest this, demanding that Starbucks give equal representation to "conservative" thought. And to judge from the comments on the Starbucks site, it's clear that environmentalists don't count as conservatives.

I think they should get lots of good conservative quotes, like John Gilmore's "If you're watching everyone, you're watching no one," and Lincoln's "If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and its finisher," and Jefferson's "He who receives an idea from me receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me."

The problem, critics say, is the company's list of overwhelmingly liberal contributors, including Al Franken, Melissa Etheridge, Quincy Jones, Chuck D. Of the 31 contributors listed on Starbucks' Web site, only one, National Review editor Jonah Goldberg, offers a conservative viewpoint.

Considering Starbucks sells millions of cups of coffee each day - some specialty drinks at $4 and up - it's no surprise some customers have complained to Starbucks' Web site, labeling the campaign "offensive" and the company a proponent of "the destruction of family values and virtues."

"I want to enjoy your product without having Earth Day Network propaganda thrust at me," wrote Malachi Salcido of East Wenatchee, Wash.

Link

How does a company trademark a color? Boing Boing reader Rob says,

Because it's Easter, I find myself in the possession of a Cadbury chocolate product. What do I find on the back?

"Cadbury, ellipse device, dairy milk, the glass and a half device and THE COLOUR PURPLE are Cadbury Limited trademarks used under licence in New Zealand by Cadbury Confectionery Ltd."

All our purple are belong to Cadbury Confectionery Ltd.!

Link

Update: Kevin Fox sez

In regards to Cadbury trademarking the color purple, four years ago I was working as a boom operator on an independent film and noticed that the boom manufacturer, Mr.LongArm, had trademarked the color yellow. I thought it was funny enough to document. blog post (tangential), and photo.

MartinS in Germany says,

Check my compatriots: been there, done that. German Telecom also thinks they own the letter "T". Link one, Link two.

Thomas J. Brown says:

In addition to Cadbury trademarking the colour purple and Mr. LongArm trademarking the colour yellow, my mum used to work for an ad agency that held an account with McDonalds. They have specific shades of red and yellow that are trademarked. I've also heard tell that Mattel owns green (G.I. Joe) and pink (Barbie).

Bill Bradford says, "Don't forget UPS Brown, which is Pantone color 0607298."

Esben says:

The artist Yves Klein patented his own special Ultramarine. It's a wonderful colour, with amazing clarity. His patenting it is still a matter of discussion in the art world: Link

Nick Douglas sez:

The trademarked colors only apply to uses of those colors in certain marketing. Trademarks, unlike other intellectual property, are violated by using them in a devious way to confuse consumers within an industry. I can use UPS brown in all my hamburger billboards. I can't use it in my delivery-company billboards. I also can't use the UPS logo on my hamburger billboards to imply that UPS sells, for some reason, my hamburgers. Basically, using Cadbury purple to sell deck chairs won't imply that Cadbury is associated with them. The judge would find that I'm not using Cadbury's trademarked color in a way that dilutes Cadbury's brand, confuses their customers, or implies false connections.

Brian says:

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled about 10 years ago that colors may be trademarks here. Green-gold drycleaning press pads were the issue in that case: Qualitex v. Jacobson Products.

An attorney who asks to remain anonymous says:

Tiffany Blue is probably the most famous trademarked color - but just b/c Tiffany trademarked it - they only own that blue in situations where it could be confused with their products. You could paint your house that color, for example, without having a problem.

Also, a ton of companies have probably trademarked the color yellow - but they only get it for that product. Stanley could trademark yellow screwdrivers, caterpillar could trademark yellow bulldozers, and 'Mr. Longarm' has apparently trademarked yellow booms. Given the wide range of products Tiffany sells, and the uniqueness of their shade of blue, Tiffany probably owns that blue for just about any kind of box that jewelry or other gift could come in. All they have to say is, your honor, if your spouse gave you a box that color blue, would you assume it came from Tiffany & Co.?

Patent Attorney Stephen M. Nipper says:

There are actually quite a few "nontraditional trademarks" (background, and more background). Some examples I can think of: pink insulation (Owens-Corning), NBC's "ding ding ding" sound (Reg. No. 523,616), and plumeria-scented sewing thread (Reg. No. 1,639,128).

And John L. Welch says,

Here's a post from my blog regarding trademark rights and "trademarking:" Link. By the way, "trademark" is not a verb. One can "patent" an invention, and thereby acquire certain exclusive rights in the invention. But one can't "trademark" anything. Trademark rights in the USA are acquired by use. One may choose to register the mark with the USPTO, and it's a good idea to do so, but that is optional. There's no such thing as "trademarking." One can register a mark, but the trademark rights have already been created through use. [Copyrights work the same way. As soon as one creates a work, he or she owns the copyright in the work. Registration is optional, but again a good idea, and indeed necessary if the copyright is to be enforced against infringers].

Companies often claim trademark rights in words, colors , shapes, etc., but that does not means those claims would hold up if tested. One often sees the "TM" or "SM" symbol used next to an alleged mark, but those symbols mean nothing more than that the user claims to own a trademark. The symbol does't even mean that an application to register has been filed. Anyone can put TM or SM on anything they want.

Use of the R-in-a-circle symbol, however, means that the mark has been federally registered (and thus has passed the muster of the USPTO examination process).

Duff is an ex-coder in Toronto who took Neal Stephenson and William Gibson to heart, and gave up programming to become a bike-courier, shedding pounds, getting hit by cars, and working the best job in his life. This K5 story covers the joys of couriering in depth. i used to ride a bike winter and summer in Toronto, and it was amazing. These days in London I'm still looking the wrong way when I step off the kerb about half the time, so I'm not getting near a bicycle until I can get my subconscious retrained.

As a courier, you will get hit by cars. It is an occupational hazard. Most of the skill involved in being a bike courier relates to making sure you never occupy the same space as a car at the same time. Even so, no matter how hard you pedal, you can't outrun the law of averages...

Personally, I have been hit twice while working. The first time was by a cabbie who changed lanes into me. I was knocked from my bike. My front wheel and shocks were damaged, but i wasn't. The second time was a door prize. As i rode north up Yonge, someone opened the door of their parked car directly into my path. This one was very scary, as the fall sent me rolling across three lanes of busy traffic, but both my bike and my person came out of it unharmed.

One thing I was surprised to discover is that pedestrians are almost as dangerous to the full-time cyclist as drivers are. Especially if you indulge in sidewalk riding, but frequently even if you stick to the road, people will dart in front of you or suddenly stop or change direction without even the most cursory glance or indication of intent. A car, at least, can't change its direction of travel by a full 180 degrees in half a second. Personally, I have never hit a pedestrian, but on at least two occasions I have bailed in the process of sudden evasive manoevers which they required of me.

Link (via AccordionGuy)