Mother Jones mag - "Intellectual property"'s worst excesses

By Cory Doctorow at 7:56 pm Thursday, Mar 23

Mother Jones, a left-wing magazine, has published a Harpers-Index-style guide to copyright's worst excesses; it's notable that this week both they and their ideological opponents at the libertarian Cato Institute have both published material supporting the copyfight. It's truly a nonpartisan fight:

A DAY AFTER Senator Orrin Hatch said "destroying their machines" might be the only way to stop illegal downloaders, unlicensed software was discovered on his website.

BILL GATES had the 11-million-image Bettmann Archive buried 220 feet underground. Archivists can access only the 2% that was first digitized.

AMONG THE 16,000 people thus far sued for sharing music files was a 65-year-old woman who, though she didn't own downloading software, was accused of sharing 2,000 songs, including Trick Daddy's "I'm a Thug." She was sued for up to $150,000 per song.

MICROSOFT UK held a contest for the best film on "intellectual property theft"; finalists had to sign away "all intellectual property rights" on "terms acceptable to Microsoft."

Link (Thanks, Dave!)