This is the time of year for cookouts and gatherings with family and friends, and the sharing of traditional family recipes. What’s the secret behind Uncle Mac’s perfect grilled steak (the marinade, the rub or the technique?) or that special dessert whipped up by your sister-in-law? And this invariably leads to the request, “You must give me your recipe”. Most people are flattered when asked, and willingly comply, but what if your livelihood is based on creating recipes? Continue reading “What’s Cooking in the Copyright Kitchen?”
In the ongoing struggle in the digital world between the creators of content and those who apparently believe that it is their right to take for nothing what others are expected to pay for, in the process depriving the whole value chain of creativity from author to performer to producer to investor to distributor of their right to earn a return on their investment (creative or financial), there is the never-ending debate as to the most effective way to combat this world-wide problem. Solutions vary, with opponents of any anti-piracy or enforcement measures arguing that if only content owners would make their content more easily available, the entire problem of piracy would just go away. This argument, which dates back to the early days of digital music piracy, has little credence these days as content producers have invested heavily in developing alternative delivery models (most of which involve payment in one form or another) and in releasing and distributing content sooner and more widely. Continue reading “Fighting Digital Copyright Piracy: A Tripartite Solution (Rights-Holders, Technology Firms, Governments) is Needed.”
As Britain staggers to the finish line of the Brexit process—a line that is still moving as this is written—many, many uncertainties remain. As but one thorny example, how can the now-invisible border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland continue in its present form after Brexit if Britain is no longer in the EU? This is a demand that Ireland is insisting on as part of the Brexit negotiations. Northern Ireland could be given a “special status” within Britain but then that would mean creating a barrier between the north of Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, an outcome that is anathema to the dozen Ulster Unionist Members of Parliament who are propping up Prime Minister Theresa May’s government. Continue reading “Brexit and Copyright: An Update on the Road to D-Day”
Hugh Stephens Blog 