francescacoppa: (OTW!byLim)
francescacoppa ([personal profile] francescacoppa) wrote in [community profile] otw_news2011-04-27 09:52 pm

Links Roundup for April 27, 2011

* The big news of the day: YouTube founders buy Delicious from Yahoo; this is also the big story on the blog at delicious.com. So far, there's not much in the way of details, though geek.com is reporting that users will have the ability to opt out when the service changes hands.

* Fans, beware: Tumblr may push you out of your account name without warning if a corporation decides it wants it. danah boyd is reporting that Tumblr moved her account without notice or warning at the behest of a corporate entity who had trademarked her long-term internet handle, "zephoria." Gawker.com reports another case in their story Tumblr Screws Hipster Underclass to Appease Hipster Overlords at Pitchfork, reporting that the person who blogged at pitchfork before Pitchfork Magazine got involved was moved, without permission or notice, to pitchfork1.tumblr.com.

* New Zealand snuck a '3 strikes you're out' copyright law into a larger emergency bill meant to help earthquake victims. Not only are these new amendments to the Copyright Act widely disliked, but there is resentment against the process of attaching them to an urgent emergency bill. A series of protests are planned for May 1st.

* Alison Croggon's talk, The Rise of the Amateur, is now online; in it, Croggon argues that the internet has created new excitement in the arts - both in terms of amateur art and amateur criticism.

* The Atlantic has published an interview with Kembrew McLeod, co-author of Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling, called, How Copyright Law Hurts Music, From Chuck D to Girl Talk .

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about you can submit it in three easy ways: comment on the most recent Link Roundup on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW, tag a link with "for:otw_news" on Delicious or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. Links are welcome in all languages!

Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW Blog.
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[personal profile] elements 2011-04-28 05:52 am (UTC)(link)
FWIW: danah has updated her post to reflect Tumblr having apologized, and eventually restored her account. She says she'll be posting more about it all tomorrow. Not that this in any way excuses Tumblr's behavior, or makes the fragility of users being at the mercy of draconian ToS's any better, but it's worth knowing for anyone who's invested in using Tumblr.
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[personal profile] elements 2011-04-28 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah seriously. Apparently the Tumblr people claim it's only ever happened in 4 cases, and that the others they felt were clear cases of trademark-squatting rather than active use. But it shouldn't take fame and an amazing network to get fair action.

Then there's the whole bit today with Ars Technica getting locked out of their Facebook page. Again, happens to normal people/orgs all the time.

For fans and Tumblr, I'm worried about the stability there of any RPF role-playing accounts, disclaimered or not.