Top all-time · #9832
William Patry
Personal blog · williampatry.blogspot.comculturewriting
William Patry writes The Patry Copyright Blog, a personal blog at williampatry.blogspot.com about culture and writing. Since 2008, 8 different Hacker News readers have linked it 8 times, most often “ End of the Blog”. The last post was in 2010, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Patry's Copyright Blog is cited on HN for US copyright law topics such as the first sale doctrine, DMCA application to the US government, criminal copyright enforcement and photography as copying.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- /2007/05/first-sale-fandango.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-01-09
- End of the Blog2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2008-08-03
What Hacker News says?
You state your answer with great confidence, but I think you are wrong. In the US (where Netflix is based), the "first sale doctrine" has been held to allow the rental of any legally purchased DVD (even those purchased at Walmart): Because of the first-sale doctrine, any DVD reseller, including Netflix, can basically buy a DVD at WalMart, and turn around and rent it to someone else the very same day. The content own…
Comment linking /2007/05/first-sale-fandango.html
on “Save Netflix”Submitted End of the Blog as a story · 34 points
HN discussionUPDATE: London Film Productions Ltd. v. Intercontinental Communications, Inc. found jurisdiction for a US district court in a case with a British plaintiff, a US defendant, where the infringement took place in several Latin American jurisdictions. However, the court only took the case because it was found there would be an enormous hardship to force the plaintiff to pursue relief in several foreign jurisdictions. An…
Comment linking /2006/05/copyright-is-not-transitory-tort.html
on “Popcorn Time Is So Good at Movie Piracy, It’s Scary”Submitted First Sale Victory in Vernor as a story · 11 points
HN discussionI’m no longer in the field since this was written, but there was certainly a huge move towards criminal treatment of what should be wholly civil copyright law: https://williampatry.blogspot.com/2007/06/over-criminalizing...
Comment linking /2007/06/over-criminalizing-copyright.html?m=1
on “Don’t use the word ‘did’ or dumb anti-piracy company will delete you from Google”You're pretty much spot on. After taking several copyright courses in law school, I can definitively say that the whole area of law is a clusterfuck. Even the seminal cases aren't consistent, let alone those on the periphery. Sadly, most of the closer cases seem to come down the a single judge's gut feeling. If either side has deep enough pockets, they can force the case to come down to a panel of judges' gut feelin…
Comment linking /2008/08/end-of-blog.html
on “Photography Is "Copying;" More Fallout from Maisel vs. Baio”Read the license terms on the back of any movie DVD you own. Also: http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6642010.html As you'll note therein, if a DVD is on sale in the store, the first sale doctrine of copyright law means you can legally rent it out to people, same way you can sell second hand books without getting publishers' permission to do so. The reason I cite the rental version above is that is how it has be…
Comment linking /2007/05/first-sale-fandango.html
on “Netflix Caves to Warner Brothers”Patry's Copyright Blog ( http://williampatry.blogspot.com/ ) also discussed this case at length on August 2. Since Patry took the blog down temporarily and is now putting it back up, I'm going to copy paste the relevant post here. The Executive Branch of our government has been on an IP public relations binge lately, strutting like a peacock and showing off its finest colors of commitment to strong IP rights. Albert…
Comment linking /
on “DMCA Does Not Apply to U.S. Government”
