Letter to the Editor: "Get the Facts on Readers", Emailed to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Kip Currier, September 1, 2018

[Kip Currier: I'm copying below a Letter to the Editor--titled "Get the Facts on Readers"--that I emailed today (September 1, 2018) to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. For additional background, see this story.]

Get the Facts on Readers

Dear Editor,

The Post-Gazette is running a multi-platform ad campaign that weaponizes variations of the line “I will never go digital” to make fun of older readers, depicted as fuddy-duddy Luddites. In one particularly offensive TV spot, a digitally-savvy granddaughter openly mocks her grandmother who prefers print.

Research refutes the ageist “messages” in the P-G’s divisive marketing campaign. Many adult U.S. readers—of all ages—are hybrid readers who want the choice of information in both print and digital formats.

As evidence, take a look at some of the key findings from a Jan. 3-10, 2018 national survey of 2,002 U.S. adults, reported by the well-respected, non-partisan Pew Research Center:

Despite some growth in certain digital formats, it remains the case that relatively few Americans consume digital books (which include audiobooks and e-books) to the exclusion of print. Some 39% of Americans say they read only print books, while 29% read in these digital formats and also read print books.

And the coup de grace to the P-G’s graceless stereotyping:

Some demographic groups are more likely than others to be digital-only book readers, but in general this behavior is relatively rare across a wide range of demographics. For example, 10% of 18- to 29-year-olds only read books in digital formats, compared with 5% of those ages 50-64 and 4% of those 65 and older.

The P-G’s preening effort to digitally divide users borders on farce, given that P-G writers and staff repeatedly concede the deplorable state of the newspaper’s digital search and archival features.

The P-G’s tagline is “One of America’s Great Newspapers”. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, that tagline is not supported by facts. So, here’s a “message” for P-G ownership:

Hire some of the Pittsburgh region’s highly educated information professionals to help the P-G become a bona fide leader in print and digital content, search, and delivery. Give the Pittsburgh region a truly great newspaper that inclusively serves and respects all of its readers and residents.

James “Kip” Currier 

Mt. Lebanon

Post-Gazette Is Going Digital, At Least On Some Days, With An Ad Campaign That Is Raising Eyebrows; KDKA 2 CBS Pittsburgh, August 22, 2018

Jon Delano, KDKA 2 CBS Pittsburgh; Post-Gazette Is Going Digital, At Least On Some Days, With An Ad Campaign That Is Raising Eyebrows

"The PG has billboards up around town and television ads on-air, featuring those who say they will never go digital.

One TV advertisement: “PGe and PG NewsSlide, who the bleep needs them. Last time I went on line they tried to track my cookies. They’ll never get my cookie recipe.” 

Another TV advertisement: “Now they’re telling me PG is going digital. They can stick their digital. I’m not doing that.” 

“It’s a little insensitive to the readers who really are connected to print, who really depend on print,” said [Andrew] Conte [director of Point Park University’s Center for Media Innovation].

Not true, says [Allan] Block [chairman of Block Communications that owns the PG]."

IBM makes millions off patents, but it could make billions with open source; TechRepublic, August 24, 2018

Matt Asay, TechRepublic;

IBM makes millions off patents, but it could make billions with open source

"While patent collectors will often claim that their portfolio is a good indicator of the deep research and development they do, rarely do we see patent heft translate directly into product success. Why? Because rarely do products succeed simply because of technical merit.

Instead, the most successful companies are those that can execute (sales, marketing, etc.) around a product, whatever its technical merits. In this area, IBM has largely failed over the last decade...

IBM has long been one of the pioneers in open source software, which is where most usable innovation seems to be happening today. From TensorFlow to Apache Kafka to Kubernetes, if IBM wants to compete with modern technology giants like Google and Microsoft, it needs to innovate in the same way they do, too. Yes, they still gather patents, but their more interesting work emerges as open source software."

New Paper Looks At Differential Protection For Traditional Knowledge, Folklore; Intellectual Property Watch, August 30, 2018

Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch;

New Paper Looks At Differential Protection For Traditional Knowledge, Folklore

 

"The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) based in Canada recently issued a paper [pdf] on the tiered or differentiated approach to traditional knowledge (TK) and traditional cultural expressions (TCEs)."

Trademarks, Patents and Copyrights, Oh My! What's the Difference?; Business News Daily, August 10, 2018

Adam C. Uzialko, Business News Daily;

Trademarks, Patents and Copyrights, Oh My! What's the Difference?

"Intellectual property might seem esoteric, but it's important to protect it like you would any other asset. To do so, you'll need to understand some basics about intellectual property rights first. 

Two of the most common forms of intellectual property protections are the copyright and the trademark. While the two are often confused, they protect very different types of intellectual property. Learning the differences, and how you can use both to protect your own creative output, is essential to securing your assets."

Ethics in Computing Panel; InfoQ, August 28, 2018

[Video] InfoQ; Ethics in Computing Panel

"Summary
 
The panelists discuss the important points around privacy, security, safety online, and intent of software today." 

"Kathy Pham is currently researching the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center and MIT Media Lab."

Kathy Pham quote from video: 

[13:11 in video] "What a good engineer is maybe is something we should rethink as well.

I spend a lot of time in academia now. And I hear over and over again that people who are of the computer science plus philosophy or computer science plus social science background, have the hardest time finding jobs. Even if they're within the CS Department they have such a hard time getting jobs because they're not like the real hard science, or the real hard engineering discipline...

Those kinds of people provide a really different perspective on how we build our products. So if you're in charge of hiring for your companies, perhaps we all just need to rethink how we hire people and what makes a good engineer."

"Natalie Evans Harris is COO and VP of Ecosystem Development at BrightHive."

Natalie Evans Harris quote from video:

[12:28 in video:] "While we look at resumes and we care where you get your skills and degrees from, we also want to know what your ethical code of conduct is."

Predatory publishers: the journals that churn out fake science; The Guardian, August 10, 2018

Alex Hern and Pamela Duncan, The Guardian;

Predatory publishers: the journals that churn out fake science

"A vast ecosystem of predatory publishers is churning out “fake science” for profit, an investigation by the Guardian in collaboration with German publishers NDR, WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin has found.

More than 175,000 scientific articles have been produced by five of the largest “predatory open-access publishers”, including India-based Omics publishing group and the Turkish World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, or Waset."

 

California Bill Is a Win for Access to Scientific Research; Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), August 30, 2018

Elliot Harmon, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF); California Bill Is a Win for Access to Scientific Research

"In Passing A.B. 2192, California Leads the Country in Open Access

The California legislature just scored a huge win in the fight for open access to scientific research.

Now it’s up to Governor Jerry Brown to sign it. Under A.B. 2192—which passed both houses unanimously—all peer-reviewed, scientific research funded by the state of California would be made available to the public no later than one year after publication. There’s a similar law on the books in California right now, but it only applies to research funded by the Department of Public Health, and it’s set to expire in 2020. A.B. 2192 would extend it indefinitely and expand it to cover research funded by any state agency...

Finally, it’s time for Congress to pass a federal open access bill. Despite having strong support in both parties, the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR, S. 1701, H.R. 3427) has been stuck in Congressional gridlock for five years. Take a moment to celebrate the passage of A.B. 2192 by writing your members of Congress and urging them to pass FASTR."

Copyright and Cosplay: Working With an Awkward Fit; Public Knowledge, August 29, 2018

Meredith Filak Rose, Public Knowledge; Copyright and Cosplay: Working With an Awkward Fit

"One of the questions about copyright that comes up most often at fan conventions is whether or not cosplay is “legal.” It’s a good question, but it gets into some of the murkiest areas of copyright law."

The Biggest Mistakes When Dealing With Copyrights; FosterSwift via YouTube, June 18, 2018

[Video] Josh W. Mashni, FosterSwift via YouTube; The Biggest Mistakes When Dealing With Copyrights

WIPO Traditional Knowledge Committee Begins Work On Core Issues; Indigenous Peoples May Be Left Out; Intellectual Property Watch, August 27, 2018

Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch;

WIPO Traditional Knowledge Committee Begins Work On Core Issues; Indigenous Peoples May Be Left Out

"The World Intellectual Property Organization’s committee seeking to find solutions against misappropriation of traditional knowledge opened this morning. While delegates are expected to negotiate wording of a potential treaty, the fund allowing indigenous peoples to participate in the discussions is empty with no foreseeable new donors, described by the chair as a historical situation. The committee is also trying to agree on recommendations for the upcoming WIPO General Assembly next month. On core issues, such as what the protection should cover, who would benefit from it, and under which conditions, delegates still have to find common positions."

Trump’s NAFTA Revision Could Further Extend Copyright Term (Or Not); Comic Book Resources, August 27, 2018

Eirik Gumeny, Comic Book Resources; Trump’s NAFTA Revision Could Further Extend Copyright Term (Or Not)

"An ambiguous press release from the United States government relating to the North American Free Trade Agreement is causing unexpected confusion for authors and copyright lawyers, as one specific document seems to state that the copyright term may be extended to 75 years. The wording, however, is unclear.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, a fact sheet released today by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative indicated that the “copyright term” — the length of time the creator of a particular work is entitled to certain protective rights — would “extend” to 75 years. Currently, the copyright term is set for the life of the author, plus 70 years."

The Story of the American Inventor Denied a Patent Because He Was a Slave; Gizmodo, August 28, 2018

Matt Novak, Gizmodo;

The Story of the American Inventor Denied a Patent Because He Was a Slave

"The world of invention is famous for its patent disputes. But what happens when your dispute wasn’t with another inventor but whether the Patent Office saw you as a person at all? In 1864, a black man named Benjamin T. Montgomery tried to patent his new propeller for steamboats. The Patent Office said that he wasn’t allowed to patent his invention. All because he was enslaved."

This New Hotel Room Is So Groundbreaking That They Patented It; Forbes, August 26, 2018

Christopher Elliott, Forbes; This New Hotel Room Is So Groundbreaking That They Patented It

"Can a hotel room be so groundbreaking that it deserves a patent? If it's the WorkLife Room, billed as the “guestroom of the future,” the answer apparently is yes.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) just approved InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)'s application for its new WorkLife Room at its Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts brand."

Copyright transfer, assignment and licensing in the United States; Lexology, June 25, 2018

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP - Jeff C. Dodd, Jonathan D. Reichman and Susanna P. Lichter,

Lexology; Copyright transfer, assignment and licensing in the United States

  

Who Gets to Read the Research We Pay For?; Slate, August 21, 2018

Aaron Mak, Slate; Who Gets to Read the Research We Pay For?: Scientific journals’ lock on new studies has ignited tension for years. When it comes to access for people with rare diseases, it becomes an ethical issue too.

"This does not sit well with academics and other members of the research community, who often publicly complain about the company’s profit margins, its allegedly restrictive copyrights, and the fact that much of the research it sells access to is taxpayer-funded. This public outrage seems to have gotten under the skin of William Gunn, Elsevier’s director of scholarly communications. When one user argued that people in rare-disease families “shouldn’t have to jump through additional hoops to access information,” Gunn responded, “Yes, everyone should have rainbows, unicorns, & puppies delivered to their doorstep by volunteers. Y’all keep wishing for that, I’ll keep working on producing the best knowledge and distributing it as best we can.”

This is just one reckless tweet in the heat of a Twitter spat (though it’s worth bearing Gunn’s job title in mind), and, sure, he later apologized. But the issue of rare-disease families trying to avoid the high fees associated with accessing research on potential treatments goes beyond this Twitter spat: It’s a real problem that has not been adequately fixed by the company."

Best Practices For Developing, Managing And Protecting Your Company's Intellectual Property; Forbes, August 16, 2018

Chalmers Brown, Forbes; Best Practices For Developing, Managing And Protecting Your Company's Intellectual Property

"Every company has some type of intellectual property (IP). It's that product or service that you have developed that sets you apart from other companies and frames your business, its purpose and its growth potential. Therefore, you want to keep developing, managing and protecting that IP in a way that drives more value and stimulates sustainable growth. It's also important that there is some type of exit strategy in place since most companies are acquired primarily due to their IP assets.

As someone who's created my own startups and is now working with others on theirs to help develop technology, I've gained a greater understanding of how to take care of these assets as an IT executive so that I might provide others with best practices to implement with their own IP. Previously, I did not prioritize IP in the way I should have. Here are some best practices to employ:"

Forrest Goodluck: the Native American actor ripping up the rulebook; The Guardian, August 23, 2018

Amy Nicholson, The Guardian; Forrest Goodluck: the Native American actor ripping up the rulebook

"Not bad for a boy from Albuquerque, New Mexico who started his career on an inauspicious stage. In fifth grade, Goodluck spent a month writing down every line in A Charlie Brown Christmas so he could direct it at his small school, a former mental hospital with two dingy spotlights in the basement and a stack of rusty metal folding chairs. “I didn’t know about copyright,” says Goodluck, but he did have a beagle who could play Snoopy. His Charlie Brown dropped out a week before the show, so Goodluck stepped into the lead role."

Steven Tyler orders Donald Trump to stop playing Aerosmith music at rallies; The Guardian, Augist 23, 2018

Ben Beaumont-Thomas, The Guardian; Steven Tyler orders Donald Trump to stop playing Aerosmith music at rallies

"Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith, has ordered Donald Trump to stop playing Aerosmith songs at his political rallies.

Aerosmith’s Livin’ on the Edge was played at a Trump rally in Charleston, West Virginia, on Tuesday. In a cease-and-desist letter, Tyler’s lawyers argued: “Mr Trump is creating the false impression that our client has given his consent for the use of his music, and even that he endorses the presidency of Mr Trump.”"

FBI Agent Points to Need for Protecting Intellectual Property From Theft; KTIC Radio, August 22, 2018

Chris Clayton DTN Ag Policy Editor, KTIC Radio; FBI Agent Points to Need for Protecting Intellectual Property From Theft

"HIGH-PROFILE AG THEFTS

Agriculture has seen its share of high-profile thefts, some coming out of labs, while others come right out of cornfields. Nichols pointed to the case of Mo Hailong, who was sentenced in 2016 to three years in federal prison for stealing biotech corn seeds from DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto in the Midwest.

As DTN has reported in the past, before Hailong was caught, FBI agents said he shipped over 340 pounds of corn seeds from Iowa to his home in Florida. Authorities aren’t certain where the seeds went from there, but it was easy to conclude the seeds were sent to China. The FBI also recorded some of Hailong’s phone calls back to China, in which he and a Chinese plant breeder talked about “using the foreigners’ technology to beat them.” Citing the need to boost biotechnology in China, one of Hailong’s co-conspirators said, “There is a serious need for a national hero.”"

USPTO Seeking Public Comments on Draft 2018-2022 Strategic Plan; U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), August 22, 2018

USPTO Seeking Public Comments on Draft 2018-2022 Strategic Plan

"The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced it is seeking comments on the draft 2018-2022 Strategic Plan. The draft plan sets out the USPTO's mission-focused strategic goals: to optimize patent quality and timeliness; to optimize trademark quality and timeliness; and to provide domestic and global leadership to improve intellectual property (IP) policy, enforcement, and protection worldwide.

 

The USPTO welcomes comments on all aspects of the plan. Comments should be sent by email addressed to Strategicplanning1@uspto.gov (link sends e-mail). The USPTO will consider all comments received during the public comment period from August 22 through September 20, and anticipates posting the final strategic plan for FY 2018-2022 on www.uspto.gov in November 2018.

For more information on the proposed 2018-2022 Strategic Plan at the USPTO, please visit www.uspto.gov/about-us/performance-and-planning/strategy-and-reporting"

Calculating (and Acknowledging) the Costs of OER; Inside Higher Ed, July 25, 2018

Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed; Calculating (and Acknowledging) the Costs of OER

"The news releases regularly roll in to the email inbox these days with headlines like "College X has saved students $5 million by adopting open educational resources." Not only have these initiatives made a higher education more affordable, the colleges and universities note, but students who might have forgone buying an expensive textbook in the past are actually getting and using the OER content, ideally contributing to their academic success.

Amid those successes, rarely mentioned is the reality that in many cases, the institution itself is picking up the costs that were formally borne by the students, through some combination of direct subsidies to instructors to create the content and a loss of textbook revenue to a campus store, among other costs.

A session this week at the annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Business Officers addressed that issue head-on, in a way that would be unusual at a conference of OER advocates. It's not that the session took a skeptical view of OER -- far from it. The featured institution, the Pierce College District in Washington State, has fully embraced the use of open resources for affordability and efficacy, among other reasons. But the enthusiasm of the community college's open education project manager, Quill West, was balanced by the even-keeled acknowledgment of Choi Halladay, the district's vice president of administrative services, that OER comes at a price to the institution -- though a price very much worth paying, he said."

Copyright vs. Conscience: Lawyering Up Isn’t Always the Right Move; PetaPixel, August 21, 2018

Blair Bunting, PetaPixel; Copyright vs. Conscience: Lawyering Up Isn’t Always the Right Move

"You read stories about photographers going after copyright abuse all the time, and it’s nearly always justified. In this case, I hope you can agree with me that seeking monetary compensation through legal recourse was not the right move. Sometimes you have to step back and remember that this may be a business, but it’s a business that relies on people. Once in a while, you have to remember that everyone featured in a photograph is a human, and as such all deserve compassion.

Rest in peace, Old Man."

Face-PALM: US Patent and Trademark Office database down for 5 days and counting; The Register, August 20, 2018

Richard Speed, The Register; Face-PALM: US Patent and Trademark Office database down for 5 days and counting

"The Patent Application Locating and Monitoring (PALM) database forms the backbone of a distressingly large number of US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) systems and, during some maintenance at 04:30 ET on 15 August, "experienced an issue".

More than five days on, PALM is still down. As such, this is more akin to the Titanic experiencing an iceberg "issue" rather than a straightforward turn it off and on again.

Systems impacted include the USPTO's Electronic Filing System (EFS), the Public and Private Patent Application Retrieval (PAIR) systems and the Electronic Patent Assignment (ePAS) among others.

36 hours after the outage began, the USPTO kicked off its contingency systems so users could at least still file patents (in theory), if not access saved submissions. Users were not convinced."

Legal Counsel: Can you copyright a tweet?; The Oklahoman, August 19, 2018

Terry L. Watt, PhD, The Oklahoman; Legal Counsel: Can you copyright a tweet?

"Although there is no clear rule concerning the ability to copyright tweets, it is likely that in most cases they are not eligible. Still, when in doubt, getting permission from the author is always advised."

The Key to the Sharp Objects Mystery Is in the Music; Esquire, August 12, 2018

Matt Miller, Esquire; The Key to the Sharp Objects Mystery Is in the Music

[Kip Currier: HBO's 8-episode "Sharp Objects" is a thought-stirring, unflinching exhumation on the roles of "memory" and "place" in people's lives, as witnessed via the POV of childhood trauma survivor-cum-journalist Amy Adams' tragi-heroine. Music plays an inseparable role in the show's haunting story-telling and this Esquire article sheds fascinating light on the creative, collaborative spirit between director Jean-Marc Vallée and rock music icon band Led Zeppelin, whose songs stand out memorably in some key episodes.]

"Miraculously, [Led Zeppelin] liked the idea so much they approved not one but four songs; they also gave Vallée free reign to play as much of the tracks as he wanted and even layer them over each other to make his own atmosphere. “I think I fell on the floor,” Jacobs says of when she got the call, hearing that the songs had been approved. “Like, wow, this was so unprecedented, because they rarely ever let you use more than one song, and [we could] use the songs multiple times.”

The difference with Sharp Objects was Vallée’s approach to his soundtracks, which isn’t music as background music, but rather an integral part of the story and characterization."

How Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’ Became a Battle Cry for Musicians Seeking Royalties; The New York Times, August 17, 2018

Ben Sisario, The New York Times; How Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’ Became a Battle Cry for Musicians Seeking Royalties

"It was Aretha Franklin’s first No. 1 hit, the cry of empowerment that has defined her for generations: “Respect.”

But for the roughly seven million times the song has been played on American radio stations, she was paid nothing.

When Ms. Franklin died on Thursday at age 76, fans celebrated the song all over again as a theme for the women’s rights movement. But in the music industry, “Respect” has also played a symbolic role in a long fight over copyright issues that, advocates say, have deprived artists like Ms. Franklin of fair royalty payments...

[Aretha Franklin] also added what became the song’s signature line: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T / Find out what it means to me.” 

Ms. Franklin’s reinvention of Mr. Redding’s song has continued to fascinate critics. Peter Guralnick, the author of books like “Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom,” noted that she transformed the original meaning “not so much by changing the lyrics, as by the feeling that she imparted on the song — so that ‘Respect’ became a proclamation of freedom, a proclamation of feminism, a proclamation of an independent spirit.”"