Fur flies in this purrr-fect ‘Batcat v Supercat’ video; Comic Book Resources, 7/3/16

Kevin Melrose, Comic Book Resources; Fur flies in this purrr-fect ‘Batcat v Supercat’ video:

"This parody of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” — called “Batcat v Supercat,” of course — is the work of Kaipo JOnes, who also produced “Magneto Cat” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine Cat.” You may detect a theme at play."

One of the copyright's scummiest trolls loses his law license; Boing Boing, 7/3/16

Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing; One of the copyright's scummiest trolls loses his law license:

"For more than four years, we've chronicled the sleazy story of Prenda Law, a copyright troll whose extortion racket included genuinely bizarre acts of identity theft, even weirder random homophobic dog-whistles, and uploading their own porn movies to entrap new victims, and, naturally, an FBI investigation into the firm's partners' illegal conduct.

Now, Paul Hansmeier, one of Prenda's masterminds, has lost his license to practice law, after "voluntarily stipulating" to its suspension in an investigation into his professional conduct -- a plea bargain that forestalled a judgment by the Minnesota court hearing the case brought against him by the state's Office of Lawyer Professional Responsibility.

Hansmeier had recently branched out from copyright trolling to ADA trolling -- sending bogus threats under the Americans With Disabilities Act, a racket that, if anything, is even more despicable than pornographic copyright trolling (!), as it discredits the good work that real civil rights lawyers do to protect the rights of disabled people."

With Canada’s Entry, Treaty for the Blind Will Come Into Force; Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), 6/30/16

Parker Higgins, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF); With Canada’s Entry, Treaty for the Blind Will Come Into Force:

"A groundbreaking international agreement to address the “book famine” for blind and print-disabled people is now set to go into force after passing another key milestone today. The agreement requires countries to allow the reproduction and distribution of accessible ebooks by limiting the scope of copyright restrictions.

The Marrakesh agreement takes aim at the global shortage of ebooks available in suitable formats for the print disabled, which in some regions is as low as 1% of published books. At the time of its completion, only 57 of the 184 member countries of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) had copyright exceptions for this purpose, and inconsistencies between them made sharing books between countries nearly impossible."

Amazon Inspire Removes Some Content Over Copyright Issues; New York Times, 6/29/16

Natasha Singer, New York Times; Amazon Inspire Removes Some Content Over Copyright Issues:

"Amazon designed the site to enable teachers to post and freely share lesson plans, quizzes and curriculums of their own design, as well as open educational resources created by others. Mr. Agarwal said that users were not supposed to upload copyrighted materials and that the site had a process in place to quickly take down items that were the subjects of such complaints.

But it may be more difficult than Amazon executives realized for the site’s users to distinguish between open educational resources and copyrighted works.

“Even with all the safeguards in place, you have the ability to have someone upload a resource that violates a copyright,” Mr. Agarwal conceded."

Britain’s Shaky Status as a Scientific Superpower; Atlantic, 6/24/16

Adrienne Lafrance, Atlantic; Britain’s Shaky Status as a Scientific Superpower:

"A sizable portion of funding for scientific research in the United Kingdom comes from EU grants, and the United Kingdom is one of the largest recipients of research funding in the union. Between 2007 and 2013, the U.K. received €8.8 billion—the equivalent of nearly $10 billion—for scientific research, according to a 2015 report published by the Royal Society, an independent scientific academy based in London. Drayson and others say it’s unlikely the United Kingdom will be able to negotiate a deal for such funding to continue...

Yet there’s more to the debate than money. More broadly, many scientists fear that international collaboration among researchers from across the EU will become difficult, if not impossible, once Britain leaves the union.

“Being in the EU gives us access to ideas, people and to investment in science,” Paul Nurse, the director of The Francis Crick Institute, told the BBC. “That, combined with mobility [of EU scientists], gives us increased collaboration, increased transfer of people, ideas and science—all of which history has shown us drives science.”

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, is a key example of the kind of collaboration that EU membership has enabled."

DONALD TRUMP BECOMES A MARVEL SUPERVILLAIN IN "SPIDER-GWEN"; Comic Book Resources, 7/2/16

Kevin Melrose, Comic Book Resources; DONALD TRUMP BECOMES A MARVEL SUPERVILLAIN IN "SPIDER-GWEN" :

"In an alternate Marvel Universe where Gwen Stacy, not Peter Parker, was bitten by a radioactive spider, and Samantha Wilson is Captain America, the classic supervillain M.O.D.O.K. resembles a certain real estate mogul turned reality TV star turned presidential candidate: Donald J. Trump.

In this week's "Spider-Gwen Annual" #1, writer Jason Latour and "an awesome assemblage of artists" offer a tour of Earth-65 with a collection of short stories that includes She-Hulk as a pro wrestler, the origin of Koala Kommander, and an all-too brief showdown between Captain America and M.O.D.O.K. -- wait, make that M.O.D.A.A.K. (Mental Organism Designed As America's King)."

President Obama Signs FOIA Reform Bill into Law on 50th Anniversary; Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, 6/30/16

Luis Ferre Sadurni, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; President Obama Signs FOIA Reform Bill into Law on 50th Anniversary:

"President Barack Obama today signed a bill that significantly reforms and improves access to public records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The signing marked the culmination of open government advocates' battle to reform part of FOIA ahead of the law's 50th anniversary on July 4th.

One of the most notable provisions is the law's mandate for agencies to operate from a presumption of openness, ensuring that information is withheld only under one of FOIA's nine exemptions. The bill codifies Obama's 2009 memorandum sent on his first day in office — which ordered federal departments to operate under this presumption.

The law also paves the way for the creation of a single online portal to accept FOIA requests for any agency, similar to FOIAonline, already in use by 12 agencies and offices. The Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) will also be strengthened with the reforms, permitting it to make recommendations for improving FOIA without necessarily seeking input from other agencies.

A White House fact sheet provides more details about the law and announced new members of the FOIA Advisory Committee."