EFF sues US government, saying copyright rules on DRM are unconstitutional; Ars Technica, 7/22/16

Joe Mullin, Ars Technica; EFF sues US government, saying copyright rules on DRM are unconstitutional:

""Section 1201 is a draconian and unnecessary restriction on speech and the time has come to set it aside," writes EFF staff attorney Kit Walsh in a blog post announcing the lawsuit. "The future of cultural participation and software-related research depends on it."

"[C]opyright law shouldn’t be casting a legal shadow over activities as basic as popping the hood of your own car, offering commentary on a shared piece of culture (and helping others do so), and testing security infrastructure," writes EFF's Parker Higgins, in a separate post explaining the effects that Section 1201 has on scholars, artists, and activists. "It’s time for the courts to revisit Section 1201, and fix Congress’s constitutional mistake.""

Why Do Women Inventors Hold So Few Patents?; Atlantic, 7/21/16

Adrienne LaFrance, Atlantic; Why Do Women Inventors Hold So Few Patents? :

"“The most significant determinant is women's underrepresentation in patent-intensive fields,” Frenkel wrote, citing a 2013 paper about why women patentees are underrepresented, “especially in electrical and mechanical engineering, and in patent-intensive jobs, especially development and design.”...

There’s evidence to suggest the inclusion of women inventors is good not just for women, but for business. Technological innovation is a huge driver of economic growth in the United States—it accounts for three-quarters of the nation’s postwar grown, the Commerce Department says. This kind of growth also produced high-paying jobs."

Publisher Seeks to Overcome Copyright Suit Over Famous Civil Rights Song; Hollywood Reporter, 7/18/16

Ashley Cullins, Hollywood Reporter; Publisher Seeks to Overcome Copyright Suit Over Famous Civil Rights Song:

"A documentary filmmaker, suing as the We Shall Overcome Foundation, filed a putative class action in April against Ludlow Music and the Richmond Organization, seeking a judgment that the song isn't copyrightable and that licensing fees collected for it must be returned. The lawsuit came after the filmmaker was denied a synch license to use an a cappella version of the song. In June, Lee Daniels' The Butler entered the fray, joining the suit because defendants had tried to charge $100,000 for use of the song in that film.

Plaintiffs argue "We Shall Overcome" is an adaptation of an African-American spiritual which is virtually identical to a 1948 composition called "We Will Overcome," the copyright for which expired in 1976. Therefore, they argue, that's when the unofficial anthem of the civil rights movement became part of the public domain."

Political Art in a Fractious Election Year; New York Times, 7/17/16

Randy Kennedy, New York Times; Political Art in a Fractious Election Year:

"Recently, bumper stickers and T-shirts began showing up around the country with a logo not for Hillary Clinton or Donald J. Trump but for a long-shot campaign: “Giant Meteor 2016: Just End It Already.”

The graphic, by Preston Whited, a production planner at a kayak-paddle company north of Seattle, was a lark that grew out of a Facebook chat among Mr. Whited and his friends. “We have a pretty dark sense of humor,” he said in a phone interview. “We came up with it, and I just took a Bernie ad and redid it on Excel and put it out there.” He added that, besides having no real graphic art experience, “I really don’t have any political faith in anything.”

A few weeks after he put the logo on Facebook, enterprising souls elsewhere on the web picked it up and began selling it on bumper stickers, shirts and hats. “Which is cool with me,” Mr. Whited, 30, said. “If I’d tried to copyright it and claim it, it never would have had the exposure it’s had. Now I see it all over. And I can go buy it and put it on my car.”"

Zika Data From the Lab, and Right to the Web; New York Times, 7/18/16

Donald G. McNeil Jr., New York Times; Zika Data From the Lab, and Right to the Web:

"Dr. O’Connor’s decision was the most radical manifestation of a trend already underway. In early February, more than 30 of the most prominent academic journals, research institutions and research funders signed a “Statement on Data Sharing in Public Health Emergencies” in which the journals agreed to make all articles about the Zika virus available free instead of charging their subscription fees, which can be hundreds of dollars.

The journals also agreed to consider articles that had first been posted for comment on public forums like bioRxiv, which is hosted by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island. The funders agreed to make everyone receiving their money share data as widely as possible...

“I never planned to be an evangelist,” he said. “I was happy toiling in anonymity, so this is a surreal experience. We all grew up in the same system: You do a study, you submit it to a journal, and your place in the hierarchy depends on the quality of the journal it appears in.”

“If it’s all you’ve known, you assume it’s the right way. But if you’ve got data that can contribute to the public health response during an epidemic — is it really yours to hang onto?”"

Pittsburgh's Digital Dream Labs sues British toy company over patent; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6/24/16

Patricia Sabatini, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Pittsburgh's Digital Dream Labs sues British toy company over patent:

"Pittsburgh startup Digital Dream Labs is suing to stop a British company from selling an educational toy in the U.S. that allegedly rips off Digital’s patented game technology.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, Digital claims that London-based Primo Toys plans to sell a playset in this country that essentially is a copycat of Digital’s Puzzlets game designed to teach children how to program computers.

Both companies’ toys involve arranging tiles on a game grid, which control the movement of a character."

Are MOOCs Forever?; Chronicle of Higher Education, 7/14/16

[Podcast and Transcript] Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education; Are MOOCs Forever? :

"Think back to the early days of MOOCs. Professors at Stanford and Harvard and other places were suddenly teaching really big classes, free. Hundreds of thousands of students at once were in those courses. It was an unprecedented giveaway of what had traditionally been the most expensive education in the world.

Back then, I met several students who were binging on the courses the way you might binge-watch a season of your favorite show on Netflix. They took as many courses as they possibly could, powering through and finishing as many as 30 courses in a year. When I asked why they were in such a hurry, the most popular reason was that they thought it was all too good to last. As one of those binging students told me, "I’m just afraid this whole thing might end soon." Surely, universities would change their mind about this, or the start-ups working with colleges might lock things up.

Fast forward to last month, when Coursera did something that stirred up all of those concerns again. On June 30 the company deleted hundreds of its earliest courses, as part of a shift to a new software platform. Reaction, as you might expect, was negative on social media and blogs. One programmer called it cultural vandalism...

Hello, and welcome to The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Re:Learning Podcast. I’m Jeff Young, and I recently had the chance to talk with Daphne Koller, a co-founder of Coursera, about those issues."