‘Gaymers’ petition USPTO
An important and interesting story about a group of Reddit users who are petitioning the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office claiming the term “gaymer” should remain in the public domain. “Reddit ‘Gaymers’ Fight Cease-and-Desist Letter claiming ‘gaymer’ is a word that should remain in the public domain”: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9236068/Reddit_39_gaymer_39_group_fights_back_against_trademark Thoughts? jon
Wednesday’s Guest Speaker: Jas Purewal
Hello colleagues, Will and I wanted to give you a brief overview of Wednesday’s guest speaker. Jas Purewal is a lawyer at the London office of Osborne Clarke. He is a commercial and intellectual property lawyer with a focus on interactive entertainment and digital media. Jas is a regular commentator on recent developments in these […]
Swedish Innovative Culture
Found these sites in my research for today’s class. Would welcome any other interesting links you guys might have.. Sweden: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/111104/swedish-tech-has-its-abba-moment http://socialinnovation.se/en/finally-a-national-strategy-for-social-innovation/ http://www.euclidnetwork.eu/news-and-events/sector-news/840-swedish-innovation-strategy.html Link to actual Swedish Innovation Strategy Doc — http://www.government.se/content/1/c6/20/25/58/ace0cef0.pdf Also interesting and on topic. It’s a bit older, but gives a sense of the landscape in 2008http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/files/countryreports/sweden_en.pdf
Guest Speaker for 23 January 2013: Ian Verchere
Hello Colleagues, In preparation for our guest lecture on Wednesday, 23 January 2013, here is some information on our guest speaker: Ian Verchere is the co-founder and Chief Creative of the Vancouver-based video game production and development company Roadhouse Interactive. Founded in 2009, Roadhouse specializes in games developed for browsers, social media, and mobile platforms […]
Stuff
1. Have updated the Syllabus. 2. News of the Week up. 3. Check out Michela’s “What Is Your Take” entry on violence research. 4. Added a few more links to “Aaron Swartz RIP” 5. Talk 2 is up (thanks to UBC CTLT). Trying (& failing so far) to get Roch’s slides up. Thanks again to […]
Moral rights and Harriette Potter
Interesting discussions today in class. Some thoughts and concerns: I find it quite reasonable to recognize copyright protections for expressions and NOT ideas. If the goal of copyright is to promote and encourage new works and the dissemination of these works, what would affording “exclusivity for a period of time” on an idea even look […]
For Roch Ripley’s talk during Discussion Hour this coming Wednesday
Roch has asked that I post the following links which will tie into a discussion of the evolution of copyright. Have a look: 1) Michael Geist Blog Posting: Why Canada is Keeping the Flawed Digital Lock Rules (http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6033/125/) 2) Dr. Mihaly Fiscor, “MINIMUM OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE WIPO ‘INTERNET TREATIES’ TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE PROTECTION FOR TECHNOLOGICAL […]
Has the Video-Game Industry Lost the Gun Debate: What is Your Take
First check out: How the Video-Game Industry Already Lost Out in the Gun-Control Debate by Ian Bogost. http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/how-the-video-game-industry-already-lost-out-in-the-gun-control-debate/267052/ What do you think? How are real and virtual guns the same/different from the perspective of causality? Are they lines on a continuum or “apples and oranges”? Comments/critiques/thoughts? jon
Latest stuff
1. Have moved Tyler’s post to What is Your Take. 2. Am about to try and get WordPress system to authorize students who provided email addresses to initiate posts. 3. Will try and get last classes News of the Week up tomorrow AM. Wish me luck as I explore and learn WordPress for the first […]
Course News
1. UBC Law has approved a grad student TA for our course. Associate Dean Harris has posted. 2. Todays slides are up. 3. UBC Centre for Teaching, Learning & Technology is very kindly working on a design for this site which should be implemented tomorrow. Will get News of the Week up as soon as […]