3 Count: Scribus Takedownius

This is daily column on Plagiarism Today where the site brings you three of the days biggest, most important copyright and plagiarism news links. If you want to offer your feedback on the column, use the contact form or just follow me on Twitter at @plagiarismtoday.

1: Are Tweets Copyright?

First off today, a new post by Mark Cuban regarding whether or not tweets are copyrighted has raised quite a stir. In it, he asks if tweets are copyright able and, if so, is their republications, including via retweeting, an infringement.

I actually touched on many of these issues earlier this year on the Blog Herald and it seems what I wrote has held up reasonably well. But obviously Mark is right to ask the questions as there is a lot of legal gray area with copyright and Twitter, as there is with any new technology.

2: Harry Potter Author JK Rowling Attacks Scribd For Pirated Content

Next up today Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling seems to have had at least some form of disagreement with “YouTube for documents” site Scribd. However, the actual nature of that disagreement seems to be very much in debate.

Initially it was reported that the author had sued the site for allegedly hosting copies of her famous books but updates to the story indicate that no such lawsuit has been filed though it is likely Rowling and her publisher used Scribd’s takedown process to remove some of those works.

In the end, it appears to be much ado about nothing as there is very little to report.

3: Jeff Vogel’s View From the Bottom #11

Finally today, independent game developer Jeff Vogel has posted a lengthy editorial cover the video game industries fight against piracy in which he draws the conclusion that all game developers are, essentially, charities since the only reason to buy the games is to feel good and do the right thing.

Vogel also concludes that DRM is a failed strategy that only punishes legitimate customers but does clarify to say that he isn’t going to “give” anyone his game and he does use license keys. According to him, if someone wants to steal his games, they will actually have to steal them.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today, we’ll be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

Want the Full Story?

Tune in every Saturday morning for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Monday morning right here on Plagiarism Today.