3 Count: Electric Sheep

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1: Nirvana Bassist Defends Bono’s Antipiracy Stance

First off today, even though most of the Internet is lashing out at U2 rocker Bono for his controversial oped in the New York Times where he supported restrictions on Web access to limit piracy and cited China as a model, he does seem to have found at least one ally, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic.

Novoselic said that, “Content needs to be worth something, if anybody is going to care about it.’ He went on to draw an analogy with the current movie “Avatar” saying that it would not have worked if content had not been valued high enough to warrant the investments.

Though it is unlikely this newfound ally will stem the anger against Bono much, it is still interesting to see other musicians come to his aid.

2: Photo of Arenas in Philadelphia Disappeared From Getty’s Web Site

Next up today, it was perhaps the least fortunate photo of Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas, who was recently suspended indefinitely for having a gun in his locker during a game. The photos showed Arenas laughing with other teammates, his fingers curled into a gun shape and jokingly pretending to shoot his teammates.

The photo had made its rounds on various news sites and had become the subject of a large amount of ridicule, but the photo recently disappeared from Getty Images’ site, the company that was distributing and licensing the work.

The reason was because the NBA, at least temporarily, revoked its license to the image, which was taken by an NBA photographer. Getty does not hold the copyright in the image and, as part of their contract with the NBA, the league has final editorial control over the posted images.

However, after pressing, the NBA reconsidered the decision and allowed the photo to be restored to Getty’s library for licensing.

3: Philip K. Dick’s Estate Accuses Google of Stealing “Android” and “Nexus” Names

Finally today, representatives from Philip Dick’s estate have announced their intention to file a lawsuit against Google over at least two names the company has used for its new mobile phone offerings, including “Android”, which is the name of the operating system Google created for mobile phones, and “Nexus One”, which is the name of its new mobile phone that was announced yesterday.

According to their allegations, the names are ripped straight from Dick’s classic science fiction novel, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” They have said they plan to sue Google for copyright infringement, as well as likely other intellectual property-related torts.

There is no word on when the lawsuit may be forthcoming and what the damages requested might be.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will 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.

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