09 Sep 2004
Europe gives GM seed green light

Scary stuff ... but at least governments are trying to address the real problem, and not the "Oh no! GM food is poisonous!" claptrap that way too many enviromental groups spout. They're trying to pass

national legislation designed to prevent spread of transgenic material from genetically-modified crops into neighbouring fields of related plants - also known as 'co-existence legislation' - an issue which several European governments are grappling with.

The European Commission says it has approved a genetically-modified seed for planting.

(link) [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Facing the Copyright Rap

OK, ready: "Bite my ass!".

Since three notes sampled from a recording now constitutes copyright violation, I will be on the lookout for any work that uses those three words above, planning to collect my "license" fee for their reuse. And don't try modifying it: since the court ruled that lowering the pitch of the notes and extending them was also infringement, I figure that "Bite my buttocks!" or "Masiticate my hindquarters!" should also qualify me for a license fee.

The only problem is, what if I'm violating somebody else's copyright by putting those three words together? Hmmmm, could be a real problem here ...

I wonder what these judges were smoking?

Including snippets of another artist's song in your work -- a popular rapper technique known as 'sampling' -- may violate copyright law, an appeals court rules.

(link) [Wired News]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link