Tuesday News: Copyright comic book, net neutrality, Scribd’s new funding, and Zuckerberg’s book club
Bound by Law?: Free Comic Book Explains How Copyright Complicates Art – Whenever authors write books or filmmakers produce movies, there is a lot of background and cultural context, much of which is itself protected by copyright. From music lyrics that may play a role in a Romance novel to a copyrighted image that may serve as background in a crucial movie shot, intellectual property right criss cross over each other in sometimes complicated ways. Thus the beauty of this new comic book, Bound By Law, which tackles some of these issues.
Those are the difficult kinds of questions that filmmakers face, and they get sorted out in a pretty unique comic book written by Keith Aoki, James Boyle and, Jennifer Jenkins. Sponsored by Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, the comic is called Bound By Law? (Tales from the Public Domain). And it’s available as a free PDF file (8mb – 16mb), in html format, and also as a flash animation. There are also translations in Portuguese, French, and Italian. And wait, there’s more: the comic comes with a Foreword by Oscar-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, and an Introduction by BoingBoing blogger Cory Doctorow, who calls Bound by Law? not just “a treatise on copyright,” but also “a loving tribute to the form of comics.” –Open Culture
3 big questions remain as net neutrality heads to the end game – I know this is a surprise to everyone, but the legislative fight over net neutrality is getting bogged down by party politics. While net neutrality advocates are hoping for the reclassification of internet service providers as common carriers under Title II, opponents (read: a lot of Republicans) are championing the rights of these companies to create different speeds of service for different clients (read: pay to play internet connectivity). Although Obama favors the Title II solution, and he can veto any legislation that results from this battle, it’s still evidence of a very frustrating and frustrated process, which, despite the accusations from the right of over-regulation, has hardly been made easier or faster by those anti-net neutrality folks.
A spate of stories in the last week, particularly in the Wall Street Journal and Politico, suggest the GOP could respond with a burn-it-down approach if FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler dares to reclassify broadband providers as public utilities under Title II. The threatened retaliation includes budget cuts to the FCC, new legislation to stamp out Title II or obstructionist antics to prevent Wheeler conducting an important spectrum auction. It’s unclear, however, if the Republicans would actually go through with all of these measures — or if Title II opponents are just raising them in the media as a way to intimidate Wheeler and net neutrality supporters into backing down. –Gigaom
Scribd Gets $22 Million in Funding – Scribd, which boasts a growing reader base, currently at 80 million visitors a month (they claim growth of 31% a month since the subscription service was launched in October 2013), Scribd just got $22 million in new funding, with $48 million in total funding. Khosla Ventures, which led the campaign, has now landed a spot (as an “observer”) on the Scribd board of directors, as well.
The new round of funding caps a big year for Scribd and for the e-book subscription business model. Scribd offers unlimited subscription access to more than 500,000 e-books for $8.99/month. In the last year the service added audiobooks to its offerings as well as tens of thousands of titles from HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster and now offers content from more than 1,000 publishers. –Publishers Weekly
Mark Zuckerberg launches book club for 2015 – So, in another (not) surprise, Mark Zuckerberg’s new book club, A Year of Books, seems to be a hit, emptying Amazon’s virtual shelves of its first book, and supporting Zuckerberg’s larger goal to expanding Internet access to reach the most remote areas of the globe.
“I’m excited for my reading challenge. I’ve found reading books very intellectually fulfilling. Books allow you to fully explore a topic and immerse yourself in a deeper way than most media today. I’m looking forward to shifting more of my media diet towards reading books,” he wrote in a post on Jan. 2. His new book group had more than 147,000 likes by early Monday afternoon.
His first pick, “The End of Power,” already is temporarily out of stock on Amazon. It explores how the world is shifting to provide individuals more power traditionally held by large governments, the military and other similar organizations. Author Moisés Naím recently tweeted his thanks to Zuckerberg for choosing his work. –MSNBC
