Interesting Links for 31-03-2014

[andrewducker]

• Beer! Cures! Cancer!
  (tags: cancer beer )
• The problem with Moffat
  (tags: StevenMoffat writing )
• UK will finally allow citizens to legally rip CDs (and quote people!)
  (tags: uk copyright )
• 'Game Of Thrones' Cast Hits The Beach, Poses For The Best Photo Ever Taken
  (tags: gameofthrones photos )
• Having an animator for a dad is, unsurprisingly, awesome

Comments

[philmophlegm]

Question on the format shifting thing:

Will it now be legal to download a film (even from a dodgy torrent site) for use on one of your devices so long as you own a copy of said film on DVD?

Looking at the draft SI, I'm not sure if it is saying that you have to be the one who makes the copy or not.

[andrewducker]

The problem with Torrents is that unless you set things up very carefully you'll be uploading as well as downloading, which is _definitely_ illegal.

As to the main thrust of your question - I shall have to hope a lawyer drops by!

[drdoug]

IANAL, but I do have some grasp of English-and-Welsh law on IP and have read the Draft Regulations[PDF] and they're pretty clear: that'll still be illegal.

The Regulations basically change the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to say that it's not infringing copyright if you make a copy under certain circumstances - and one of those is that you are copying a work from a copy that 'has been lawfully acquired by the individual on a permanent basis'. (You're also allowed to copy that copy.)

So taking your example, it's Ok to copy your DVD, but not to download and copy a torrent of it.

If you pay to download a movie to keep (not streaming, and not a limited-time copy), you'll be free under these regs to copy that.

(The Consumer Guide[PDF] to the changes says "So you will not be able to [...] copy videos illegally
downloaded from file-sharing websites.", which gives me confidence my interpretation is correct.)

[drdoug]

... although of course there's the DRM issue, duh, wasn't thinking about that.

This is one where the Government seems to be trying to do the right thing (you can crack the DRM if it's stopping you doing something you're allowed to) but has stopped short (the Consumer Guide says that you can't crack DRM, but can complain to the Secretary of State in such circumstances) - almost certainly because the European Copyright Directive won't let them go any further.

It's an ugly mess of a situation. I wouldn't want to be the Secretary of State on the receiving end of a huge volume of such complaints.

[philmophlegm]

Re: Space Station 76

The article had me at "...looks like Space 1999".

[andrewducker]

I figured that there would be a few people who would fall instantly for that :->

[i_kender]

Just realised I've never said this - I love your links aggregator, it's the best one I've seen. I'd use it. I think everyone whould try it.

Maybe you should sell it? It's something I would buy.

[andrewducker]

Glad you like it!

And anyone is free to use it - it's at:
https://feedthistothat.appspot.com

I don't see it being something people would pay a fortune for.

I'm working on version two at the moment, but not terribly quickly, as my brain isn't functioning as well as it has in the past.

(Version two will allow reading from multiple sources, cope with errors better, and be altogether more polished.)

[rhythmaning]

I saw this on Twitter: Earl Grey tea fights cancer.

I wanted to tweet "I wish they'd find something in whisky instead..." but googled first.

I found this: whisky fights cancer.

Meanwhile tea causes cancer in women and tea causes cancer in men.

Although surprisingly - and pleasingly - I could find no claims whisky causes cancer (over and above alcohol causing cancer.

[andrewducker]

I can't get to it from work, but google:
"daily mail cause cure cancer"

:->

[skington]

Wait, what? You can't get to google? Or does your work have a ridiculously-paranoid whitelisted version of the Internet?

[naath]

http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/

[rysmiel]

The problem with Moffat is that he basically has one story to tell about the Doctor, and it's The Curse of Fatal Death, and there's only so many times he can rearrange those pieces before people notice.

[ipslore]

Yeah, that sounds about right. And the secondary problem there is that Curse was a joke, a deliberately-shallow farce, and he's trying to rearrange the bits into an Actual Story.