Free Talk Live

This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned.

The author who was the victim of this Big Brotherish plot was none other than George Orwell. And the books were “1984” and “Animal Farm.”

Clear arguments on Copyright, "Salvos Against Big Brother". It's ironic, but Eric Flint - a very successful published author - is a Trotskyite (socialist), but his views on copyright are very libertarian. He skewers the monopolists better than anyone else.

Author Gardner Goldsmith shares some tips about navigating through the new and changing world of publishing and agents. Listen to this if you even want to write a successful book in this modern age. Also discussed is awesomeness of Freedom Book Club.

An author of a book that allegedly advocates pedophiles having sex with children was arrested for simply selling the last copy of his book to a Florida undercover cop and is charged with breaking the state's obscenity law.

A description of one of the rarest astronomical events and a new offer from liberty activist and author Tarrin Lupo.

Proposed revisions to copyright law would make "illegal streaming" of music and video a felony offense and would allow FBI to wiretap those who are suspected of violating copyright law.

At issue in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons is the first-sale doctrine in copyright law, which allows you to buy and then sell things like electronics, books, artwork and furniture, as well as CDs and DVDs, without getting permission from the copyright holder of those products. Under the doctrine, which the Supreme Court has recognized since 1908, you can resell your stuff without worry because the copyright holder only had control over the first sale.

"They herald 3D Printing as a revolutionary and disruptive technology, but how will these printers truly affect our society? 3D Printing could have a game-changing impact on consumer culture, copyright and patent law, and even the very concept of scarcity on which our economy is based. From at-home repairs to new businesses, from medical to ecological developments, 3D Printing has an undeniably wide range of possibilities which could profoundly change our world."

Ironically, they include this disclaimer/notice (emphasis added):

As part of its ongoing punishment of any institute or company that defends copyright, Anonymous has now taken down the website of The United States Copyright Office. The group managed to take copyright.gov offline for half an hour. After that the website started to respond again slowly, with occasional outages.