Physical World Assumptions and Software World Realities (And Why There Are More P2P Software Providers Than Ever Before)

Rights holders have been successful in every major copyright action brought against peer-to-peer (P2P) software providers. By 2005, those behind Napster, Aimster, Grokster, Morpheus and Kazaa have each been held liable for their users' infringements and effectively exited the market. But those successes did not result in any reduction in the availability of P2P file sharing software. In fact, the opposite occurred: soon after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of rights holders in Grokster, there was exponential growth in the number of P2P file sharing applications available. This Article argues that this came about because the pre-P2P and current U.S. secondary liability laws were and are based on a number of physical world assumptions that are simply not tenable in the software context. After identifying those assumptions, and contrasting them with the relevant software world realities, the Article demonstrates that the explosion in the number and availability of P2P apps can be traced directly to the Supreme Court's failure to recognize the mismatch between the two paradigms

We (Still) Need to Talk About \u3ci\u3eAereo\u3c/i\u3e: New Controversies and Unresolved Questions After the Supreme Court\u27s Decision

Recent judicial interpretations of U.S. copyright law have prompted businesses to design technologies in ways that enable the making and transmission of copies of works to consumers while falling outside the scope of the owner\u27s exclusive rights. The archetypal example is Aereo Inc.\u27s system for providing online access to broadcast television, which the Supreme Court has now ruled results in infringing public performances by Aereo. In previous work we urged the Court to develop a principled reading of the transmit clause focusing on the particular use rather than on the technical architecture of the delivery service (Giblin & Ginsburg, We Need to Talk About Aereo: Copyright-Avoiding Business Models, Cloud Storage and a Principled Reading of the \u27Transmit\u27 Clause ). Although we approach copyright law and policy from very different perspectives, we unite in the view that it is undesirable for legal outcomes to depend so heavily on technical design. Here, we evaluate the extent to which the Supreme Court was successful in reducing the law\u27s vulnerability to technological exploitation, consider the ramifications of the decision for other technology providers and users, and debate the merits and weaknesses of the decision

We Need to Talk About Aereo: Copyright-Avoiding Business Models, Cloud Storage and a Principled Reading of the Transmit Clause

Businesses are exploiting perceived gaps in the structure of copyright rights by ingeniously designing their technologies to fulfill demand for individual access through a structure of personalized copies and playback engineered in ways intended to implicate neither the public performance nor the reproduction rights. The archetypal example is Aereo Inc.’s system for providing online access to broadcast television. Aereo allows users to tune into individual antennae to stream TV to themselves, near-live, online. Aereo’s activities look a lot like the retransmission of broadcast signals, an activity which Congress has made very clear must result in remuneration for rightholders. However, Aereo’s careful design, which assigns each user her own antenna to generate an individual transmission copy from which she can access only the signals she could freely pick up from her own rooftop, means that it can also be argued that Aereo is simply enabling consumers to engage in legitimate non-remunerable uses. If the legality of this design is upheld by the Supreme Court this term, Aereo and subsequent comers will be able to offer consumers on-demand access to content, in a way that competes with licensed services, without any obligation to remunerate the rightholder. The implications of these business models are significant: in the case of audio and audiovisual works, for example, the on-demand access market may soon exceed the value of the retention copy-based market. When some participants are licensed but their competitors are not, the imbalance may provoke licensees to revise or forego their agreements. More generally, opportunistic engineering choices that obscure some courts’ perceptions of the impact on the on-demand access market risk removing evolving markets from the scope of copyright owners’ exclusive rights. Businesses that free-ride on copyrighted works also obtain an unfair competitive advantage over copyright licensees. The authors of this paper approach copyright from very different perspectives, but are united in the view that it is undesirable for legal outcomes to depend so heavily on technical design. This article addresses the U.S. caselaw that encouraged businesses such as Aereo to design technologies that could rival or even displace copyright-remunerative modes of making works of authorship available to the public. We consider the implications for copyright owners were Aereo and its supporters to succeed in their reading of the Copyright Act, as well as the implications for other technologies, particularly those involving “cloud” storage, were the broadcasters to prevail. Finally, each author offers her own analysis to demonstrate how it is possible to read the U.S. Copyright Act’s transmit clause in a way that does not make technological design determine the outcome. Either one of our readings, we argue, enables copyright’s exclusive rights to remain effective without discouraging technological innovation

We (Still) Need to Talk About Aereo: New Controversies and Unresolved Questions After the Supreme Court’s Decision

Recent judicial interpretations of U.S. copyright law have prompted businesses to design technologies in ways that enable the making and transmission of copies of works to consumers while falling outside the scope of the owner’s exclusive rights. The archetypal example was Aereo, Inc.’s system for providing online access to broadcast television. Aereo allowed users to tune into individual antennae to stream near-live TV to themselves, online. If this activity fell within the scope of the exclusive right of public performance, then it required the permission of right holders. The “Transmit Clause” of the U.S. Copyright Act’s definition of “to perform publicly” brings within the scope of the public performance right: [T]ransmitting or otherwise communicating a performance or display of the work . . . to the public, by means of any device or process, whether the members of the public capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in separate places and at the same time or at different times. Holdings from the Second Circuit that the relevant performance was the specific transmission from each copy, and that those performances could not be public if made to only a single user, gave Aereo a blueprint for avoiding liability. It took up the invitation by designing a system incorporating thousands of dime-sized antennas. By temporarily assigning one to each user, from which she could access only the signals she could freely pick up from her own rooftop, Aereo’s service enabled individual copies to be made of each program and then transmitted on request to the user. Since each transmission was directed only to the single requesting user, Aereo argued it could not be considered made “to the public.

An investigation into the pedagogy of bridging class teachers within a mainstream school

A Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Education University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education.This qualitative research aims to explore the constructs of Bridging Classes within a mainstream environment. The investigation focuses primarily on how the teacher works with what Bernstein (1973) considers key aspects to education relay, namely curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Bridging Classes are provided for learners with moderate learning disabilities that may be caused by an attention deficit disorder or emotional upheaval due to chaotic home circumstances. The deconstruction process is conducted through the lens of Productive Pedagogy which Lingard, Hayes & Mills (2003) developed with four key components, namely, Intellectual Quality, Supportive Classroom Environment, Engagement with Difference, and Connectedness to the World. Productive Pedagogies support sociologists, Bernstein’s (2004) and Bourdieu’s (1999) belief that a universal pedagogy could ensure that learners from all backgrounds can access knowledge. The pedagogy applied in Bridging Class supports this notion by using a high quality curriculum but working at a slower pace, providing opportunities to consolidate concepts and integrating learners back into the mainstream when they are ready. Three teachers from Grade 1, 2, and 3 respectively were asked to participate in this research. The investigation comprised of interviews and observations of Maths and English lessons. The teachers were asked, during interviews, to reflect on their perceptions, experiences and pedagogy as Bridging Class teachers. The research applied a thematic analysis to identify patterns within the data set After coding, themes which emerged were the Cognitive and Academic Challenges Bridging Class learners experience. There are also suggested Strategies for Support to create a learning environment to enhance the academic and social outcomes for Bridging Class learners in a mainstream school. Key Words: Bridging Class, Mainstream, Productive Pedagogy, learning disabilities, perceptions, experience, support, strategies, learning environment.MT201

A New Copyright Bargain? Reclaiming Lost Culture and Getting Authors Paid

Copyright’s fundamental structure is based on outdated assumptions, including that marginal costs of copying and distribution are high, and registration systems necessarily onerous and expensive. International treaties embedded these assumptions into domestic laws worldwide, and for good reasons: when the Berne Convention prohibited formalities in 1908, it was a necessary response to compulsory registration systems that unfairly burdened authors. And, when those high marginal costs meant only the most popular works could be made enduringly available anyway, there was little downside in granting long terms that could outlast their owners’ interest: those less popular works were going to be lost regardless. These assumptions no longer hold good (at least for those with digital access). Registrations can occur cheaply and almost instantaneously online. The information age brought with it the widespread ability to copy and distribute many kinds of work—globally, virtually instantaneously, for close to zero marginal cost—making the deadweight loss caused by too-long copyrights precipitously larger. Copyright law would no doubt look very different if we were to design it from scratch today, unconstrained by existing ways of doing things, vested interests, and the international treaty framework. Kimberlee Weatherall and I recently led a project to explore what such a reimagined copyright could look like. The core lessons that emerged? That any copyright system we were to create today would be much better targeted towards protecting authors’ interests; would not leave availability and access so much to chance; and would impose reasonable reciprocal obligations along with rights. That thought experiment was a useful exercise for understanding what current approaches cause us to lose, but as we explained in our conclusions, any wholesale reimagining would be impossible to implement in practice. Leaving aside the powerful lobbying power of the biggest beneficiaries of existing approaches, crucial reform pathways are permanently blocked by the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, supported (and made enforceable in the World Trade Organisation) by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS”). While Berne was intended to be revised regularly to keep up with changing circumstances, it has now been almost half a century since Berne has seen any substantive change. Regulators and scholars have sometimes assumed Berne can be modified, albeit with difficulty, but that’s simply not feasible given 170+ veto-wielding member nations with their wide range of often competing interests. As Sam Ricketson writes in this volume, “you’re dreaming!” if you imagine likely any revisions to Berne. Walking away isn’t an option either, since that would mean loss of reciprocal global protection and ejection from the WTO. (providing that the instruments in Annex 1, of which TRIPS is one, are integral parts and binding on all members). Note also that withdrawal from Berne will not re-enliven the Universal Copyright Convention, because of that treaty’s special clauses applying to former Berne states. See Universal Copyright Convention, as revised at Paris on July 24, 1971, with Appendix Declaration relating to Article XVII and Resolution concerning Article XI 1971, Appendix Declaration relating to Article XVII, July 24, 1971, 25 U.S.T. 1341, 943 U.N.T.S. 178 (1971), https://perma.cc/NUD6-UC8V.] Even new parallel international arrangements are impossible (barred by Article 20 to the extent of inconsistency), and TRIPS is proving virtually unamendable too. There are other international agreements that limit discretion over copyright, including the Internet treaties and various “free trade” agreements, but they are much easier to amend or withdraw from. By contrast, Berne and TRIPS effectively define copyright’s hard limits. If we want copyright to better achieve its aims, we must work within their boundaries. While Berne and TRIPS do preclude many options for reform, there are nonetheless opportunities to navigate their gaps and flexibilities in order to secure a different bargain—one better capable of responding to the challenges of this age. The key, as I develop below, lies in disentangling copyright’s incentives and rewards motivations and updating its core assumptions. The treaties do indeed present certain “immovable obstacles,” but that doesn’t necessarily require us to take precisely the same approaches that we have in the past. This paper seeks to provoke new thinking about the possibilities for doing things differently, to better achieve our aims, within the existing treaty structure. The analysis proceeds in five parts. Part I highlights the failures of current approaches by evaluating them against copyright’s fundamental aims. Part II develops the failed assumptions on which those approaches are constructed, and proposes updated alternatives with which they might be replaced. Informed by those failures and lessons, Part III then sketches an alternative bargain which seeks to better secure to authors rewards from their copyrights whilst simultaneously reclaiming much of the culture lost under current approaches. Part IV briefly addresses possibilities for undermining (and expanding) that proposed alternative, before Part V concludes. The paper’s aim is not to evangelise for the adoption of this model—significant empirical work is necessary before any responsible advocacy can occur. Rather, it is to provoke new thought about the possibilities for achieving meaningful reform, in ways that reflect current social and technological realities, without requiring impossible textual change

Vacancies, disorder-induced smearing of the electronic structure, and its implications for the superconductivity of anti-perovskite MgC0.93_{0.93}Ni2.85_{2.85}

The anti-perovskite superconductor MgC$_{0.93}$Ni$_{2.85}$ was studied using high-resolution x-ray Compton scattering combined with electronic structure calculations. Compton scattering measurements were used to determine experimentally a Fermi surface that showed good agreement with that of our supercell calculations, establishing the presence of the predicted hole and electron Fermi surface sheets. Our calculations indicate that the Fermi surface is smeared by the disorder due to the presence of vacancies on the C and Ni sites, but does not drastically change shape. The 20\% reduction in the Fermi level density-of-states would lead to a significant ($\sim 70\%$) suppression of the superconducting $T_c$ for pair-forming electron-phonon coupling. However, we ascribe the observed much smaller $T_c$ reduction at our composition (compared to the stoichiometric compound) to the suppression of pair-breaking spin fluctuations.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Reducing biting rates of Aedes aegypti with metofluthrin: investigations in time and space

Background: Indoor residual spraying is key to dengue control in Cairns and other parts of northern Queensland, Australia, where Aedes aegypti is prevalent, but the strategy faces challenges with regards to slow application time and, therefore, community coverage. A faster potential improvement might be the use of polyethylene netting impregnated with the volatile pyrethroid metofluthrin (SumiOne™). This formulation was assessed in rooms in three houses in Cairns, Australia. One emanator was placed in each room and cages of 10 female Aedes aegypti were exposed at distances of 1 and 3 m. Knockdown and landings on a human hand were counted before metofluthrin exposure and at 10, 30, 60, 90 and 120 min during exposure. In addition, two trials continued over 48 h of exposure to assess the long-term sublethal effects of metofluthrin on caged mosquitoes. Results: Percentage landing rates fell to 0-2.5% in the first 10 min of exposure. Knockdown was most evident between 10 and 30 min (54% at 1 m and 33% at 3 m). Distance from the emanator strongly affected the results: mosquitoes at 3 m exhibited less knockdown and more landings than those at 1 m. As room volume increased, knockdown decreased and the number of landing increased. There is a cumulative mortality and landing inhibition and, for mosquitoes exposed to metofluthrin for > 48 h, mortality was 100% at 1 m and 90% at 3 m. Of those still alive, a small number continued to land and bite. After being removed from metofluthrin-treated rooms, exposed insect cages were found to reducing landing rates for up to 2 h. Conclusions: Despite only moderate levels of knockdown during the initial hours of exposure, metofluthrin emanators were effective in reducing mosquito landing rates, especially within 1 m, even when exposed on an open veranda. The evaluation methods and results described in this paper will help inform the optimal conditions of deployment of metofluthrin emanators. These devices have the potential to reduce contact between humans and urban disease vectors faster than indoor residual spraying so supplement our current arsenal of dengue control tools

Towards Better Sharing of Cultural Heritage -- An Agenda for Copyright Reform

This paper is intended to act as a pillar and reference point for CC's advocacy work in copyright reform in the cultural heritage context, with a focus on issues arising in the digital environment. It may serve to support members of the CC community in their own advocacy efforts, guide policymakers in their legislative processes, and inform anyone interested in the policy issues gravitating around access and reuse of culture and cultural heritage. It will likely be adapted into a GLAM Guide for Policymakers and will be augmented with real-life examples, case studies and practical advice.It starts with an overview of copyright challenges to the legitimate activities of GLAMs, notably preservation (largely through digitization) and sharing of digital and digitized content images and data for access, use and reuse. It also notes copyright's chilling effects in the face of the GLAM sector's general risk aversion. The paper then offers insights towards effective copyright reform addressing those challenges, with a focus on the opportunities related to the digital environment. The proposals for reform aim to create legal certainty and international harmonization as well as to facilitate cross-border transactions.The paper encourages policymakers to recognize and support the pivotal roles of GLAMs in preserving and providing access to knowledge and culture to all members of society. It urges policymakers to engage with stakeholders to ensure there are clear, simple, and effective policies in place to support better sharing of cultural heritage in the public interest.The paper provides a high-level overview of the policy issues and, as a whole, it does not necessarily reflect the current situation in any specific jurisdiction.

A framework for human microbiome research

A variety of microbial communities and their genes (the microbiome) exist throughout the human body, with fundamental roles in human health and disease. The National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Human Microbiome Project Consortium has established a population-scale framework to develop metagenomic protocols, resulting in a broad range of quality-controlled resources and data including standardized methods for creating, processing and interpreting distinct types of high-throughput metagenomic data available to the scientific community. Here we present resources from a population of 242 healthy adults sampled at 15 or 18 body sites up to three times, which have generated 5,177 microbial taxonomic profiles from 16S ribosomal RNA genes and over 3.5 terabases of metagenomic sequence so far. In parallel, approximately 800 reference strains isolated from the human body have been sequenced. Collectively, these data represent the largest resource describing the abundance and variety of the human microbiome, while providing a framework for current and future studies