Technomaly » law http://www.technomaly.com technology anomalies Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:25:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 UK Bill May Halt Public WiFi http://www.technomaly.com/2010/03/04/uk-bill-may-halt-public-wifi/ http://www.technomaly.com/2010/03/04/uk-bill-may-halt-public-wifi/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:00:51 +0000 Asterios Kokkinos http://www.technomaly.com/?p=3748
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    • ]]>     As a man who’s currently writing this article on the public WiFi provided by my local coffee shop, I’m somewhat alarmed to hear that the UK may soon be erecting copyright standards so impossible to meet that it’d signal the end of public WiFi. The culprit? The Digital Economy Bill currently working its way through the legislature.

    Here’s the issue: when an ISP subscriber illegally downloads a movie or song, the ISP can target that user specifically for penalties. But when someone illegially downloads something for a public cafe, then leaves, who’s at fault? According to the Digital Economy Bill, the cafe, which is a legal liability that’s simply too high for small businesses.

    There’s no way for these small businesses to patrol their connections, making sure that nobody illegally downloads files. Simultaneously, if the law were to be altered so the cafe would be immune from prosecution, who’s to stop people from simply using public WiFi to skirt the law?

    Tough nut to crack, UK.

    Source: CrunchGear

    Photo Source: Google

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    ]]>     http://www.technomaly.com/2010/03/04/uk-bill-may-halt-public-wifi/feed/ 0     Is Your Gigantic Flatscreen Illegal? http://www.technomaly.com/2010/02/02/is-your-gigantic-flatscreen-illegal/ http://www.technomaly.com/2010/02/02/is-your-gigantic-flatscreen-illegal/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:00:46 +0000 Asterios Kokkinos http://www.technomaly.com/?p=2870
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    • ]]>     Here’s a fun fact: television screens over 55 inches could run afoul of the law!

    Ars Technica has a fun article up that directly concerns your next big-screen Super Bowl party – according to Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 110 of US Copyright Law states that “TV broadcasts and movie showings can only be displayed so long as “no such audiovisual device has a diagonal screen size greater than 55 inches, and any audio portion of the performance or display is communicated by means of a total of not more than 6 loudspeakers.”

    Freaky, right? Luckily, there’s another provision – an exemption that states that as long as the television is within a private residence, it doesn’t constitute a public broadcast and therefore doesn’t break the law.

    Good thing our founding fathers envisioned a time in which televisions would be gigantic. Or whoever it was who wrote US copyright law, as I actually doubt it was the founding fathers. Pretty fun to imagine George Washington and Thomas Jefferson puzzling over flatscreens, though.

    For the full story, check out the…

    Source: Ars Technica

    Photo Source:

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