I am an author of two books and currently (2009) under contract to write my third. Obviously, I have good reason to be interested in copyright law.
Recently, I ran into an article on copyfraud. Specifically, the article detailed the theft of public domain works by private companies. They sell the public property under their own copyright, and claim ownership of the works which are not theirs. In some cases, they go as far as to force the public domain copies to be removed from the public's view by claiming copyright.
Isn't this a form of piracy? Is anything being done to stop this theft?
It seems to me that if I go on to public land and take a piece of history with me when I leave, then I am breaking federal law and will be prosecuted. It seems that if a company steals from the public, they should be held accountable, too.
Is there even one federal officer (even one employee) assigned full-time to protecting the public from this theft? As far as I can tell, no.
Here is the article I mentioned above:
Copyfraud: Poisoning the public domain
Please write your congressman and senators.
Many of my stories and poems are in the "Daily Fiction" area. Currently I've set up "Daily Fiction" to rotate through my stories and poems. Some stories and poems will be added to the reading list each day at random. Also, each day some will be removed temporarily.
I have also set up a new page for one of my hobbies, Vrainet RPG.
Stories and poems are not all I have. I've had a lot of fun writing games, mods to popular games and other computer programs, for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. Currently, I focus on Java applications. Check out the free software link to see more!
What else could there be?" You ask.
I have a whole bunch of APIs, Tutorials and demos too. The Programming site covers some C, C++, Objective-C, Java and lots of other topics.
About Gene, is, ... well, ... all about me, ... Gene Davis. I will be adding more over time.
My software copmany, Gene Davis Software can be found here. The demo for my Shogi app can be downloaded from there.
Surf's Up! These are a random list of links. You just don't know what you'll find here.