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Pride encounters prejudice, upward-mobility confronts social disdain, and quick-wittedness challenges sagacity, as misconceptions and hasty judgments lead to heartache and scandal, but eventually to true understanding, self-knowledge, and love. In this supremely satisfying story, Jane Austen balances comedy with seriousness, and witty observation with profound insight. If Elizabeth Bennet returns again and again to her letter from Mr Darcy, readers of the novel are drawn even more irresistibly by its captivating wisdom.

The post The OWC Podcast: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen appeared first on OUPblog.

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Samuel T. Moore of Corte Magore, an animated and narrated children’s picture book releases on 7/1/13!

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Author, Tonia Allen Gould, announces the release date of her animated and narrated children’s picture book, coming on 7/1/13 on iTunes.

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By Darren Meale

The fact that the Internet is so hard to police — and that no single authority is in a position to dictate what it should and should not contain — should be cause for celebration for anyone with an interest in the freedom of speech, expression, and the sharing of ideas. But the Internet has two faces. For every positive exercise of those and other freedoms, there’s an act of fraud, counterfeiting, and copyright infringement. How is the law — in particular the English legal system — attempting to stem the tide of the last problem (online infringement) and take pirates down?

Attacks are being made on two main fronts in the UK. The first is via section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This permits a court to order a service provider — which could be an ISP, a search engine, or a social networking website — to block its users from accessing infringing material. To take ISPs as an example: when there are perhaps millions of infringing users in the UK using the internet access services of only six major ISPs, it’s going to be much easier to pursue those intermediaries than it is the individuals.

Although section 97A has been around since 2003, the first real attempt to use it wasn’t until 2011. The film industry brought a test case against the UK’s largest ISP, BT, seeking a court-ordered block of an infringing service called NewzBin2. BT heavily resisted the attempt, but every ground it raised was dismissed by the High Court and a block was ordered. This year it was the turn of the music industry, which sought blocks from BT and the remaining five major UK ISPs against the celebrity poster-boy of internet piracy: The Pirate Bay (TPB). With none of the ISPs willing to defend such an obviously dubious service, the High Court easily found TPB to be infringing copyright in February of this year. With little to distinguish TPB from NewzBin2, the ISPs then largely gave up the fight and dropped any opposition to a block. This was then ordered in May.

While section 97A has been making waves since its first appearance last year, the second front has been bobbing along in calm waters. Key provisions of the Digital Economy Act 2010 impose obligations upon ISPs to notify their subscribers, once those ISPs have been informed by copyright owners that those subscribers are suspected of infringing copyright, mostly likely via peer-to-peer file sharing (via sites such as TPB). Repeat offenders are put on what is effectively a “naughty list” and copyright owners can use those lists to pick juicy targets for taking further action. Two major ISPs tried to knock the Act out by launching judicial review proceedings, complaining that it offended European and human rights laws. They failed overall, but their actions have delayed the introduction of the Act’s notification regime. A final draft of the Initial Obligations Code (the Code), which sets out the details of the regime’s operation, has now been prepared by Ofcom (the UK’s communications regulator) and was put out for a consultation which ended in July. But there is a lot of work to be done before the regime begins. For example, an independent appeals body is to be created to deal with subscribers who wish to appeal an allegation of infringement. Accordingly, the Government does not expect the first notification letter to be sent until 2014. In the immediate term the Code will not provide for any real sanctions against subscribers beyond receipt of the letter, and accordingly can be criticised as lacking teeth.

While introducing the Digital Economy Act is probably better than doing nothing, the Newzbin2 and TPB cases suggest that section 97A is the far more effective weapon against piracy. Service providers may now be more motivated to assist copyright owners to police their services, if the alternative is to face the cost and bother of a section 97A application that the odds are they’ll lose. There is no direct connection, but in response to industry pressure Google (which may be the next target for a section 97A application) has recently agreed to demote websites from its search results where it has repeatedly received reports of those sites hosting infringing material. It’s a start, but it won’t remove them from its listings altogether.

The UK can’t, of course, solve this problem alone. A number of jurisdictions now have bespoke anti-file-sharing laws in place. These include France (HADOPI); Spain (Ley Sinde); South Korea and New Zealand. Others are in development. As well as being legally challenging, these sorts of measures are also proving politically controversial. Proposed legislation in the USA — SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (PROTECT IP Act) — met with huge public opposition earlier this year and are being reconsidered, but may still come to pass in some form. Before leaving power, President Sarkozy of France hailed HADOPI as hugely successful. The new government in France is reported to be less enthusiastic about the law and its multi-million Euro yearly cost.

It’s worth finishing with a note on circumvention. Very few, if any, of the measures discussed above are foolproof. Many (website blocks for example) are fairly straightforward to get around. Although a large proportion of casually infringing Internet users may not know how, a Google search for “How do I get around The Pirate Bay block?” reveals plenty of results, including several videos on Google’s own YouTube. Ironically, when I clicked on the first video in the list, I was presented with an advert for one of 20th Century Fox’s soon to be released (and no doubt, pirated) movies. Evidently, there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Darren Meale is a Senior Associate and Solicitor-Advocate at SNR Denton, specialising in intellectual property litigation and advice. He has particular expertise and interest in digital rights issues, including the way in which the Internet and new digital technologies interact with and potentially infringe intellectual property rights. His recent paper, ‘Avast, ye file sharers! The Pirate Bay is sunk’, has been made freely available for a limited time by the Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice.

JIPLP is a peer-reviewed monthly journal. It is specifically designed for IP lawyers, patent attorneys and trade mark attorneys both in private practice and working in industry. It is also an essential source of reference for academics specialising in IP, members of the judiciary, officials in IP registries and regulatory bodies, and institutional libraries. Subject-matter covered is of global interest, with a particular focus upon IP law and practice in Europe and the US.

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Image credit: Pirate button on computer keyboard. Photo by Sitade, iStockphoto.

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In honor of the long awaited release of Goats Eat Cans Volume 2, Goats Eat Cans Volume 1 is completely and totally free as a Kindle download for three days!
Three days!
Three measly days!
For three days this thing won't cost you anything more than the time of your life that you'll eventually waste reading it!
For three days you can take money from my pocket and food from my table!
For three days you can rip me off and feel good about it because I'm asking you to do it!

Hell, I'm begging you to do it! I'm on my hands in knees in a leather outfit that leaves little to the imagination with my pasty white cheeks in the air, and I'm just begging to be spanked. Hit me damn it! Hit me and watch my ass ripple like the midsection of the world's most unattractive belly dancer!

CLICK HERE and punish me like the sad excuse for a man that I am! You know you want to.

Oh, and when you're done with that, maybe you could CLICK HERE and plunk down a couple bucks for Volume 2 to thank me.
Crazy ass-obsessed cheapskates.

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Oh, Monday! We had very heavy rain ALL day Sunday and it’s quite the relief to see the sun shine today.  I like the rain but when it’s constant (and cold) it tends to get me down. (Proof: I ate about a dozen chocolate chip cookies before I realized what I had done.  Whoops!)  But this new week brings pleasant things like the arrival of Spring in the northern hemisphere (YIPPIE!)  and some goodies around these parts.

The first being my bakery download in issue #2 of Toffee magazine!  Toffee is this new and neatorific downloadable magazine filled all sorts of printable goodies, tutorials and articles about extraordinary craftsters and illustrators.  I’m still perusing my copy–it’s that huge!  Tons of good stuff made by many talented peeps.

Issue #2′s theme is “Forest Friends” so I whipped up a recipe card along with matching bakery cards and a tag:

I can totally see myself living in a cute little pink cottage like this.  (Please note: this image is merely a low-res preview.)    So take a peek at Toffee when you can!

Also this week, I hope to share with you some drawings I’ve been working on for my class.  (Drawings I’m not embarrassed to show you, thankfully.)

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What to do after my Sketchbook Project?  Thank you for all the kind words about it, as I do plan on continuing my comic endeavors.  Right now, here is a mini comic I did from about 7 years ago (whew, time flies by, doesn't it?) called When Girl Met Chicken.

Its available as a free PDF download over at The Illustrated Section, started by the ever so clever Dani Jones, which launched today. I'm so happy to see that artists are taking more control of their work and the way it is being presented. Please take a look over there as there is a great selection of work. Be sure to download When Girl Met Chicken. Its FREE...and let me know what you think. Looking at my past work, I realized I had more fun and was a bit daring back then.

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Yes, I've been at it again. To show my appreciation for everyone’s support and participation on the IP blog, I collaborated with the amazing artist, J.R. Mounger. Together we bring you another original Illustration Pages poster that you can download, print and hang in your studio. Artist J.R. Mounger was featured on IP back in February and I knew his phenomenal style would be perfect for the next IP poster.

To download this poster click on the link below. Windows users will be prompted to download the file with a dialogue box after clicking the link below. Mac users will see the high res image of the poster displayed after clicking on the link. Just right click on that image and then click "Save as" to begin your download. The file is setup as a standard 8.5 x 11 so you can simply download it and print it out. The file is a high resolution jpeg for the best quality print output but compressed enough for a fast and simple download.

Click here to download the 8.5 x 11 poster

I'm lucky enough to have the original drawing of the poster framed and hanging in my studio. Thank you everyone and enjoy the poster. Here’s to continued success in the future.

Lou Simeone
Illustration Pages
creativity community culture

About J.R. Mounger:
Born and raised by wild animals in the back woods of Southeastern Oklahoma, he was found by a loving family who taught him how to walk upright and eat with a fork. He learned to communicate with his new family by drawing them pictures - and so his art career began. Seriously after college at OSU - Okmulgee J.R. settled in North Texas with his family. He has lived in Texas over half his life and loves it. J.R. has always drawn or painted his entire life and after college he worked as a freelance illustrator/designer, he worked in design studios for years, publishing for a bit and the last few years have been in ad agencies. All of the places that J.R. has worked have strengthened his skills as an artist and designer. Art has always been rewarding and fulfilling for J.R. and he cannot see himself doing anything else.

Contact J.R. for any illustrations work: mounger.jr[at]gmail[dot]com
Visit the blog: Genuine Pencil Pusher
J.R. Mounger on Facebook

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By Michael A. Carrier

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has caused concern for many reasons, such as secret negotiations and controversial provisions.  Today, more than 70 law professors sent a letter to President Obama asking that he “direct the [U.S. Trade Representative] to halt its public endorsement of ACTA and subject the text to a meaningful participation process that can influence the shape of the agreement going forward.”

Despite this beneficial attention, one clause has slipped under the radar.  Article 2.14 of ACTA would require participating nations to “ensure that criminal liability for aiding and abetting is available.”

This liability would apply to parties that assist others in engaging in “willful . . . copyright . . . piracy on a commercial scale.”  Such scale includes “commercial activities for direct or indirect economic or commercial advantage.”  These terms are not defined in the agreement.  As a result, it would appear that any activity that would give an “indirect” commercial advantage (including the downloading of a single copyrighted song) could lead to criminal liability.

While such a consequence would appear severe, it is not even the most concerning part of Article 2.14.  That distinction is reserved for the “aiding and abetting” basis for liability.  Any party that plays a role in assisting infringement could be liable for criminal liability.  The identity of such parties is worrisome:  Personal computer manufacturers.  Electronic device makers.  Search engine operators.  Each of these entities could play a role, however indirect, in contributing to copyright infringement.

Although copyright’s secondary liability law is not a model of clarity, courts have sought to ground its elements in balanced policies.  Judicial tests have asked if devices have noninfringing uses (Sony).  If the party has knowledge and materially contributed to the activity (contributory infringement).  If it has a financial interest and the right to control (vicarious liability).  If it has an intent to induce infringement (Grokster).

Aiding-and-abetting liability lacks such nuance.  It is borrowed from criminal law.  And it is used to punish those who assisted in the crime.  The getaway driver.  The fraudulent check presenter.  The cocaine distributor.  In the criminal law arena, such liability reaches broadly to deter true criminal conduct.

In the context of secondary copyright liability, in contrast, such a standard is not appropriate.  Not when copyright is subject to competing public policies.  Not when technologies could be held criminally liable for allowing search, performance, or retrieval.  Not when these monumentally significant issues—which would dramatically expand U.S. liability—were never even debated.

In 2004, Congress considered adding “aiding and abetting” liability to copyright law.  Its attempt, the Induce Act, failed.  The secretive ACTA is not an appropriate vehicle to circumvent this failure and dramatically expand secondary liability.

Michael A. Carrier is a Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School-Camden who teaches and writes in the areas of antitrust, intellectual property, and property law. He is the author of Innovation for the 21st Century: Harnessing the Power of Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law and editor of the forthcoming volume, Critical Concepts in Intellectual Property Law: Competition.

0 Comments on The Proposed New Copyright Crime of “Aiding and Abetting” as of 1/1/1900

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The new Illustration Pages poster has proven to be quite a hot little item. IP readers have been downloading it like mad since I first announced it here on the site last month. If you would like to join in on the fun – follow the links below and download yours today. Print it out and hang it in your studio, cubicle, office, on campus, on telephone poles - hang it anywhere and everywhere to show your IP love.

To download the poster click one of the two links below. One file is setup as a standard 8.5 x 11 so you can simply download it and print it out. The other link is setup as 11x 14 which you can print to tabloid paper and trim it to the edges if you wish to have a larger size poster. Both posters are high resolution PDFs for the best quality print output so depending on your connection speed they might take a couple of minutes to download.



Thank you everyone and enjoy the poster.

Lou Simeone
Illustration Pages
creativity   community   culture

About Erin Klauk:
A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Erin Klauk moved to NYC in 2002 to study illustration at Pratt Institute, where she received her BFA in 2004. She went on to receive an MA in illustration from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2009. Her clients include Arthur Magazine, Crawlspace Magazine, The Boston Historical Neighborhoods Society, SBRA Architects, Gerard & Sarzin Publishing, Mark, and L’Oréal Paris. She creates gig posters, album artwork and music merchandise for a number of local bands such as Traveling Circle, Heavy Hands, Sorceress, Whooping Crane, Anorak, The Actual Facts and The Broken Reed Saxophone Quartet.

To see more of illustrator Erin Klauk's work visit her blog, Erinaceous Illustration, The Art and Design of Erin Klauk.

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Today I’m extremely happy to announce that illustrator Erin Klauk has completed work on an original Illustration Pages poster. This beautiful poster is available to download free, right here at Illustration Pages. Since its inception in December of 2009, the Illustration Pages community as grown considerably. To show my appreciation for everyone’s support and participation I collaborated with the amazing illustrator, Erin Klauk. Together we bring you this magnificent poster that you can download, print and hang in your studio, cubicle, office, on campus, on telephone poles - hang it anywhere and everywhere.

Erin creates such awesome posters that after featuring her work on the Illustration Pages site back in March, I knew I had to have a poster for the IP site.

To download the poster click one of the two links below. One file is setup as a standard 8.5 x 11 so you can simply download it and print it out. The other link is setup as 11x 14 which you can print to tabloid paper and trim it to the edges if you wish to have a larger size poster. Both posters are high resolution PDFs for the best quality print output so depending on your connection speed they might take a couple of minutes to download.



I already have my poster framed and hanging in my studio. Thank you everyone and enjoy the poster. Here’s to continued success in the future.

Lou Simeone
Illustration Pages
creativity   community   culture

About Erin Klauk:
A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Erin Klauk moved to NYC in 2002 to study illustration at Pratt Institute, where she received her BFA in 2004. She went on to receive an MA in illustration from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2009. Her clients include Arthur Magazine, Crawlspace Magazine, The Boston Historical Neighborhoods Society, SBRA Architects, Gerard & Sarzin Publishing, Mark, and L’Oréal Paris. She creates gig posters, album artwork and music merchandise for a number of local bands such as Traveling Circle, Heavy Hands, Sorceress, Whooping Crane, Anorak, The Actual Facts and The Broken Reed Saxophone Quartet.

To see more of illustrator Erin Klauk's work visit her blog, Erinaceous Illustration, The Art and Design of Erin Klauk.

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Not since Gutenberg has literacy and the written word gotten so much press. An academy in Massachusetts is throwing out 200,000 books, and replacing them with a coffee shop. A church in North Carolina is burning books, most of them Bibles. The country’s two largest retail chains are waged in a price war over hardcovers. Not electronics, not Tickle-me-Elmo, but books! More digital readers are suddenly on the market. Rupert Murdoch is proposing setting up paywalls to keep Google from “ripping off” his news agency’s content. And Brett Favre is quarterbacking for the Vikings! I know, that last one has nothing to do with publishing, but it’s too cool not to mention. And what’s with all the apocalyptic movies lately? Is this one mass, subconscious metaphor for the revolution that’s taking place in front of our Lasik-reengineered eyeballs? The old world is making way for the new? Burn the Library of Alexandria so we can implant a microchip in your head and thereby save all that real estate for more important things like football stadiums! The point is that the media, like a ship caught in a whirlpool, is circling around the future of print. What will become of books? What will we be reading? Who will be reading?

We are all caught up in the conversation. Here at Stone Arch Books the digital challenge stuck us like a thunderbolt. Which is a good thing. What if -- we wondered -- we put a brand new book, focused on a timely topic, on the web, free of charge? Would this help it get to our readers faster? Beth mentioned yesterday our new Finn Reader, Flu Fighter, a hilarious story told in journal format about a teenager swept up in the H1N1 epidemic. We know kids would love this story. And we know they are curious about H1N1. Running this book through the usual printing channels would take time. Kids want to know now!

What do you think? As lovers of literature, as experts in children’s books, as librarians and media specialists, do you think this is a good method for reaching readers quickly? Have you ever downloaded a free book off the web? Did it give you the same reading experience as reading a bound manuscript? Did it matter? Did you love the story so much that you went back and purchased a hardcopy version to put on your shelves?

As an omnivorous bibliophile myself, I would love to hear what people think. A few times a week I gaze longingly at Amazon’s ads for Kindle, but I still haven’t hit the Buy Now button. My finger is itching. I can’t help it. I love to read, and anything that gets a story into my hands faster can’t be a bad thing. Can it?

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Here's the reason I haven't been doing much blogging. (Go ahead and click that link if you want to skip to the good stuff.)

A couple months ago, I was basically done with my work for Spring 2010. I was blissfully contracting away for Spring 2011, in fact. But then we decided to do something a little crazy: throw a rush book in the mix. We wanted a book about the H1N1 pandemic, in our usual Stone Arch style: something different, something interesting, something cool and fresh.

Thus, Finn Reeder, Flu Fighter, was born.


Finn Reeder thought it was just a dumb assignment when a sub told his English class that they had to start keeping a journal. Little did he know that his journal would turn into the record of a major flu pandemic.

Somehow, he survives infection. As their class size dwindles, Finn and his friend Amy face down the school bully, draw comics, catch the principal ordering pizza, and even manage to study once in a while. And when finally, Finn is the lone student remaining in school, he manages to win—and lose—the most intense game of solo dodge ball ever.

By the time the month is over, he’s made it through the epidemic, gotten vaccinated, and might even have found himself a girlfriend if he plays his cards right.

I quickly contracted an author, drew up a concept and outline, and we were off. The author, Eric Stevens, wrote the book in about two weeks. Kay Fraser, one of our uber-talented art directors, took the concept and ran with it, creating an awesome cover in the blink of an eye. Once the manuscript was edited, Kay and I worked together to mock up the illustration suggestions, and she spent a couple of weekends holed up in her cubicle, illustrating the entire book in full color. Just as some comparison, it usually takes us between 6 months and a year to complete a book, from concept to finished copies. In this case, it's about six weeks. We really wanted to respond to the pandemic and get this book out there ASAP.

Coolest of all, you can download this book for free, in PDF form, for a limited time from our website. You can also sign up for a special 10 percent discount off the hardcover book. The download will be free online until January 1, when the printed book is available for purchase.

I'm really proud of the team effort that created this book. It takes a lot of people to make one book, especially in such a short period of time. Here's a list, but I'm sure I'm forgetting someone: our president, Joan Berge; Michael Dahl, our editorial director; Heather Kindseth, our creative director; Shannon Zigmund, our marketing manager; Krista Monyhan, head of our planning department; proofreaders Ali Deering (product planning intern), Sean Tulien (associate editor), and Donnie Lemke (senior editor); web marketing manager Michaela DeLong; production specialist Michelle Biedschied; production manager Blake Hoena; technology project manager Jeff Ruley. And Kay and me.

I hope you love it as much as we do. Let me know what you think. Enjoy!

More soon,
Beth