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TechDirt Dec 30 08 A few weeks back, we wrote about a site that seemed to have modified the old "dollar auction" concept and created a borderline evil business plan that would get plenty of people to pay money to "bid" on way underpriced goods. People keep bidding, because the costs seem so low -- but since everyone has to pay to bid, the companies ends up making a ton of money -- often many times the actual cost of the product. Basically, the company and whoever "wins" the auction are likely to make out okay -- while every other bidder loses. Apparently, there are a number of such sites doing similar models, and the UK government is noticing that it's pretty similar to gambling and probably should be regulated as a gambling site. Full story...
As Hollywood struggles to come up for breath and understand the nature of what hit them last month in the SOPA/PIPA debate, it appears they're still thinking that part of this is an "education" issue -- and if they could just tell young people how evil file sharing is that everything would be good.
One of the more interesting things over the past few months is just how mainstream copyright issues have suddenly become.
Pork is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide. Interestingly, even though it was marketed as the "other white meat" (that slogan was retired in 2011), the USDA always referred to pork as a "red meat" on its website.
When it comes to DRM, nothing is more annoying and hated than DRM that requires a constant internet connection.
Every year, the USTR puts out its infamously laughable Special 301 report (as I've pointed out in the past, I've seen people in the ideologically-aligned US Copyright Office mock the Special 301 report openly -- showing that even those who support it know that it's ridiculous).
We recently pointed out that a bunch of Polish politicians wore Guy Fawkes/Anonymous masks in Parliament to protest ACTA:
It appears that some politicians in Bulgaria thought that was a good idea, and have done the same thing:
It's really quite fascinating how much of a meme this has become within politics.
For people who still don't recognize that there's a generational shift going on when it comes to how people view attempts to regulate the internet, communications and copyright law, they might want to start paying attention.
This is getting interesting. Following the growing protests about ACTA in Europe, as well as signs of US meddling, Poland's prime minister is making it clear that Poland will not ratify ACTA for the time being, leading to speculation that the EU may not actually join ACTA.
With the immediate threat from SOPA/PIPA on hold, people have started to turn their attention to the long-running saga of ACTA.
As we've noted multiple times, it appears the entertainment industry still does not recognize what kind of beast it awoke with its efforts to shove through SOPA and PIPA.