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Ban on Minecraft in Turkey

The Family and Social Policies Ministry of Turkey has called for a ban on Minecraft because, according to the local media, it  encourages children to resort to violence. For those of you who do not know, Minecraft is a videogame where players can make designs in 2D or 3D. These designs can involve building houses or farmlands, […]

Creativity through privacy v NSA

Creativity through privacy v NSA

You will likely have come across this news in the last 24 hours, that the NSA is being sued by Wikimedia/ACLU for their Dragnet surveillance program: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/10/wikipedia-sues-nsa-dragnet-internet-surveillance/ I think it’s fair to say this is one of the first modern legal battles to consider creativity through the lens of privacy. As Jon mentioned yesterday, as we drill […]

An Older Version of the Four-Chord Song

I thought I’d break from my usual raving rants-about-cryptography-style posts, and just share something a little funny with everyone. If you enjoyed the Four-Chord Song video from yesterday’s class (for people who missed it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I ), here’s one going all the way back to the 1600’s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM Enjoy 🙂

March 17 Discussion

Next week, we will be looking at how practices of big corporations today may affect creativity. To facilitate the discussion, I would like to ask you to complete a very short questionnaire (only 2 questions) at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KFK83VX If possible, please complete the questionnaire by Saturday, March 14 (it should only take 5 minutes max). Thanks!  

Mar. 10 Presentation Materials

In advance of my presentation on net neutrality tomorrow, some light watching materials: This should give you an entertaining overview of the net neutrality debate as it currently stands in the US. I’ll cover most of this briefly at the beginning of my presentation – my main goal was to post a video of the current chairman of the […]

News of the Week Top 5; March 4, 2015

News of the Week Top 5; March 4, 2015

1. Bring on the lawsuits—FCC chairman says net neutrality will survive: Tom Wheeler confident his net neutrality order will withstand court challenge. 2. Don’t Go Changing: The Canadian Broadcaster Fight Against Legal and Regulatory Reform (Michael Geist) 3. Storytelling In The Digital Media Age 4. Why Hollywood Refuses to Embrace Diversity — Even Though It Makes More Money 5. ‘Pics […]

Trademarks and Sweet Treats

In earlier classes, the lack of copyright protection for chef creations such as signature dishes or recipes themselves was mentioned. Trademarks, on the other hand, offer some limited IP protections for names of particular dishes. A Toronto bakery called Dufflet which sells ‘cakelets’, which are noted for their size (being slightly smaller than a traditional […]

News of the Week Top 5; February 25, 2015

News of the Week Top 5; February 25, 2015

1. You Had One Job, Lenovo: And it didn’t involve sneaking malicious adware onto your customers’ computers. 2. UK’s House of Lords Calls For Reclassification Of Internet Access As A ‘Public Utility’ 3. Google: Proposed government-sanctioned hacking is a threat to us all – “The implications of this expansion of warrant power are significant.” 4. Something Is Going Right: […]

Slides from “Impacts & Implications of the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions”

Spoke at this conference at SFU downtown on Wednesday February 25, 2015. My slides as well as a PDF of the 2005 UNESCO Convention can be found below. jon