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Nov 18, 2022

If this site implodes imminently, I'm not sure where I'll end up - but if my artists' rights advocacy and general posts about copyright/law and other things have tickled you, I'll likely signal where you can find me via my Instagram account instagram.com/mcneil.martin #RIPTwitter

United Kingdom government official

We're no longer sleepwalking into fascism; they're openly shouting about it, and those not paying attention to this rhetoric need to wake up. Vote. Them. Out.

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Rishi Sunak

@RishiSunak

Mar 7

If you come to the UK illegally:

You can’t claim asylum

You can’t benefit from our modern slavery protections

You can’t make spurious human rights claims

You can’t stay

If you come to the UK illegally you will be denied access to the UK’s modern slavery system

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ALT

This is an absolutely chilling development in the English courts that *must* be challenged. I hope

@BarristerSecret

@davidallengreen

and others give this the visibility and criticism it urgently needs.

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Helena Horton

@horton_official

16h

Activists are being banned from mentioning the climate crisis in court and being jailed if they do. So juries can’t hear the reason they protested theguardian.com/environment/20

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Mar 6

Worse than the damage was that, when reporting this to their teacher, they were told "they'd have to get it fixed". I'm also angry at the casual dismissal. He was resigned to having to buy a new copy but hell no, I'm requesting the school put this right, which I think is fair.

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Mar 3

Absolutely more of this from bodies that are supposed to uphold artists rights, thank you.

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The Authors Guild

@AuthorsGuild

Mar 1

We have updated both our Model Trade Book Contract and Literary Translation Model Contract to include a new clause that prohibits publishers from using or sublicensing books under contract to train AI technologies. authorsguild.org/news/model-cla

Mar 2

And for the avoidance of doubt: it is perfectly acceptable to be critical of the actions of a state government without such criticism crossing a line into bigotry, prejudice, or hostility against the general populace of a state.

I wonder which state is going to have the stones to levy a complaint against Israel via the UN and put this situation in the domain of the International Court of Justice, because the state right of self-determination cannot be allowed to cross over into defacto apartheid.

One of my final modules of my Y4 studies is international criminal law. As if the Ukraine situation wasn't bad enough to be contemporaneously relevant to my studies, now we've got Israel out here brazenly walking up to the textbook definition of crimes against humanity.

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Tacob Jaber

@jacobtaber

Mar 2

What is more apartheid than “eligibility for capital punishment is determined by race”?

Intellectual Property Office UK

Martin McNeil Retweeted

@The_IPO

Feb 28

Copyright is an automatic IP right that applies to original works, including literary works, software and music. Our YouTube video explains what copyright is and how you can use it to protect and exploit your creative works. To find out more 👇

youtube.com

IP BASICS: Is copyright important to my business?

Part of the IP Basics series: What is copyright and how you can use it to protect and exploit your creative works?Keep updated with IPO email alerts: http://...

Feb 27

If you *really* need exclusive access to a location for a fixed time and date, you'll have to get a permit from your local authority, pay the related fees, and ensure you have public liability insurance in case of incidents that might arise when shooting.

Maybe it's staged, maybe it's not - either way, this bit demonstrates that although you're generally free to engage in non-commercial filming or photography in public spaces, you don't have any right to exclude others from the space you decide to use.

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No Context Brits

@NoContextBrits

Feb 26

2:49

22.5M views

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Martin McNeil Retweeted

@Unite4Copyright

Feb 21

Fair Use is an important component of copyright law, but failure to recognize its limitations can result in legal challenges. In our brief Copybites video, we cover the most common fair use mistakes. #FairUseWeek

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Feb 18

Read the *whole thread* for a very eye-opening perspective on a situation that - from the details offered up - has been grossly misrepresented and misunderstood. I salute this creative collective at work for gaming systems in their favour. 🏆

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Naomi Wu 机械妖姬

@RealSexyCyborg

Feb 11

Today's Taste of Cyberpunk: Hard times for e-thots

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0:28

6.8M views

Feb 17

If this kind of policy comes to pass, I *will* quit this app - and that's not a tantrum or hyperbole: being able to keep online accounts secure using 2FA is essential best practice to avoid all sorts of data and PII from becoming known to entities that would exploit it.

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Zoë Schiffer

@ZoeSchiffer

Feb 17

NEW: Twitter is planning to unveil a new policy as soon as this afternoon that only Blue subscribers will be able to use SMS-based two-factor authentication, according to company sources.

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So, who *owns* the #SayHerName hashtag? If we're framing it as intellectual property, I'd be confident in saying: nobody. If we're framing it *culturally* it's a more open question - with evidence showing it not as easy to answer as some might want it to be.

The use of the hashtag #SayHerName in connection with Dawson's book goes back to mid-2013. In 2012, you'll find uses of the hashtag by followers of pop act Florence + The Machine, and fans of Cheryl Cole. In 2011, it was used in connection with a book by Franciso Goldman.

Further, the uses of #SayHerName can be found significantly predating December 2014, which is when the AAPF pushed it to promote awareness of victims of police brutality e.g. a prominent use was to promote a YA horror novel by LGBT author

@junodawson

, released on 5 June of 2014.

A short phrase, e.g. "Say Her Name", is ineligible for copyright protection. It can be eligible for trademark protection, though a search of EUIPO & USPTO databases shows no entity currently owns that phrase. The AAPF tried to register it in 2016 but abandoned the reg.

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Preston Mitchum

@PrestonMitchum

And don’t get it confused — intellectual property matters; ownership matters; etymology matters; LANGUAGE matters.

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Addendum: some folk out there bleating that shares in Centrica, which peaked just shy of £400 on 13/09/13, are now at "just" £103.50 What they're not saying (in true disingenuous form) is shares have risen steadily from £31.81 on 17/04/20, and are better than the £73.09 IPO.

But don't expect meaningful change under the incumbent UK gov't, because vastly increased profits equal better yields for the select few that are major shareholders - especially since share dividends are taxed at a lower rate than earned income. Vote. Them. Out.

The UK gov't "price cap" calculation system is also evidently not fit for purpose - especially when we look at our nearest neighbour countries who have not had to endure similar blatantly inflated costs of utilities. Centrica's profits point to nothing more than corporate greed.

If a business insists that it must raise prices due to supply-side price increases that it cannot avoid, then publishes accounts that show a 3x increase in its own profitability, then the prior justification is evidenced to be nothing more than state-sanctioned price gouging.

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The National

@ScotNational

'These energy companies are showing us everything that is wrong with the UK’s broken economy' thenational.scot/news/23325495.

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Feb 15

Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope

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New Scientist

@newscientist

Feb 15

An F-16 fighter jet entirely controlled by artificial intelligence has taken part in simulated aerial fights against other aircraft and landed without human help newscientist.com/article/235961

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Jan 31

Locking down this account in advance of deletion - for no other reason than Twitter, etc. has become too much of a distraction of late.

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Jan 25

You know you're spending too much time reading #lawtwitter posts when you see "bar trivia team" and your first thought is that it's some kind of quiz that law students or lawyers take part in for "fun" 😶

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Kate Kennedy

@TheOGKennedy

Jan 25

Week 3 of winning bar trivia as a team of me and my dog complete. I’m like $300 up at this point and this is the only kind of gambling I’ve ever excelled at.

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