Recently, the state of Oregon has used copyright law to threaten people who were publishing its laws online. Can they really do that? More to the point, why would they? This essay will put the Oregon fracas in historical context, and explain the public policies at stake.

Oregon State University, [] was just named one of the nation’s “10 Really Cool University Networking Labs” by Network World, an information technology magazine. The recognition cites several of the lab’s features, especially its focus on open source software, which is freely available to anyone to download, use, adapt and pass on to others.

The U.K. is looking to change copyright laws that make it illegal to copy music for personal use and for libraries to archive material under copyright.

UK copyright laws "needlessly criminalise" music fans and need to be updated, a consumer watchdog says.

Glyn Moody now points us to the news that (Russian President) Medvedev appears to be going even further than just condemning today's copyright laws. He's now looking to adjust Russia's copyright laws in the other direction.

Australians and New Zealanders will be expected to conform our laws with US copyright laws, yet we don't get to vote in US elections. The American Revolution was fought over this very same principle!

It's too early to say for sure, but Oregon Senator Ron Wyden could very well go down in the history books as the man who saved the Internet.

"It was a partial harmonisation with only those parts of American law that favoured certain interests," he said. "The reality is that American law doesn't change; Australian law changes, but specifically it excludes the consumer-friendly parts of American copyright law, namely the doctrine of fair use."

Most Americans expect that their laws are only passed after some period of public debate between Republicans and Democrats or their news-channel proxies. However, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) may be an exception to this rule, and if it is signed, many United States laws concerning the Internet and ownership of data may become substantively different.