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The following short segment is great. "What's swinging into place Max, is that we have great communication networks now coming about for the transmission of di

by dluan 8y ago

The following short segment is great. "What's swinging into place Max, is that we have great communication networks now coming about for the transmission of digital information. Now by digital we just mean symbols. There's this mistake that digital means in numbers. That's wrong. The two commonest programming languages are musical notation and knitting instructions. That's not fu... why are you laughing." Knitting was really big back then.

EGreg 8y ago
He forgot recipes :)
fapjacks 8y ago
Knitting is really big still. One of the biggest lobbies for copyright and IP legislation is (no kidding) the industry that creates patterns for sewing and knitting. Put out feelers on social media, see how many of your associates knit which you didn't know about. It was surprising to me for some reason to find out how pervasive it is.
- tomatotomato37 8y ago
  Wait, by sewing pattern industry, do you mean the fashion industry?
  - fapjacks 8y ago
    Haha that's a great question, but no, there is actually a different set of companies selling patterns for sewing and knitting (traditionally to their target demographic of older ladies). Companies that typically sell patterns to places like Hobby Lobby or Michaels, this kind of thing, and not companies like Old Navy and Forever21 and the like. In that industry, patterns are sort of like patents in a way, and these companies have amassed huge libraries of patterns and aggressively defend them with litigation. I'll dig a bit to see if I can find information about the specific events I'm thinking of, but the gist of it was that alongside Napster I believe, one of the biggest and earliest instances of copyright/IP litigation was against little old ladies who were using P2P to fileshare sewing and knitting patterns. This was before the RIAA started suing customers, and I believe it actually partly served as the inspiration for the RIAA stupidly choosing to go that route. It's been some years since I've read the story, so I'm likely not remembering some details correctly. Edit: I can't find a link to the story I'm thinking of, but you can actually find some side effects of this litigation, for example this "copyright notice" (especially read the actual PDF as this notice was pretty clearly issued to protect the interests of these pattern companies I'm talking about): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/copyright-notice-knitting-and-sewing-patterns https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/copyright-notice-...

by dluan 8y ago

EGreg 8y ago

He forgot recipes :)

fapjacks 8y ago

Knitting is really big still. One of the biggest lobbies for copyright and IP legislation is (no kidding) the industry that creates patterns for sewing and knitting. Put out feelers on social media, see how many of your associates knit which you didn't know about. It was surprising to me for some reason to find out how pervasive it is.

tomatotomato37 8y ago
Wait, by sewing pattern industry, do you mean the fashion industry?
- fapjacks 8y ago
  Haha that's a great question, but no, there is actually a different set of companies selling patterns for sewing and knitting (traditionally to their target demographic of older ladies). Companies that typically sell patterns to places like Hobby Lobby or Michaels, this kind of thing, and not companies like Old Navy and Forever21 and the like. In that industry, patterns are sort of like patents in a way, and these companies have amassed huge libraries of patterns and aggressively defend them with litigation. I'll dig a bit to see if I can find information about the specific events I'm thinking of, but the gist of it was that alongside Napster I believe, one of the biggest and earliest instances of copyright/IP litigation was against little old ladies who were using P2P to fileshare sewing and knitting patterns. This was before the RIAA started suing customers, and I believe it actually partly served as the inspiration for the RIAA stupidly choosing to go that route. It's been some years since I've read the story, so I'm likely not remembering some details correctly. Edit: I can't find a link to the story I'm thinking of, but you can actually find some side effects of this litigation, for example this "copyright notice" (especially read the actual PDF as this notice was pretty clearly issued to protect the interests of these pattern companies I'm talking about): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/copyright-notice-knitting-and-sewing-patterns https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/copyright-notice-...