Despite laws saying that Government docs are public domain, lawyer finds drm block

I hate PDFs with the fire of a thousand suns, but this goes far beyond that.
"DMCA makes it illegal for me to use works that are completely in the public domain...it tells me that I have permission to read and print the document, but not to copy from it. Because there is no copyright, the government has no right to prevent me from copying...I have no hacking skills; I'm just a non-profit lawyer trying to read a government document. Normally I'd buy some software utility that would let me do this, but such a utility is something the DMCA definitely prohibits. I better start writing my petition for a Copyright Office exemption next time they grant them in two years."
LINK

Soon, Disney will just own Childhood™®

Hm. Disney is always scary, but this is something else.

"You probably are not aware that earlier this month Disney applied to the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand for sweeping trade mark protection around works that Disney did not create.
You may be astonished at the breadth of the application being lodged by a company that has done no more, in this case, than produce adaptations of classic works of children's literature. Ditto for Snow White, Peter Pan, Pinocchio and a list of characters from those works.

This is not trivial. It would be understandable for Disney to try and protect its interpretations of existing characters, but its application for so-called "word marks" implies something much more than that: it implies exclusive rights to use all those characters. There have been at least 14 English-language films based on Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio (which itself drew on classical sources), and many more in other languages. If Disney was to obtain such trade marks (which cover "motion picture films"), would it then become impossible to make - or at least market - another one without Disney's permission? Would it be a copyright lockout via the back door?"

LINK

Thailand breaking patents to create affordable Aids drugs

Thailand's latest coup hardly fluttered the news, but the new government is up to stuff- and this is fantastic.

"Thailand's health ministry says it has approved the production of cheaper versions of patented anti-Aids and heart disease drugs.

He said at current prices, Thailand could only afford anti-Aids medicine for a fifth of the country's HIV sufferers.

The minister said the move was permissible under international trade rules in the event of national public health emergencies." LINK

Response from the BigPharma companies whose drugs are being reproduced, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and Abbot Laboratories, is predictably angry. They, naturally, would prefer to make money than to save lives. Looking out for their investors, you see. It's all about the economy, baby!