Caribbean copyright showdown

The tiny Caribbean island of Antigua doesn’t make the news very often. Located 1800 kilometres east of Miami, just north of Montserrat, it is best known as a holiday destination for well-heeled Europeans and celebrities with private yachts. Now it is in the headlines for an unexpected reason...

Amateur Media : Social, Cultural and Legal Perspectives

The rise of Web 2.0 has pushed the amateur to the forefront of public discourse, public policy and media scholarship. Typically non-salaried, non-specialist and untrained in media production, amateur producers are now seen as key drivers of the creative economy. But how do the activities of citizen journalists, fan fiction writers and bedroom musicians connect with longer traditions of extra-institutional media production? This edited collection provides a much-needed interdisciplinary contextualisation of amateur media before and after Web 2.0. Surveying the institutional, economic and legal construction of the amateur media producer via a series of case studies, it features contributions from experts in the fields of law, economics and media studies based in the UK, Europe and Singapore. Each section of the book contains a detailed case study on a selected topic, followed by two further pieces providing additional analysis and commentary. Using an extraordinary array of case studies and examples, from YouTube to online games, from subtitling communities to reality TV, the book is neither a celebration of amateur production nor a denunciation of the demise of professional media industries. Rather, this book presents a critical dialogue across law and the humanities, exploring the dynamic tensions and interdependencies between amateur and professional creative production. This book will appeal to both academics and students of intellectual property and media law, as well as to scholars and students of economics, media, cultural and internet studies.

Histories of user-generated content : between formal and informal media economies

Debates about user-generated content (UGC) often depend on a contrast with its normative opposite, the professionally produced content that is supported and sustained by commercial media businesses or public organisations. UGC is seen to appear within or in opposition to professional media, often as a disruptive, creative, change-making force. Our suggestion is to position UGC not in opposition to professional or "producer media", or in hybridised forms of subjective combination with it (the so-called "pro-sumer" or "pro-am" system), but in relation to different criteria, namely the formal and informal elements in media industries. In this article, we set out a framework for the comparative and historical analysis of UGC systems and their relations with other formal and informal media activity, illustrated with examples ranging from games to talkback radio. We also consider the policy implications that emerge from a historicised reading of UGC as a recurring dynamic within media industries, rather than a manifestation of consumer agency specific to digital cultures.

Nanomorphology influence on the light conversion mechanisms in highly efficient diketopyrrolopyrrole based organic solar cells

In this work, diketopyrrolopyrrole-based polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells with inverted and regular architecture have been investigated. The influence of the polymer:fullerene ratio on the photoactive film nanomorphology has been studied in detail. Transmission Electron Microscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy reveal that the resulting film morphology strongly depends on the fullerene ratio. This fact determines the photocurrent generation and governs the transport of free charge carriers. Slight variations on the PCBM ratio respect to the polymer show great differences on the electrical behavior of the solar cell. Once the polymer:fullerene ratio is accurately adjusted, power conversion efficiencies of 4.7% and 4.9% are obtained for inverted and regular architectures respectively. Furthermore, by correlating the optical and morphological characterization of the polymer:fullerene films and the electrical behavior of solar cells, an ad hoc interpretation is proposed to explain the photovoltaic performance as a function of this polymer:blend composition.

Abundance and prevalence of Aedes aegypti immatures and relationships with household water storage in rural areas in southern Viet Nam

Since 2000, the Government of Viet Nam has committed to provide rural communities with increased access to safe water through a variety of household water supply schemes (wells, ferrocement tanks and jars) and piped water schemes. One possible, unintended consequence of these schemes is the concomitant increase in water containers that may serve as habitats for dengue mosquito immatures, principally Aedes aegypti. To assess these possible impacts we undertook detailed household surveys of Ae. aegypti immatures, water storage containers and various socioeconomic factors in three rural communes in southern Viet Nam. Positive relationships between the numbers of household water storage containers and the prevalence and abundance of Ae. aegypti immatures were found. Overall, water storage containers accounted for 92–97% and 93–96% of the standing crops of III/IV instars and pupae, respectively. Interestingly, households with higher socioeconomic levels had significantly higher numbers of water storage containers and therefore greater risk of Ae. aegypti infestation. Even after provision of piped water to houses, householders continued to store water in containers and there was no observed decrease in water storage container abundance in these houses, compared to those that relied entirely on stored water. These findings highlight the householders’ concerns about the limited availability of water and their strong behavoural patterns associated with storage of water. We conclude that household water storage container availability is a major risk factor for infestation with Ae. aegypti immatures, and that recent investment in rural water supply infrastructure are unlikely to mitigate this risk, at least in the short term.

Cultures of sharing in 3D printing: What can we learn from the licence choices of Thingiverse users?

This article contributes to the discussion by analysing how users of the leading online 3D printing design repository Thingiverse manage their intellectual property (IP). 3D printing represents a fruitful case study for exploring the relationship between IP norms and practitioner culture. Although additive manufacturing technology has existed for decades, 3D printing is on the cusp of a breakout into the technological mainstream – hardware prices are falling; designs are circulating widely; consumer-friendly platforms are multiplying; and technological literacy is rising. Analysing metadata from more than 68,000 Thingiverse design files collected from the site, we examine the licensing choices made by users and explore the way this shapes the sharing practices of the site’s users. We also consider how these choices and practices connect with wider attitudes towards sharing and intellectual property in 3D printing communities. A particular focus of the article is how Thingiverse structures its regulatory framework to avoid IP liability, and the extent to which this may have a bearing on users’ conduct. The paper has three sections. First, we will offer a description of Thingiverse and how it operates in the 3D printing ecosystem, noting the legal issues that have arisen regarding Thingiverse’s Terms of Use and its allocation of intellectual property rights. Different types of Thingiverse licences will be detailed and explained. Second, the empirical metadata we have collected from Thingiverse will be presented, including the methods used to obtain this information. Third, we will present findings from this data on licence choice and the public availability of user designs. Fourth, we will look at the implications of these findings and our conclusions regarding the particular kind of sharing ethic that is present in Thingiverse; we also consider the “closed” aspects of this community and what this means for current debates about “open” innovation.

The grumpy stump - ultrasound and stump appendicitis

BACKGROUND: Stump appendicitis, the inflammation of an incompletely removed appendix, is a rare clinical presentation. Sonography can be useful in the diagnosis of the condition; by either directly visualising the inflamed stump, or by identifying signs of peri-caecal inflammation that can raise suspicion of the condition. SUMMARY OF WORK: A potential case of stump appendicitis was identified. This prompted a review of literature focused on the incidence of stump appendicitis, utility of ultrasound to identify an inflamed appendiceal stump, and surgical techniques used in appendectomy. SUMMARY OF RESULTS: Stump appendicitis is rare, with as few as 61 cases identified in literature during the last 60 years1. Of the two common techniques of appendectomy, which are ligation and invagination, the former can sometimes leave a residual stump that acts as a potential lumen for the pathophysiological process of appendicitis to recur. Established sonographic criteria for appendicitis also apply to the residual stump. Sonographic secondary signs that suggest the presence of acute appendicitis2 have also been demonstrated in cases of stump appendicitis3, even in the absence of an identifiable stump. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Appendicitis is usually dismissed in patients with a history of appendectomy. Though uncommon, sonographers should be aware of stump appendicitis in post-appendectomy patients that present with right iliac fossa pain from months to decades later. REFERENCE(S) 1. Subramanian A, Liang MK. A 60-year literature review of stump appendicitis: The need for a critical view. Am J Surg; 2012;203(4):503–7. 2. Reddan T, Corness J, Mengersen K, Harden F. Ultrasound of paediatric appendicitis and its secondary sonographic signs: providing a more meaningful finding. J Med Radiat Sci. 2015;DOI: 10.1002/jmrs.154 3. Martínez Chamorro E, Merina Castilla A, Muñoz Fraile B, Koren Fernández L, Borruel Nacenta S. Stump appendicitis: Preoperative imaging findings in four cases. Abdom Imaging. 2013;38(6):1214–9.