Genetic documentation of filial cannibalism in nature

Cannibalism is widespread in natural populations of fishes, where the stomachs of adults frequently contain conspecific juveniles. Furthermore, field observations suggest that guardian males routinely eat offspring from their own nests. However, recent genetic paternity analyses have shown that fish nests often contain embryos not sired by the nest-tending male (because of cuckoldry events, egg thievery, or nest piracy). Such findings, coupled with the fact that several fish species have known capabilities for distinguishing kin from nonkin, raise the possibility that cannibalism by guardian males is directed primarily or exclusively toward unrelated embryos in their nests. Here, we test this hypothesis by collecting freshly cannibalized embryos from the stomachs of several nest-tending darter and sunfish males in nature and determining their genetic parentage by using polymorphic microsatellite markers. Our molecular results clearly indicate that guardian males do indeed consume their own genetic offspring, even when unrelated (foster) embryos are present within the nest. These data provide genetic documentation of filial cannibalism in nature. Furthermore, they suggest that the phenomenon may result, at least in part, from an inability of guardians to differentiate between kin and nonkin within their own nests.

Electronic reserves: copyright and permissions

Electronic reserves present a new service option for libraries to provide needed materials during hours that the library is not open and to user groups located some distance from library collections. Possible changes to current copyright law and publishers permissions policies have delayed the development of electronic reserves in many libraries. This paper reviews the current state of electronic reserves materials in the publishing and library communities and presents the results of a survey of publishers to determine permissions policies for electronic materials. Issues of concern to both libraries and publishers are discussed.

Benjamin, BitTorrent, Bootlegs: auratic piracy cultures?

Seventy-five years ago, Walter Benjamin showed us that the line between "production" and "reproduction" had begun to blur. Reproduction was no longer optional, consequential and degrading (the shredding of the original’s aura), but was instead being transformed into a principle of production itself: something was produced bearing in mind how it was to be reproduced. No longer did the original exist (in photography, film, music recordings), but instead diffusion, exhibition. The work existed precisely at the time and place of its enjoyment. Today, the cultural pirates of the new digital era take this principle to the extreme, with a certain characteristic also foreseen by Benjamin: a yearning to participate, to post-produce something captured in order to later return it to the Internet, modified in some way and made available to others. This postproduction is what is now often mixed up with reception, just as production and reproduction used to be in Benjamin’s day. Postproduction on the receiver’s side, which somehow augments and extends the received work, in other words creates an etymologically rigorous author-ization (auctor as the root of both author and augmentation). The cultural pirate only deserves redemption thanks to this creative augmentation.

Copyright certificate for the Celestial Planisphere, [1806] July 11

Handwritten copy of a certificate acknowledging the deposit of the title of Croswell's celestial planisphere with the clerk of the District of Massachusetts.

Copyright in the EU Digital Single Market. Report of the CEPS Digital Forum. June 2013

The scope and enforcement of copyright in the digital environment have been among the most complex and controversial subjects tackled by lawmakers all over the world for the last decade. Due to the ubiquitous use of digital technology, modern regulation of copyright inherently touches on numerous areas of law and social and economic policy, including communications privacy and Internet governance. Modernising the EU’s copyright framework is considered a key step towards achieving the goal of an EU Digital Single Market in the context of the ‘Digital Agenda for Europe’, an initiative launched by the European Commission in May 2010. How can the EU make copyright fit for purpose in the Internet age? What are the most suitable and realistic policy options to achieve the objective of a Digital Single Market in the creative content sectors? To give comprehensive answers to these questions, the CEPS Digital Forum formed a Task Force on Copyright in the EU Digital Single Market to foster a multi-stakeholder dialogue on the major challenges for copyright law in the online content sector today. Drawing on the discussions and input gathered by the Task Force, this report contains the conclusions and policy recommendations organised around three main themes: licensing rules and practices in the online music and film sectors, the definition and implementation of copyright exceptions in the digital environment and the present and future of online copyright enforcement in Europe.