Saturday, December 31, 2011

Copyright Office Supports Federalization of Pre-1972 Sound Recordings; LibraryJournal.com, 12/29/11

Michael Kelley, LibraryJournal.com; Copyright Office Supports Federalization of Pre-1972 Sound Recordings:

"In a report issued Wednesday, the U.S. Copyright Office recommended that sound recordings made before February 15, 1972 be brought under federal jurisdiction.

"We believe that bringing pre-1972 sound recordings into the federal copyright system serves the interests of consistency and certainty, and will assist libraries and archives in carrying out their missions while also offering additional rights and protection for sound recording right holders," Register of Copyrights Maria A. Pallante said in a statement.

Until now, a hodgepodge of state common-law regimes has governed the protection of these works. The result has often been a legal fog that has confused and chilled efforts to preserve historical sound recordings and make them accessible."

Songwriters Group Backs Village People Singer in Rights Case; New York Times, 12/20/11

James C. McKinley, Jr., New York Times; Songwriters Group Backs Village People Singer in Rights Case:

"The Songwriters Guild of America has entered a legal battle between Victor Willis, the lead singer of the Village People, and the publishing company that owns the copyrights to the group’s songs, saying the case is an important test of a songwriters’ right to regain control of his or her work after 35 years."

A Comic Distributes Himself; New York Times, 12/18/11

David Carr, New York Times; A Comic Distributes Himself:

"Louis C. K. is something of a pirate in the entertainment world, a man who has ignored propriety on his way to building a huge comic franchise. So it’s odd to see him put one of his shows for sale on the Web and politely ask fans not to rip him off.

The weirder thing? It seems to be working."

Marvel in Support of SOPA; ComicBookResources.com, 12/29/11

Steve Sunu, ComicBookResources.com; Marvel in Support of SOPA:

"Today, Marvel Comics came under fire by fans when the publisher's support of the Stop Online Piracy Act (or SOPA) came to light. While the list of companies that support SOPA has been publicly available since December 22, Marvel's support of the bill was noticed only recently and the fan reaction was less than positive."

Marvel Wins Court Battle Over Rights to Ghost Rider; New York Times, 12/29/11

George Gene Gustines, New York Times; Marvel Wins Court Battle Over Rights to Ghost Rider:

"A federal judge in New York has ruled that Marvel Entertainment owns the rights to Ghost Rider, a supernatural character possessed by a spirit of vengeance who first appeared in 1972. The character was the subject of a lawsuit by a writer seeking to cash in on lucrative movie rights, according to a report by The Associated Press."

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Publishers vs. Libraries: An E-Book Tug of War; New York Times, 12/24/11

Randall Stross, New York Times; Publishers vs. Libraries: An E-Book Tug of War:

"Worried that people will click to borrow an e-book from a library rather than click to buy it, almost all major publishers in the United States now block libraries’ access to the e-book form of either all of their titles or their most recently published ones."

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" Uploader Sentenced to One Year in Prison; ComicBookResources.com, 12/19/11

ComicBookResources.com; "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" Uploader Sentenced to One Year in Prison:

"A New York City man who admitted to illegally uploading an unfinished copy of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" a month before the movie's release was sentenced Monday to one year in federal prison."

M.I.T. Expands Its Free Online Courses; New York Times, 12/19/11

Tamar Lewin, New York Times; M.I.T. Expands Its Free Online Courses:

"While students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology pay thousands of dollars for courses, the university will announce a new program on Monday allowing anyone anywhere to take M.I.T. courses online free of charge — and for the first time earn official certificates for demonstrating mastery of the subjects taught...

M.I.T. led the way to an era of online learning 10 years ago by posting course materials from almost all its classes. Its free OpenCourseWare now includes nearly 2,100 courses and has been used by more than 100 million people.

But the new “M.I.T.x” interactive online learning platform will go further, giving students access to online laboratories, self-assessments and student-to-student discussions."

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Angelina Jolie dismisses lawsuit against In the Land of Blood and Honey; Guardian, 12/7/11

Ben Child, Guardian; Angelina Jolie dismisses lawsuit against In the Land of Blood and Honey:

"In an interview with the LA Times published yesterday, Jolie denied ever having read Braddock's book. "It's par for the course. It happens on almost every film," she said during an interview about her new film at a New York hotel. "There are many books and documentaries that I did pull from," added the Oscar-winning actor, citing work by journalists Peter Maas and Tom Gielten. "It's a combination of many people's stories. But that particular book I've never seen.""

In the Bronx, a Collision of Cars, Celebrity and Copyright; New York Times, 11/28/11

David Gonzalez, New York Times; In the Bronx, a Collision of Cars, Celebrity and Copyright:

"To get that Bronx flavor that so inspired Ms. Lopez “to be tougher…to stay sharper…to think faster,” the spot’s producer stitched in a series of details intended to evoke the South Bronx — a break dancer, a guy drumming on a pail and a stunningly colored graffiti mural, the words “I ❤ the Bronx” clearly visible as the camera pans past the wall. But Fiat and its ad agency, Doner, may have missed one neighborhood detail that could lead to legal action: the copyright symbol on the lower right corner of the mural."

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Revealing the Habits of Copyright Advocates; New York Times, 12/16/11

J. David Goodman, New York Times; Revealing the Habits of Copyright Advocates:

"As Congress moves forward on two bills aimed at curbing online piracy, a Web site has given opponents a way to attack those lobbying for the measures by exposing their illegal downloads.

The site, youhavedownloaded.com, allows users to search through publicly available data that links roughly 50 million file-sharing users to specific content downloaded on torrent sites, which allow movies, television shows and other large files to be rapidly shared."

Library Copyright Alliance Releases Letter Welcoming OPEN Act; Digital Shift, 12/16/11

David Rapp, Digital Shift; Library Copyright Alliance Releases Letter Welcoming OPEN Act:

"Earlier this week, the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA)—made up of the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Association of College & Research Libraries—released an open letter [PDF] to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), “welcoming [the] release” of a discussion draft bill the legislators have sponsored. Called the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) Act, the bill has been touted as a potential alternative to SOPA."

Friday, December 16, 2011

Stop Online Piracy Act Vote Delayed; Wired.com, 12/16/11

David Kravets, Wired.com; Stop Online Piracy Act Vote Delayed:

"The House Judiciary Committee considering whether to send the Stop Online Piracy Act to the House floor abruptly adjourned Friday with no new vote date set —a surprise given that the bill looked certain to pass out of committee today.

The committee’s chairman and chief sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), agreed to further explore a controversial provision that lets the Attorney General order changes to core internet infrastructure in order to stop copyright infringement.

Smith said the hearing would resume at the “earliest practical day that Congress is in session.” That could be weeks."

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Lines Drawn on Antipiracy Bills; New York Times, 12/14/11

Edward Wyatt, New York Times; Lines Drawn on Antipiracy Bills:

"A House committee plans to take up one of the bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act, on Thursday...

“Our mistake was allowing this romantic word — piracy — to take hold,” Tom Rothman, the co-chief executive of Fox Filmed Entertainment, said in an interview last week in Washington.

“It’s really robbery — it’s theft — and that theft is being combined with consumer fraud,” he said."

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

E-Books, Shmee-Books: Readers Return to the Stores; New York Times, 12/12/11

Julie Bosman, New York Times; E-Books, Shmee-Books: Readers Return to the Stores:

"Facing economic gloom and competition from cheap e-readers, brick-and-mortar booksellers entered this holiday season with the humblest of expectations.

But the initial weeks of Christmas shopping, a boom time for the book business, have yielded surprisingly strong sales for many bookstores, which report that they have been lifted by an unusually vibrant selection; customers who seem undeterred by pricier titles; and new business from people who used to shop at Borders, the chain that went out of business this year."

Monday, December 12, 2011

Yoga Pose Copyright Bid Too Big of a Stretch, Regulator Says; BusinessWeek, 12/12/11

Ellen Rosen, BusinessWeek; Yoga Pose Copyright Bid Too Big of a Stretch, Regulator Says:

"Yoga poses such as head-to-knee stretches and the sequences of the moves are “exercises” rather than “choreography” and can’t be copyrighted in the U.S., regulators said.

The U.S. Copyright Office previously permitted yoga poses and their sequences to be registered, even if those exercises were in the public domain, Laura Lee Fischer, acting chief of the office’s Performing Arts Division, said in response to an inquiry by an attorney involved in lawsuits the founder of Bikram Yoga filed against three yoga studios.

The office reviewed the legislative history of the copyright law and decided that exercises, including yoga, “do not constitute the subject matter that Congress intended to protect as choreography,” Fischer said in an e-mail."

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Exploring open access in higher education: live chat best bits; Guardian, 12/7/11

Eliza Anyangwe, Guardian; Exploring open access in higher education: live chat best bits:

"What is the benefit of open access to academia? Who will pay for open education resources? These questions and many more are answered by our live chat panel"

Monday, December 5, 2011

HathiTrust Defendants Respond to Authors Guild Lawsuit; Chronicle of Higher Education, 12/5/11

Chronicle of Higher Education; HathiTrust Defendants Respond to Authors Guild Lawsuit:

"The HathiTrust digital repository and the five universities sued by the Authors Guild and others over mass book digitization and alleged copyright infringement have filed a response to the lawsuit."

Dyson seeks to block copycat manufacturers in China; Guardian, 12/4/11

Dan Milmo, Guardian; Dyson seeks to block copycat manufacturers in China:

"The billionaire inventor Sir James Dyson has warned China that it risks being expelled from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over copyright breaches including rip-offs of his famed inventions."

SOPA on the ropes? Bipartisan alternative to 'Net censorship emerges; ArsTechnica.com, 12/2/11

Nate Anderson, ArsTechnica.com; SOPA on the ropes? Bipartisan alternative to 'Net censorship emerges:

"But rightsholders do need some means of enforcing copyrights and trademarks, something tough to do when a site sets up overseas and willfully targets American consumers with fake goods and unauthorized content...

Fortunately, plenty can be done, and it can be done in a way that doesn't raise the same immediate concerns about due process and censorship. One promising alternative was unveiled today by a bipartisan group of 10 senators and representatives. It ditches the “law and order” approach to piracy and replaces it with a more limited, trade-based system.

And the legislators behind it have put out a draft of the idea for public comment before they even begin drawing up actual legislation."

Colbert Takes On SOPA; TechDirt.com, 12/2/11

Mike Masnick, TechDirt.com; Colbert Takes On SOPA:

"Want to see just how mainstream the issues of SOPA and PROTECT IP are becoming? Last night they made it on to The Colbert Report, where he had a bit of a debate about SOPA, between record label owner Danny Goldberg and Harvard professor Jonathan Zittrain. It kicked off with a short segment, where Colbert explained the issue."

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Cambridge U. Press Would Like to Rent You an Article; Chronicle of Higher Education, 11/30/11

Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education; Cambridge U. Press Would Like to Rent You an Article:

"A highly informal poll on Twitter produced more initial skepticism than enthusiasm about the Cambridge article-rental plan. ”24 hours access, w/o ability to markup or download, or view again? Nope. No researcher I know would get much use from a 24-hour evaporative e-article,” one librarian responded. Another said, “Do they use the flashing device from ‘Men in Black’ to wipe any memory of the article after 24 hours as well?” One researcher said it seemed most likely to appeal to researchers without institutional affiliations."

Monday, November 28, 2011

[Book Review of Robert Levine's "Free Ride"] Inconspicuous Consumption; New York Times, 11/25/11

[Book Review of Robert Levine's "Free Ride"] New York Times; Inconspicuous Consumption:

"In “Free Ride,” a book that should change the debate about the future of culture, Robert Levine argues, in effect, that Samuel Johnson was right, and that it’s the self-interested Silicon Valley technology companies and their well-financed advocates who are wrong. “The real conflict online,” Levine writes, “is between the media companies that fund much of the entertainment we read, see and hear and the technology firms that want to distribute their content — legally or otherwise.” By delivering content they don’t pay for, or selling content far below the price it cost to create, Levine says, information and entertainment distributors like YouTube and The Huffington Post become “parasites” on the media companies that invest substantially in journalists, musicians and actors; the distributors drive down prices in a way that sucks the economic lifeblood out of those who create and finance the best achievements of our culture. The result is a “digital version of Wal-Mart capitalism,” in which free-riding distributors reap all the economic benefits of the Internet by cutting prices, and culture suppliers are forced to cut costs in response. This dynamic, Levine argues, destroys the economic incentive to create the kinds of movies, television, music and journalism consumers demand, and for which they are, in fact, quite willing to pay."

SOPA Opponents' Bogus Net Neutrality Comparisons; Forbes, 11/28/11

Scott Cleland, Forbes; SOPA Opponents' Bogus Net Neutrality Comparisons:

"In sum, net neutrality and stopping online piracy are very different issues...

With fixes to ensure the legislation only targets rogue websites and does not create unintended problems by requiring actual website blocking or traffic filtering, support for online anti-piracy legislation is likely to strongly consolidate as the bills progress, enabling it to become law in this Congressional session. To paraphrase Mark Twain: Internet reports of SOPA’s death are greatly exaggerated."

[Editorial] Piracy vs. an open Internet; Los Angeles Times, 11/25/11

[Editorial] Los Angeles Times; Piracy vs. an open Internet:

"Although much of Silicon Valley is up in arms about the House bill, there is a clear path to consensus. Lawmakers should craft a bill focused on cutting off funding for foreign sites that really are dedicated to infringement. If they have any doubt that such an approach can be effective, they should consider WikiLeaks. Efforts to block access to the site were an abject failure. Cutting off the company's ability to collect funds from its supporters, however, has pushed it to the brink of bankruptcy."

Sunday, November 27, 2011

[Editorial ] Going After the Pirates; New York Times, 11/26/11

[Editorial] New York Times; Going After the Pirates:

"The bill should be made to stipulate clearly that all of its provisions are aimed only at rogue Web sites overseas. Foreign sites must be granted the same safe harbor immunity — and the bill must not open the door to punishments for domestic sites that abide by the 1998 digital copyright law. And rather than encouraging credit card companies and advertising networks to pre-emptively cut off business to Web sites accused of wrongdoing, a court order should be required before they take action."

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Penguin Restores Kindle Lending, but Still Not Providing Digital Editions of New Titles; The Digital Shift, 11/23/11

Michael Kelley, The Digital Shift; Penguin Restores Kindle Lending, but Still Not Providing Digital Editions of New Titles:

"Penguin Group (USA) has backtracked from at least part of its recent decision to limit library lending."

Librarians Face Patrons Unhappy With Penguin Policy Change; ALA Condemns Ebook Decision; The Digital Shift, 11/22/11

Michael Kelley, The Digital Shift; Librarians Face Patrons Unhappy With Penguin Policy Change; ALA Condemns Ebook Decision:

"Todd Feinman, the chairman of the Oregon Digital Library Consortium (ODLC) , which has 22 library systems in its network (over 100 locations), said more complaints were likely forthcoming.

“I think that the whole paradigm is shifting and I imagine that there will be more of this over time,” he said. “I don’t know where this is going. These things are usually a surprise to us. It’s just hard to say what a publisher is going to do next,” he said.

Feinman said libraries could always boycott if necessary. ODLC has refused to license any ebooks from HarperCollins to protest that publisher’s February decision to limit library loans to 26 circulations."

European Court Rejects Call for I.S.P.’s to Curb Illegal File Sharing; New York Times, 11/24/11

Eric Pfanner, New York Times; European Court Rejects Call for I.S.P.’s to Curb Illegal File Sharing:

"The highest court in the European Union said on Thursday that Internet service providers could not be required to monitor their customers’ online activity to filter out the illegal sharing of music and other copyrighted material.

The ruling, by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, is a setback for a Belgian group representing music copyright owners, which had sought tougher measures to crack down on online file sharing."

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Movie fans turn to piracy when the online cupboard is bare; Guardian, 11/22/11

Cory Doctorow, Guardian; Movie fans turn to piracy when the online cupboard is bare:

"Ask anyone who's studied copyright policy – scholars of music and literature, economists, sociologists, law professors – and they'll tell you that the No 1 problem with copyright is that it is enacted without recourse to evidence...

Writing in the Guardian, Ben Goldacre has examined the most-cited statistics about piracy, job creation and GDP contributions in the so-called creative industries and found them so singularly lacking that he declared: "As far as I'm concerned, everything from this industry is false, until proven otherwise.""

Music label sues over Seth Rogen's 50/50; Guardian, 11/21/11

Ben Child, Guardian; Music label sues over Seth Rogen's 50/50:

"A Florida-based music and fashion label is suing the makers of the Seth Rogen/Joseph Gordon-Levitt cancer comedy 50/50, claiming it owns the copyright to the title.

Eastland Music Group (EMG) says it has been using the names 50/50 and Phifty-50 records to sell music by a hip-hop duo of the same name since 2000. They allege the film's release in US cinemas has already confused consumers."

WIPO SCCR Constructs Library Exceptions Topics For Discussion; Intellectual Property Watch, 11/23/11

William New, Intellectual Property Watch; WIPO SCCR Constructs Library Exceptions Topics For Discussion:

"The World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee today agreed on “clusters” of topics under which they will discuss topics related to limitations and exceptions to copyright for libraries and archives, with an eye toward a possible instrument in the future."

“Marathon” WIPO Copyright Session Opens With Hopes, Treaty Prospects; Intellectual Property Watch, 11/22/11

William New, Intellectual Property Watch; “Marathon” WIPO Copyright Session Opens With Hopes, Treaty Prospects:

"Officials from around the world have gathered for the next two weeks at the World Intellectual Property Organization in hopes of resolving the fate of several longstanding copyright policies under debate."

Penguin Suspends E-Book Availability to Libraries; New York Times, 11/22/11

Julie Bosman, New York Times; Penguin Suspends E-Book Availability to Libraries:

"Another major publisher has pushed back against making its e-books available to library users. Penguin Book Group said it would “delay the availability” of new e-books to libraries because of security concerns."

Monday, November 21, 2011

Anti-piracy bill meets Web-freedom backlash; CNN.com, 11/18/11

Doug Gross, CNN.com; Anti-piracy bill meets Web-freedom backlash:

"A bill moving through Congress is intended, on its surface at least, to do something relatively simple: Crack down on the illegal pirating of movies, music and other copyrighted material.

But a major online backlash has evolved, with everyone from lawmakers to Web-freedom advocates to some of technology's biggest players calling it a greedy and dangerous overreach that could have a chilling effect on free speech and innovation.

Google, Yahoo and Facebook are among the Web heavyweights who have joined the chorus against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which backers hope to have ready for a vote by the end of the year."

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Strange bedfellows: Nancy Pelosi, Ron Paul join SOPA opposition; ArsTechnica.com, 11/17/11

Nate Anderson, ArsTechnica.com; Strange bedfellows: Nancy Pelosi, Ron Paul join SOPA opposition:

"And Pelosi is far from the only member of Congress opposed to the legislation. On Tuesday, ten members of Congress signed a "dear colleague" letter expressing concerns with the bill. The signers were nine Democrats plus Rep Ron Paul (R-TX), a libertarian-leaning candidate for the GOP presidential nomination...

Also opposed to the legislation is Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA)."

Stop Sopa now; Guardian, 11/16/11

Dan Gilmor, Guardian; Stop Sopa now:

"America is fond of chiding other nations about freedom of speech in the internet age. Leaders including President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are constantly reminding their global counterparts, especially in places like China, that internet censorship is a detriment to open government and honest self-rule. Yet, the Obama administration has used tactics that smell of censorship, and Congress is making common cause with a corporate cartel that wants to turn the internet into little more than an enhanced form of cable television. In the name of protecting copyright holders, they would censor the internet and force entrepreneurs to get permission to innovate."

Novelist Fights the Tide by Opening a Bookstore; New York Times, 11/15/11

Julie Bosman, New York Times; Novelist Fights the Tide by Opening a Bookstore:

"Cultural leaders convened meetings in the public library to discuss who could step in and open a new bookstore. One idea, to start a co-op requiring small investments of $1,000, never got off the ground.

“People were greeting each other in grocery stores, at holiday parties, wringing our hands,” said Beth Alexander, the president of the board at the Nashville Public Library Foundation, the private fund-raising arm of the library. “We’re home to two dozen universities. We need to have a bookstore other than a campus bookstore, and people were looking at each other and saying, ‘We’re very concerned about this.’ ”

Ms. Patchett, meanwhile, hatched a plan of her own. She had money, connections and countless time spent on book tours. Soon she began posing the question to friends: What if she started a bookstore?"

ReDigi, Reseller of Digital Music, Responds to Industry Criticism; New York Times, 11/15/11

New York Times; ReDigi, Reseller of Digital Music, Responds to Industry Criticism:

"What follows are excerpts from ReDigi’s response to the letter from the recording industry’s trade group..."

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Sopa condemned by web giants as 'internet blacklist bill'; Guardian, 11/16/11

Dominic Rushe, Guardian; Sopa condemned by web giants as 'internet blacklist bill' :

"Internet firms including Wikipedia owner Wikimedia, eBay, Google, Twitter and others protested as Congress discussed the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) now passing through Washington.

The act aims to tackle online piracy by giving the US Justice Department new powers to go after websites, both domestically and abroad, that host disputed copyright material. The act would allow the US to effectively pull the plug on websites and go after companies that support them technically or through payment systems. A vote on the bill could come as early as next month."

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

SOPA, The Internet Censorship Bill, Was Lauded By Both Parties In Key House Hearing; HuffingtonPost.com, 11/16/11

Zach Carter and Ryan Grim, HuffingtonPost.com; SOPA, The Internet Censorship Bill, Was Lauded By Both Parties In Key House Hearing:

"At a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Democrats and Republicans joined together to voice support for legislation that would criminalize much of the activity that occupies the Internet. The bipartisan bill known as the Stop Online Piracy Act would establish major new powers for corporations intent on corralling copyrighted materials -- powers that would lead to big legal bills for start-ups and Silicon Valley giants alike."

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Site to Resell Music Files Has Critics; New York Times, 11/14/11

Ben Sisario, New York Times; Site to Resell Music Files Has Critics:

"A legitimate secondhand marketplace for digital music has never been tried successfully, in part because few people think of reselling anything that is not physical. But last month a new company, ReDigi, opened a system that it calls a legal and secure way for people to get rid of unwanted music files and buy others at a discount.

The service has already drawn concern from music executives and legal scholars, who say it is operating in a gray area of the law. Last Thursday the Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the major record companies, sent ReDigi a cease-and-desist letter, accusing it of copyright infringement.

John Ossenmacher, ReDigi’s chief executive, contends that the service complies with copyright law, and that its technology offers safeguards to allay the industry’s concerns that people might profit from pirated music."

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Library Copyright Alliance Voices Concerns Over Anti-Piracy Legislation; Library Journal, 11/9/11

David Rapp, Library Journal; Library Copyright Alliance Voices Concerns Over Anti-Piracy Legislation:

"The Library Copyright Alliance (LCA)—whose members include the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Association of College & Research Libraries—yesterday released a letter [PDF] written to the ranking members of the House Judiciary Committee to voice "serious concerns" about two provisions in H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) [PDF], which could greatly increase penalties for copyright infringement."

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

[Book Review]; Free Ride: How Digital Parasites Are Destroying the Culture Business and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back, by Robert Levine; Business Week, 11/3/11

[Book Review] David Kamp, Business Week; Free Ride by Robert Levine:

"Now, as if to bolster Sulzberger’s resolve, comes Free Ride, Robert Levine’s unrelenting indictment of the free-content ethos that has dominated digital activism. Know that old Irving Kristol maxim that a neoconservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality? Well, Free Ride is the book for the Net utopian who has been mugged by insolvency. It’s a riposte of sorts to Chris Anderson’s 2009 book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, which posits that in the digital economy, “free is not just an option, it’s the inevitable endpoint.”

Levine, a former executive editor of Billboard magazine, is here to say that this line of thinking is, to use the clinical macroeconomics term, a load of bollocks. The model of offering up content for free and making up for this lost revenue stream through advertising may work well for the likes of Google (GOOG), YouTube, and the Huffington Post, but it’s hell on the original-content creators upon which these sites ultimately depend: the professional class of reporters, authors, musicians, filmmakers, and producers whose work—books, articles, songs, TV shows, and movies—is still what the public is ultimately looking for."

Sirius’s Move to Bypass a Royalty Payment Clearinghouse Causes an Uproar; New York Times, 11/6/11

Ben Sisario, New York Times; Sirius’s Move to Bypass a Royalty Payment Clearinghouse Causes an Uproar:

"SoundExchange, a nonprofit group, was founded in 2000 and is authorized by the United States Copyright Office to collect one kind of royalty for digital music. The royalty, the performance right for sound recordings, pays performers and record companies when their songs are played on digital streams like satellite radio and Pandora. (In a rule that has annoyed record companies and musicians for decades, terrestrial radio pays only songwriters and publishers.)"

Monday, October 31, 2011

Justin Bieber: Klobuchar should be 'locked up'; Star Tribune, 10/28/11

Jeremy Herb, Star Tribune; Justin Bieber: Klobuchar should be 'locked up' :

"A teen pop superstar wants to throw Sen. Amy Klobuchar in jail.

Pop sensation Justin Bieber said that he thought Klobuchar should be “locked up” for a bill she’s proposed that would make it a felony to profit from streaming unlicensed online content."

E-PARASITE Bill: 'The End Of The Internet As We Know It'; TechDirt.com, 10/27/11

Mike Masnick, TechDirt.com; E-PARASITE Bill: 'The End Of The Internet As We Know It' :

"We already wrote about the ridiculously bad E-PARASITE bill (the Enforcing and Protecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft and Exploitation Act), but having now had a chance go to through the full bill a few more times, there are even more bad things in there that I missed on the first read-through. Now I understand why Rep. Zoe Lofgren's first reaction to this bill was to say that "this would mean the end of the Internet as we know it."

She's right. The more you look at the details, the more you realize how this bill is an astounding wishlist of everything that the legacy entertainment gatekeepers have wanted in the law for decades and were unable to get. It effectively dismantles the DMCA's safe harbors, what's left of the Sony Betamax decision, puts massive liability on tons of US-based websites, and will lead to widespread blocking of websites and services based solely on accusations of some infringement. It's hard to overstate just how bad this bill is."

A Store of Images, From a Time When ‘Cut and Paste’ Meant Just That; New York Times, 10/30/11

Noam Cohen, New York Times; A Store of Images, From a Time When ‘Cut and Paste’ Meant Just That:

"THE sign in blue lettering read “Copyright-Free Images,” which may not rank with “Zero Percent Financing” or “Everything Must Go” when it comes to sales pitches. But it does have “free” in it, and it was enough to catch my eye while visiting London."

Thursday, October 27, 2011

How to Reform Copyright; Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/9/11

Lewis Hyde, Chronicle of Higher Education; How to Reform Copyright:

"James Madison presumably wrote the clause in the Constitution that allows Congress to give copyrights to authors, but even Madison had his reservation. The founding fathers considered copyright a "monopoly privilege" and, as Madison later wrote, "Monopolies ... ought to be granted with caution ... ." Two concerns lay behind that wariness. For the founders, both democratic self-governance and the conversation of creative communities demanded very low barriers to the circulation of knowledge and, therefore, strict restraint of monopoly privileges. Thus does the Constitution stipulate that copyrights be granted only for "limited times." "A temporary monopoly ... ought to be temporary," Madison declared. "Perpetual monopolies of every sort are forbidden ... by the genius of free Governments."

All that has changed, of course, the term of copyright now being statistically almost indistinguishable from a perpetual grant. How might that be corrected? How might we return to something more in line with the founders' caution and closer to their vision of both democracy and creativity?

Consider one proposal."

A National Digital Public Library Begins to Take Shape; Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/25/11

Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education; A National Digital Public Library Begins to Take Shape:

"The Digital Public Library of America doesn't exist yet, but it's closer to becoming a reality.

At an energized meeting held here at the National Archives on Friday, representatives from top cultural institutions and public and research libraries expressed robust support for the proposed library, which would create a portal to allow the public to get easy online access to collections held at many different institutions."

The case for piracy; ABC, 10/20/11

Nick Ross, ABC; The case for piracy:

"We've been deluged with the arguments against piracy for years. But what's the other side of the story? Could it possibly be that copyright infringers and pirates aren't always the bad guys? Are copyright owners their own worst enemy? Judge for yourself and tell us what you think."

U.S. Copyright Office Outlines "Priorities and Special Projects"; Publishers Weekly, 10/26/11

Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly; U.S. Copyright Office Outlines "Priorities and Special Projects" :

"Orphan works, preservation for libraries, mass digitization, and fighting digital piracy are among the priorities set by the Register of Copyrights Maria A. Pallante this week in a paper outlining the U.S. Copyyright Office's "priorities and special projects" for the next two years. In all, the paper articulates 17 priorities in the areas of copyright policy and administrative practice, and 10 "new projects" designed to "improve the quality and efficiency" of the U.S. Copyright Office’s services in the 21st century. The paper also summarizes the state of global policy, including U.S. trade negotiations, anti-piracy efforts and international discussions of exceptions and limitations."

Sylvester Stallone faces lawsuit over Expendables plot; Guardian, 10/27/11

Henry Barnes, Guardian; Sylvester Stallone faces lawsuit over Expendables plot:

"Sylvester Stallone is facing a lawsuit from a writer who claims the actor stole the plot for ensemble action blockbuster The Expendables from a short story he filed with the US copyright office in 2006."

The Digital Death of Copyright's First Sale Doctrine; Freedom to Tinker, 10/11/11

Annemarie Bridy, Freedom to Tinker; The Digital Death of Copyright's First Sale Doctrine:

"As the transition from physical to streaming or cloud-based digital distribution continues, further divorcing copyrighted works from their traditional tangible embodiments, it will increasingly be the case that consumers do not own the information goods they buy (or, rather, think they've bought). Under the court's decision in Vernor, all a copyright owner has to do to effectively repeal the statutory first sale doctrine is draft a EULA that (1) specifies that the user is granted a license; (2) significantly restricts the user's ability to transfer the software; and (3) imposes notable use restrictions."

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Rihanna and David LaChapelle settle lawsuit over S&M video; Guardian, 10/20/11

Sean Michaels, Guardian; Rihanna and David LaChapelle settle lawsuit over S&M video:

"Rihanna has settled a lawsuit from photographer David LaChapelle, who accused her of copying his photographs for one of her music videos. Earlier this summer, LaChappelle won the right to go to trial to contest the singer's alleged use of his Italian Vogue images in the video for her song S&M...

Although Rihanna's lawyers claimed LaChapelle was "trying to monopolise a whole genre" of sadomasochistic images, Scheindlin dismissed the issue of fair use."

Kanye West, Jay-Z Sued Over Uncleared 'Throne' Sample; Billboard, 10/18/11

Eriq Gardner, Billboard; Kanye West, Jay-Z Sued Over Uncleared 'Throne' Sample:

"Syl Johnson, a respected musician who created many successful blues and soul songs in the 1960s and 1970s, has filed a lawsuit against hip hop superstars Kanye West and Jay-Z over an allegedly uncleared sample on the duo's latest album, "Watch the Throne.""

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

[Op-Ed] The Public Domain; New York Times, 10/11/11

[Op-Ed] New York Times; The Public Domain:

"Copyright gives writers and others the incentive to create by giving them exclusive right to their work. But Congress’s power to grant copyright is limited in time and scope so that works can move into the public domain, where they become an essential part of our culture. The government must find other ways to comply with the trade treaty without curbing free expression."

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Kookaburra Sitting Pretty in That Old Gum Tree as Court Upholds Copyright Ruling; New York Times, 10/7/11

James C. McKinley, Jr., New York Times; Kookaburra Sitting Pretty in That Old Gum Tree as Court Upholds Copyright Ruling:

"Men at Work, the Australian rock band, lost its final bid Friday to overturn a court ruling that it had stolen a flute riff on its 1980s hit “Down Under” from a children’s song, The Associated Press reported."

Copyright Law Challenged; Wall Street Journal, 10/6/11

Jess Bravin, Wall Street Journal; Copyright Law Challenged:

"The potential stakes are huge, and again pit old industry against new...

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, defending the law, said it brought the U.S. into a convention that can protect American intellectual property abroad and amounted to "the price of admission to the international system."

Several justices, however, doubted that taking books and music by long-dead authors out of the public domain could promote the "progress" the Constitution sought to spur through copyright.

Justice Stephen Breyer, who dissented from the 2003 domestic-copyright case, said the government's position could undermine scholarship and preservation if researchers end up being forced to hire lawyers to track down owners or risk ignoring the law.

He cited the example of a group that seeks to preserve and publish Jewish music from the early 20th century but because the Nazis destroyed Eastern Europe's Jewish communities cannot identify the copyright owners."

In Supreme Court Argument, a Rock Legend Plays a Role; New York Times, 10/5/11

Adam Liptak, New York Times; In Supreme Court Argument, a Rock Legend Plays a Role:

"Jimi Hendrix made an appearance at the Supreme Court on Wednesday in an argument over whether Congress acted constitutionally in 1994 by restoring copyright protection to foreign works that had once been in the public domain. The affected works included films by Alfred Hitchcock and Federico Fellini, books by C. S. Lewis and Virginia Woolf, symphonies by Prokofiev and Stravinsky and paintings by Picasso.

The suit challenging the law was brought by orchestra conductors, teachers and film archivists who say they had relied for years on the free availability of such works."

[Op Ed] Will Copyright Stifle Hollywood?; New York Times, 10/4/11

[Op Ed] David Decherney, New York Times; Will Copyright Stifle Hollywood? :

"The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments today in Golan v. Holder, a case challenging the copyright provision of the 1994 act. There are many reasons the justices should conclude that Congress went too far in altering the copyright system."

Sunday, October 2, 2011

NinjaVideo "queen" cops to copyright infringement, admits $200,000 in earnings; ArsTechnica.com, 9/30/11

Timothy Lee, ArsTechnica.com; NinjaVideo "queen" cops to copyright infringement, admits $200,000 in earnings:

"Hana Beshara, the co-founder and public face of the NinjaVideo movie-sharing site, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and criminal copyright infringement. Each count carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

According to the government, Beshara has admitted to personally earning more than $200,000 from operating the site, and she has agreed to forfeit assets seized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last year."

Caving to Washington? "Canadian DMCA" expected to pass; ArsTechnica.com, 9/30/11

Matthew Lasar, ArsTechnica.com; Caving to Washington? "Canadian DMCA" expected to pass:

"News accounts say that C-11 is an exact duplicate of Bill C-32, which croaked when the 2010 Parliament dissolved without passing the bill. Now, as then, one of the biggest points of contention will be the provisions regarding "digital locks." These add up to a Canadian version of the United States' Digital Millennium Copyright Act, with its DRM anti-circumvention provisions that make a variety of fair dealing (or fair use) activities untenable.

But critics of that portion of the legislation, such as Canadian law professor Michael Geist, suggest that this time around, the government will get its way."

Princeton U. Adopts Open-Access Policy; Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/29/11

Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education; Princeton U. Adopts Open-Access Policy:

"The movement to make research freely available got a high-profile boost this week with the news that Princeton University’s faculty has unanimously adopted an open-access policy. “The principle of open access is consistent with the fundamental purposes of scholarship,” said the faculty advisory committee that proposed the resolution.

The decision puts the university in line with Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a growing number of other institutions with policies that encourage or require researchers to post open copies of their articles, usually in an institutional repository. Unpublished drafts, books, lecture notes, etc., are not included in the Princeton policy, which gives the university a “nonexclusive right” to make copies of its faculty’s scholarly journal articles publicly available."

On the Docket; New York Times, 10/1/11

New York Times; On the Docket:

"The Supreme Court, which returns to the bench on Monday, has so far agreed to hear about 50 cases, including ones on criminal and copyright law, the First Amendment and foreign affairs...

Golan v. Holder, No. 10-545

LOWER COURT DECISION The United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver, upheld a federal law that provided copyright protection to works that had entered the public domain, rejecting a challenge from orchestra conductors, teachers and film archivists now unable to use what had once been freely available materials.

QUESTION PRESENTED Whether the First Amendment and the Constitution’s copyright clause prohibit Congress from taking works out of the public domain."

Court Allows Richard Prince to Appeal Copyright Decision; New York Times, 9/15/11

Randy Kennedy, New York Times; Court Allows Richard Prince to Appeal Copyright Decision:

"In a closely watched visual-arts copyright case, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday to permit an appeal by the artist Richard Prince, who was found in March by a lower court to have unlawfully used images by a French photographer to create a series of collages and paintings."

Friday, September 16, 2011

Judge Sets Schedule in Case Over Google’s Digital Library; New York Times, 9/15/11

Julie Bosman, New York times; Judge Sets Schedule in Case Over Google’s Digital Library:

"Google’s plan to build a huge digital library remained stalled on Thursday when a federal judge set a proposed schedule for a lawsuit against the giant search company that could take the case to trial next year."

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

In Authors' Suit Against Libraries, an Attempt to Wrest Back Some Control Over Digitized Works; Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/14/11

Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education; In Authors' Suit Against Libraries, an Attempt to Wrest Back Some Control Over Digitized Works:

"The copyright-infringement lawsuit brought on Monday by the Authors Guild and others against the HathiTrust digital repository, the University of Michigan, and four other universities could have a major impact on research libraries and the fate of millions of book scans created by recent mass-digitizing efforts. The plaintiffs seek to take control of those files out of the hands of libraries until Congress establishes guidelines for the use of digital libraries and orphan works—those that are subject to copyright but whose rights holders can't be identified or located.

But Paul Courant, dean of libraries at Michigan, said the libraries and the trust are in the right and will go on with their work."

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Lawsuit Seeks the Removal of a Digital Book Collection; New York Times, 12/12/11

Julie Bosman, New York Times; Lawsuit Seeks the Removal of a Digital Book Collection:

"James Grimmelmann, an associate professor of law at New York Law School who has closely followed the Google lawsuit, said that a settlement in that case would have provided a framework to decide which use of the libraries’ books was permitted.

“They chose now to go after the libraries in part because of the posting of books online,” he said. “And in part because the Google books settlement has fallen apart.”"

Authors Guild Sues HathiTrust and 5 Universities Over Digitized Books; Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/12/11

Chronicle of Higher Education; Authors Guild Sues HathiTrust and 5 Universities Over Digitized Books:

"The Authors Guild, the Australian Society of Authors, a Canadian writers’ union, and eight individual authors are suing HathiTrust and five universities for copyright infringement, the guild announced on Monday afternoon."

Musicians win copyright extension to 70 years; Guardian, 9/12/11

Josh Halliday, Guardian; Musicians win copyright extension to 70 years:

"Thousands of music performers, from little-known session musicians to Sir Cliff Richard, will receive royalties from songs released in the 60s for an extra 20 years, under new copyright laws ratified by the EU on Monday.

The legislation – known as "Cliff's law" after its most high-profile campaigner – extends copyright on music recordings from 50 years to 70 years."

Thursday, September 8, 2011

IFRRO: Collective Management For Orphan Works; Intellectual Property Watch, 9/8/11

Intellectual Property Watch; IFRRO: Collective Management For Orphan Works:

"The International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO) has submitted comments on the proposed European Union directive on orphan works, which aims to increase legal certainty for use of creative works whose copyright holders cannot be found. The group, which represents collective management organisations, authors and publishers, called for collective management and licensing for orphan works."

Michael Hart, Project Gutenberg's e-book loving founder, passes away; ArsTechnica.com, 9/8/11

Nate Anderson, ArsTechnica.com; Michael Hart, Project Gutenberg's e-book loving founder, passes away:

"Michael Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg, has died at his home in Urbana, Illinois at the age of 64. The project he started back in 1971 lives on, however, producing quality public domain texts now readable on devices that could only have been imagined when Project Gutenberg began."

HathiTrust's Growth Strategy: Full-Text Search Coming to WorldCat and EBSCO Discovery Service; Library Journal, 9/8/11

David Rapp, Library Journal; HathiTrust's Growth Strategy: Full-Text Search Coming to WorldCat and EBSCO Discovery Service:

"Today, in separate announcements, OCLC and EBSCO both unveiled plans to integrate full-text HathiTrust search capability into WorldCat and EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), respectively. Once implemented, the deals will make the full texts of all of the 9.5 million-plus works in the digital repository searchable by some of the most widely used discovery tools—and greatly expand the accessibility of the massive HathiTrust corpus."

JSTOR Announces Free Access to 500K Public Domain Journal Articles; Library Journal, 9/7/11

David Rapp, Library Journal; JSTOR Announces Free Access to 500K Public Domain Journal Articles:

"The JSTOR journal archive announced today that it is making nearly 500,000 public domain journal articles from more than 220 journals—or about six percent of JSTOR's total content—freely available for use by "anyone, without registration and regardless of institutional affiliation."

The material, entitled Early Journal Content, will be rolled out in batches starting today over the course of one week. It includes content published in the United States before 1923 and international content published before 1870, which ensures that all the content is firmly in the public domain."

Still A Long Way To Go For Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement; Intellectual Property Watch, 9/8/11

Monika Ermert, Intellectual Property Watch; Still A Long Way To Go For Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement:

"The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiated last year will be open for signature for two years, until the first of May 2013. But while this looks like a long time, it likely will be needed by the 37 negotiating governments (including the United States, Japan, South Korea and the 27 European Union members) to iron out problems on their way to implementing what some rights owners welcomed as a possible new “gold standard” for the enforcement of intellectual property rights."

Monday, September 5, 2011

The Common Sense of the Fair-Use Doctrine; Chronicle of Higher Education, 8/21/11

Pat Aufderheide, Chronicle of Higher Education; The Common Sense of the Fair-Use Doctrine:

"The right of scholars to use unlicensed material for research and publication purposes is clear under the U.S. doctrine of fair use. Fair use—a broad, flexible part of copyright policy determined on a case-by-case basis—permits users to repurpose, or transform, an appropriate amount of original material. If it's so easy, why are so many smart people so scared of fair use? In the work that the legal scholar Peter Jaszi and I have done since 2004, and have synthesized in our new book, Reclaiming Fair Use, we have seen members of many professional and creative communities express that same anxiety. And we believe we understand why: They lack a common-sense understanding of their rights."

O.K., Downloaders, Let’s Try This Song Again; New York Times, 9/3/11

Janet Morrissey, New York Times; O.K., Downloaders, Let’s Try This Song Again:

"Still, Qtrax is relying primarily on the ads linked to the music player to finance licensing fees and to make the company profitable — a business model that many industry experts are skeptical can work. They point to previous hopefuls like Napster, which was sued by the record labels over copyright laws and is now a shadow of its former self (and now charges subscription fees for music) and to SpiralFrog and Ruckus, which had some backing from the major labels but collapsed after failing to raise enough cash to cover royalties to the record companies."

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Academic publishers make Murdoch look like a socialist; Guardian, 8/29/11

George Monbiot, Guardian; Academic publishers make Murdoch look like a socialist:

"You might resent Murdoch's paywall policy, in which he charges £1 for 24 hours of access to the Times and Sunday Times. But at least in that period you can read and download as many articles as you like. Reading a single article published by one of Elsevier's journals will cost you $31.50. Springer charges €34.95, Wiley-Blackwell, $42. Read 10 and you pay 10 times. And the journals retain perpetual copyright. You want to read a letter printed in 1981? That'll be $31.50.

Of course, you could go into the library (if it still exists). But they too have been hit by cosmic fees. The average cost of an annual subscription to a chemistry journal is $3,792."

UK Copyright Modernisation Effort Picks Up Steam; Intellectual Property Watch, 8/31/11

Dugie Standeford, Intellectual Property Watch; UK Copyright Modernisation Effort Picks Up Steam:

"Efforts to modernise Britain’s creaking copyright regime sped up over the summer as the government accepted recommendations for major changes to the system, Parliament opened an inquiry into the matter, and the Intellectual Property Office said updating the rules could significantly boost the UK economy."

The Copyright Nightmare of "I Have a Dream"; Mother Board, 8/29/11

Alex Pasternack, Mother Board; The Copyright Nightmare of "I Have a Dream" :

"At the family’s Web site, videotapes and audiotapes of the speech can be purchased for $10 a piece. The family controls the copyright of the speech for 70 years after King’s death, in 2038.

Until then, you’ll most likely have an easier finding ABBA’s version of “I Have a Dream” than King’s."

[Press Release] Universities Band Together To Join Orphan Works Project; Cornell University Library, 8/24/11

[Press Release] Cornell University Library; Universities Band Together To Join Orphan Works Project:

"Leaders at Cornell, Duke, Emory and Johns Hopkins universities jointly announced today that they would begin making the full text of thousands of “orphan works” in their library collections digitally accessible to students, faculty and researchers at their own institutions."

Monday, August 29, 2011

Legislator Calls for Clarifying Copyright Law; New York Times, 8/28/11

Larry Rohter, New York Times; Legislator Calls for Clarifying Copyright Law:

"Arguing that Congress has an obligation “to preserve fairness and justice for artists,” the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee has called for a revision of United States copyright law to remove ambiguities in the current statute about who is eligible to reclaim ownership rights to songs and sound recordings.

“For too long the work of musicians has been used to create enormous profits for record labels, radio stations and others, without fairly distributing these profits to the artists,” said Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, who was chairman of the committee until January."

Friday, August 26, 2011

In France, Publisher and Google Reach Deal; New York Times, 8/25/11

Eric Pfanner, New York Times; In France, Publisher and Google Reach Deal:

"A second French publisher has reached a deal on digital books with Google to settle a copyright lawsuit in exchange for control over how its out-of-print, copyright-protected works are scanned and sold."

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

$600K Grant to Fund Indiana University-Led HathiTrust Text-Mining Project; Library Journal, 8/12/11

David Rapp, Library Journal; $600K Grant to Fund Indiana University-Led HathiTrust Text-Mining Project:

"The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded a $600,000 grant to a project to be led by the Data to Insight Center (D2I) at Indiana University (IU), exploring ways of conducting secure "non-consumptive" research using copyrighted digital works in the HathiTrust repository."

A Village Person Tests the Copyright Law; New York Times, 8/16/11

Larry Rohter, New York Times; A Village Person Tests the Copyright Law:

"“This is totally different, and outside the scope of these termination rights issues,” said Stewart L. Levy, of the New York firm Eisenberg Tanchum & Levy, who is representing the publishing companies. “The Village People were a concept group, created by my clients, who picked the people and the costumes. It was probably no different than the Monkees when they started. We hired this guy. He was an employee, we gave them the material and a studio to record in and controlled what was recorded, where, what hours and what they did.”"

Jack Kirby Estate Files Appeal in Marvel Superhero Lawsuit (Exclusive); Hollywood Reporter, 8/15/11

Matthew Belloni, Hollywood Reporter; Jack Kirby Estate Files Appeal in Marvel Superhero Lawsuit (Exclusive) :

"The estate of comic book legend Jack Kirby has appealed a U.S. District Court ruling tossing several key copyright claims against Marvel over such iconic characters as Thor, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk and others."

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Gunning for the copyright reformers; Guardian, 8/15/11

Frederic Filloux, Guardian; Gunning for the copyright reformers:

"The book's most spectacular deconstruction involves Lawrence Lessig. The Harvard law professor is one of the most outspoken opponents of tough copyright. For years, he's been criss-crossing the world delivering well-crafted, compelling presentations about the need to overhaul copyright. When, in 2007, Viacom sued YouTube for copyright infringement, seeking more than $1bn in damages, Lessig accused Viacom of trying to overturn the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It was a de facto defense of Google by Lessig who at the time was head of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University. What Lessig failed to disclose is that two weeks after closing the deal to acquire YouTube, Google made a $2m donation to the Stanford Center, and a year later gave another $1.5m to Creative Commons, Lessig's most famous intellectual baby. To be fair, Levine told me he didn't believe Lessig's positions on copyright were influenced by the grants from Google."

How the internet has all but destroyed the market for films, music and newspapers; Observer via Guardian, 8/14/11

Robert Levine, Observer via Guardian; How the internet has all but destroyed the market for films, music and newspapers:

"As pressure builds to enforce copyright law online, technology companies and the activists they support have started to argue that any attempt to block pirate sites will "break the internet", as though it were an iPhone teetering on the edge of a table. The truth is that the internet is broken already: it's simply too chaotic to provide the infrastructure for a 21st-century economy. This has to change, before newspapers and film suffer declines like that of the music industry. Technology companies have long lectured creators on the need to adapt to a changing changing digital world. It would be a shame if they couldn't heed their own advice.

Robert Levine is the author of Free Ride: How the Internet is Destroying the Culture Business and How the Culture Business can Fight Back"

Don Henley Urges Artists to Know Their Rights; New York Times, 8/16/11

Larry Rohter, New York Times; Don Henley Urges Artists to Know Their Rights:

"Q.[Larry Rohter] You and Sheryl Crow went to Washington back in 1999 and 2000 and convinced Congress to undo language classifying sound recordings as “works for hire,” which had just been inserted stealthily into another, unrelated bill. Back then, were you already looking ahead to today, when artists would have the right to reclaim ownership of their recordings, at the expense of record labels?

A. [Don Henley] The termination issue was certainly part of it. We were concerned with a lot of issues in recording contracts that we considered to be unfair, and this was one of the most glaring. We knew that 2013 was going to be a deadline, and that recordings from 1978 would be the first battle. But let’s go back and talk about the history of work for hire for a minute. “Work for hire” was never intended to apply to sound recordings. That came about because of movies and books. Sound recordings somehow got added to the list, then taken off again."

Record Industry Braces for Artists’ Battles Over Song Rights; New York Times, 8/15/11

Larry Rohter, New York Times; Record Industry Braces for Artists’ Battles Over Song Rights:

"Congress passed the copyright law in 1976, specifying that it would go into effect on Jan. 1, 1978, meaning that the earliest any recording can be reclaimed is Jan. 1, 2013. But artists must file termination notices at least two years before the date they want to recoup their work, and once a song or recording qualifies for termination, its authors have five years in which to file a claim; if they fail to act in that time, their right to reclaim the work lapses."

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Universities Join Together to Support Open-Access Policies; Chronicle of Higher Education, Wired Campus, 8/2/11

Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education, Wired Campus; Universities Join Together to Support Open-Access Policies:

"Today Kansas and 21 other universities and colleges announced that they’re joining forces to form the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions, or Coapi. The new group will “collaborate and share implementation strategies, and advocate on a national level,” it said in a statement. The group’s members so far include Arizona State, Columbia, Duke, Emory, Harvard, Oregon State, Stanford, and Trinity universities as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Oberlin College."

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Court Ruling Says Marvel Holds Rights, Not an Artist; New York Times, 7/28/11

Michael Cieply, New York Times; Court Ruling Says Marvel Holds Rights, Not an Artist:

"The ruling, by Judge Colleen McMahon of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, declares comics and characters created by Mr. Kirby — who helped give birth to the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk and the X-Men, all of which now underlie valuable movie series — were works for hire under the Copyright Act of 1909, and cannot be reclaimed by the Kirby family."

The Empire Strikes Out: Artist Prevails in British Suit Over ‘Star Wars’ Costumes; New York Times, 7/27/11

Dave Itzkoff, New York Times; The Empire Strikes Out: Artist Prevails in British Suit Over ‘Star Wars’ Costumes:

"BBC News reported that the Supreme Court in Britain, the highest court of appeal for civil cases in that country, ruled on Wednesday that the costume replicas created by Mr. Ainsworth were functional rather than artistic works and thus not fully subject to copyright laws."

Mike Batt: my greatest mistake; Guardian, 7/29/11

Graham Snowdon, Guardian; Mike Batt: my greatest mistake:

"What I didn't fully appreciate was that I was signing a contract that offered me no money, no advance, not even a stipend to live on. Everything I wrote for five years would be theirs to publish on a 50:50 royalties basis. Nowadays you'd go 75:25 or 80:20 in favour of the writer. After that, they'd keep it for the full life of the copyright, 70 years after my death."

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Marvel Wins Copyrights Over Kirby Heirs; ComicBookResources.com, 7/28/11

ComicBookResources.com; Marvel Wins Copyrights Over Kirby Heirs:

"The decision is an undeniable victory for Marvel and their new parent company Disney who can now move forward with exploitation of the properties in full faith that they control all rights to the Marvel Universe. CBR legal expert Michael L. Lovitz of Lovitz IP Law put it this way: "Essentially, the Kirby heirs were unable to overcome the presumption that the works were 'work-for-hire' because they were created at Marvel's instance and expense.""

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Frank Foster, Jazz Saxophonist And Arranger, Has Died; NPR's Morning Edition, 7/26/11

NPR's Morning Edition; Frank Foster, Jazz Saxophonist And Arranger, Has Died:

"Foster had given away many of his publishing rights in youthful ignorance, which deprived him of substantial royalty payments over the years.

Last year, a team from Rutgers School of Law helped him win back his rights to collect royalties for his compositions, including "Shiny Stockings." Now, the family Frank Foster worried about for so many years will finally be able to collect on the fruits of his legacy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More Frank Foster stories at NPR Music:
In 2010, Foster finally won back the copyright for "Shiny Stockings," among other tunes. A Blog Supreme also posted when he finally signed the paperwork."

Monday, July 25, 2011

Judge Urges Settlement In Google Books Case; Wall Street Journal, 7/20/11

Chad Bray, Wall Street Journal; Judge Urges Settlement In Google Books Case:

"A federal judge urged Google Inc. and groups representing publishers and authors to reach a revised settlement over a proposed digital library of books before the next court hearing in September, saying he would set a schedule for the case to proceed to trial if the parties aren't close to a settlement by then."

Open Information Activist Indicted for Allegedly Stealing Millions of JSTOR Articles; Library Journal, 7/19/11

Aaron Swartz, Library Journal; Open Information Activist Indicted for Allegedly Stealing Millions of JSTOR Articles:

"Aaron Swartz, former tech lead for the Internet Archive's Open Library project and founder of the progressive activist group Demand Progress, was indicted today in federal court for allegedly stealing approximately 4.8 million articles from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the JSTOR journal archive."

Judge calls $1.5M file-sharing judgment "appalling," slashes to $54,000; ArsTechnica.com, 7/23/11

Nate Anderson, ArsTechnica.com; Judge calls $1.5M file-sharing judgment "appalling," slashes to $54,000:

"Sections of the verdict are worth quoting in full; they illustrate Judge Davis' deep common sense about the case and provide a worthwhile framework for thinking about similar P2P cases.

[Excerpt of quote] The Court concludes that an award of $1.5 million for stealing and distributing 24 songs for personal use is appalling. Such an award is so severe and oppressive as to be wholly disproportioned to the offense and obviously unreasonable...

As for her argument that she caused no harm to the music industry, Davis “rejects her suggestion" and calls for a penalty in order to enforce copyright law, compensate the record labels, and “deter future copyright infringement.”"

Parliament Study: ACTA Not Fully In Line With EU Rules; Intellectual Property Watch, 7/20/11

Monika Ermert, Intellectual Property Watch; Parliament Study: ACTA Not Fully In Line With EU Rules:

"The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) under negotiation by a group of countries including those in the European Union is more ambitious than current EU law and risks problems for access to medicines, concluded a recent study commissioned by the European Parliament Committee on International Trade. But the study stops short of calling for a flat rejection of the agreement."

Why I'm Not Going Near Spotify (and Why You Shouldn't Either); Harvard Business Review, 7/22/11

James Allworth, Harvard Business Review; Why I'm Not Going Near Spotify (and Why You Shouldn't Either) :

"Netflix has become so popular that it recently surpassed the amount of Bittorrent ("pirate") traffic on the web, proving that it's compelling offerings, not lawsuits, that win customer's hearts and minds. But if Hulu and Netflix are so fantastic, what's the concern about Spotify?

Simply put: the way we consume music is fundamentally different to the way we consume movies and TV."

Celine Dion shuts down parody website; Guardian, 7/22/11

Sean Michaels, Guardian; Celine Dion shuts down parody website:

"Celine Dion has taken legal action to force the closure of a blog publishing silly photographs of her, according to reports. Our Lady of Histrionics took offence to the website Ridiculous Pictures of Celine Dion, dispatching her lawyers with a cease and desist order."

Sunday, July 17, 2011

[Obituary] Sherwood Schwartz obituary; Guardian, 7/14/11

[Obituary] Guardian; Sherwood Schwartz obituary:

"[Sherwood Schwartz] was admired by Brady fans for his efforts to stop Paramount from harassing amateur theatre groups for copyright infringement when they staged productions based on the Brady Bunch."

French copyright cops: we're swamped with "three strikes" complaints; ArsTechnica.com, 7/15/11

Timothy B. Lee, ArsTechnica.com; French copyright cops: we're swamped with "three strikes" complaints:

"We can appreciate that Hadopi has a broad mission, but the three strikes program, with its threat to actually disconnect people from the Internet over online infringement, is what has drawn worldwide attention to France's antipiracy program. For example, we've been covering American ISPs' recent tentative steps toward a "graduated response" strategy of their own. Those ISPs took great pains to distinguish their own policies from a French-style 3-strikes plan, promising that they would not spy on their users or disconnect them from the Internet. Disconnection as a sanction has almost come under attack from the United Nations and from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, both of which say the penalty is disproportionate to the offense."

[Editorial] A New Try at Curbing Piracy; New York Times, 6/16/11

[Editorial] New York Times; A New Try at Curbing Piracy:

"It remains to be seen whether the new approach will do better in curbing piracy, which is starting to evolve from BitTorrent downloads — currently the main vehicle of piracy — to streaming and other less detectable techniques. But it is well worth a try."

[Podcast] Congress, Copyright and Monkeys; On the Media, 7/15/11

[Podcast] On the Media; Congress, Copyright and Monkeys:

"Techdirt's Michael Masnick talks about the PROTECT IP Act which is a bill making its way through Congress that would allow the DOJ to block sites it deems "infringing" on copyrighted material. Masnick isn't a fan of the legislation. His main critique is that the definition of "infringing" is way too broad. Plus, Masnick talks about standing his ground in a current copyright dispute involving Techdirt, a macaque monkey and a human photographer."

Designers Revisit Copyright Protection; New York Times, 7/15/11

Eric Wilson, New York Times; Designers Revisit Copyright Protection:

"One of the biggest differences in the new bill is that designers would have to prove that a copy is “substantially identical” to their originals, rather than “substantially similar.” And they would have to prove that their designs were truly original, that the defendant’s design was an infringement and that the defendant indeed had knowledge of their work. Also, similarities in color and patterns would not count."

Youth-Culture Photographer Ryan McGinley Sued for Copyright Violation; New York Times, 7/13/11

Randy Kennedy, New York Times; Youth-Culture Photographer Ryan McGinley Sued for Copyright Violation:

"Janine Gordon, who is known as JahJah and is also a musician and multimedia artist, has filed suit against Mr. McGinley in federal court in Manhattan, saying that at least 150 of his photographs are “substantially based” on her work and are violations of her copyright protections."

Friday, July 8, 2011

To Slow Piracy, Internet Providers Ready Penalties; New York Times, 7/7/11

Ben Sisario, New York Times; To Slow Piracy, Internet Providers Ready Penalties:

"Americans who illegally download songs and movies may soon be in for a surprise: They will be warned to stop, and if they don’t, they could find their Internet access slowing to a crawl.

After years of negotiations with Hollywood and the music industry, the nation’s top Internet providers have agreed to a systematic approach to identifying customers suspected of digital copyright infringement and then alerting them via e-mail or other means."

Sunday, July 3, 2011

[Podcast] Q&A: Kirby Ferguson; On the Media, 7/1/11

[Podcast] Alex Goldman, On the Media; Q&A: Kirby Ferguson:

"Over the past 9 months, writer, director, and editor Kirby Ferguson has been releasing episodes of Everything is a Remix, a video series about how appropriation, borrowing, and adaptation are inherent in, well, everything we as a culture create. The third installment of the four-part series just came out last week, so we thought we'd ask him a few questions about the project and his personal opinions on copyright and fair use."

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Ericsson Recognizes That 'Piracy' Isn't The Problem, But A Symptom Of Failed Business Models; TechDirt.com, 7/1/11

Mike Masnick, TechDirt.com; Ericsson Recognizes That 'Piracy' Isn't The Problem, But A Symptom Of Failed Business Models:

"Once you realize that "piracy" is a symptom of an unsatisfied consumer base, you begin to recognize that it's often the leading indicator for innovation. That's because it shows you what consumers want, and satisfying the desires of consumers is where innovation comes from."

The Fans Own the Magic; New York Times, 7/1/11

Manohla Dargis and A.O.Scott, New York Times; The Fans Own the Magic:

"Prof. Henry Jenkins of the University of California, an enthusiastic champion of fan power, has framed the fight in near-revolutionary terms, writing on his Web site that PotterWar “may have been the first successful movement of fans to challenge the rather blanket copyright assertions of the major media producers.” Certainly it was a striking moment for plugged-in Potterites, yet it’s debatable whether the type of fan triumph that Professor Jenkins and others celebrate is as radical as sometimes suggested. Warner Brothers, after all, still owns the film rights."

Google may be poised to bid for Hulu; Los Angeles Times, 7/2/11

Jessica Guynn and Dawn C. Chmielewski, Los Angeles Times; Google may be poised to bid for Hulu:

"This spring, YouTube secured a movie rental deal with Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. and Universal Studios.

But rivals Walt Disney Studios, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures have held back, amid concerns that Google has failed to do enough to combat Internet piracy. Paramount owner Viacom Inc. is still embroiled in a copyright infringement lawsuit against Google's YouTube."

Rebecca Black pulls ‘Friday’ from YouTube; Washington Post, 6/17/11

Hayley Tuskayama, Washington Post; Rebecca Black pulls ‘Friday’ from YouTube:

"The partying, partying seems to be over on YouTube. According to a message on the site, teen pop star Rebecca Black has pulled the video due to a copyright claim."

Newspaper chain fights for copyright troll's survival; ArsTechnica.com, 7/1/11

David Kravets, ArsTechnica.com; Newspaper chain fights for copyright troll's survival:

"The roadblock is that several judges have recently cried foul on the business model, ruling Righthaven has no legal standing to bring the cases. That’s because Stephens Media kept ownership of the copyrights in the articles, which meant Righthaven had no right to sue over the work.

Now Righthaven and Stephens Media have reworked their agreement—a contract or “assignment” that Gibson, and now Stephens Media, say grants Righthaven standing to sue."

Berlin Wall artists sue city in copyright controversy; Guardian, 5/3/11

Helen Pidd, Guardian; Berlin Wall artists sue city in copyright controversy:

"The East Side Gallery is one of Berlin's most popular tourist attractions, a 1.3km-long brightly painted stretch of the wall which divided east and west for almost 30 years.

But now the outdoor exhibition space is embroiled in an expensive copyright controversy after Berlin council destroyed some artworks painted on the wall and reproduced others without the permission of the original artists."

Friday, July 1, 2011

A Free Site Helps Find Stolen Cam; New York Times, 6/12/11

Roy Furchgott, New York Times; A Free Site Helps Find Stolen Cam:

"If you see your photos on site that you haven’t given permission to use them, you may be able to go after them for copyright infringement."

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Independent writer's admission highlights news copyright issues; Guardian, 6/28/11

David Banks, Guardian; Independent writer's admission highlights news copyright issues:

"Copyright in news is complicated. There is no copyright in news itself: you cannot claim you have the only right to tell your readers, viewers or listeners about the facts of an event...

However, when interviewing someone, a journalist uses skill and labour in recording quotes accurately and selecting those most appropriate for publication. So the quotes in an interview are protected by copyright. If any are to be used by another publication then the fair dealing defence would have to be used and the copyright owner, possibly a competitor, would have to be credited."

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Tom Petty To Michele Bachmann: Stop Playing 'American Girl' ; HuffingtonPost.com, 6/28/11

HuffingtonPost.com; Tom Petty To Michele Bachmann: Stop Playing 'American Girl' :

"Renowned rocker Tom Petty hit Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann with a cease-and-desist letter Monday following the congresswoman's decision to close out her campaign announcement to the tune of "American Girl," Rolling Stone reports."

Interview With the U.S. Copyright Czar; New York Times, 6/8/11

Ben Sisario, New York Times; Interview With the U.S. Copyright Czar:

"As the first United States intellectual property enforcement coordinator, Victoria A. Espinel reports to President Obama and Congress on copyright, trademarks and other intellectual property issues, and works with an array of federal agencies — the Justice Department, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, among others — to enforce the law."

Monday, June 27, 2011

Recycled riffs – samples of music biz justice; Guardian, 6/23/11

Angus Batey, Guardian; Recycled riffs – samples of music biz justice:

"One possibility is that samplers are ignoring the law and just sampling anyway, and because the sampled artists don't have the resources to hire lawyers, the samplers get away with it," Joo says. "Another possibility is that sampled artists do negotiate deals, but they get ripped off. The third possibility is that the sampled artists negotiate a good deal, and end up better off. All three of those things are definitely happening. The question is, which happens more? I don't know. But at least the existence of a copyright regime means there is a possibility of the third result."

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Marvel Superheroes and the Fathers of Invention; New York Times, 6/25/11

Brent Staples, New York Times; Marvel Superheroes and the Fathers of Invention:

"Courts have already granted a share of the copyright for Superman to the heirs of a co-creator, and sided with Captain America’s creator in another copyright fight. These cases are small fry compared with the battle now being waged between Marvel and the heirs of the legendary comic artist Jack Kirby, who breathed life into such pop culture icons as the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Thor and the Silver Surfer."

The Cloud That Ate Your Music; New York Times, 6/22/11

Jon Pareles, New York Times; The Cloud That Ate Your Music:

"Apple’s Match is a sign that copyright holders are starting to rethink their licensing terms for the cloud, which will make subscription catalogs even larger."

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Ask Ars: which image services might commercialize my photos?; ArsTechnica.com, 6/22/11

Jacqui Cheng, ArsTechnica.com; Ask Ars: which image services might commercialize my photos? :

"Q: I heard about Twitpic commercializing user-uploaded photos and became curious. There are alternatives out there, but what are the chances they all have similar terms of service? Is there any service that isn't my own website that won't commercialize my photos? Is this just a standard agreement, or what?"

Time For A Positive Agenda, WIPO’s Gurry Tells Copyright Crowd; Intellectual Property Watch, 6/13/11

William New, Intellectual Property Watch; Time For A Positive Agenda, WIPO’s Gurry Tells Copyright Crowd:

"In remarks that have raised questions among libraries and the information technology industry, World Intellectual Property Organization Director General Francis last week told a copyright industry gathering that it is time to move away from a “negative” agenda of limitations and exceptions to copyright."

Tattoo Artist Settles Tyson Dispute With ‘Hangover 2’; New York Times, 6/21/11

Noam Cohen, New York Times; Tattoo Artist Settles Tyson Dispute With ‘Hangover 2’ :

"A lawsuit by a Missouri tattoo artist that threatened to stop the distribution of the blockbuster sequel “Hangover Part II” has been settled, the movie’s studio, Warner Brothers Entertainment, announced this week."

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Whose song is it anyway? Boston Bruins fans co-opt Steelers song; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6/15/11

Dan Majors, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Whose song is it anyway? Boston Bruins fans co-opt Steelers song:

"It was at about the same time that the song was noticed by Dan Fleming, 24, an aspiring hip-hop and rap artist from Peabody, Mass., just north of Boston. Fleming writes his own songs, mostly remixes, and posts them on YouTube and Facebook."

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Lady Gaga Okays Weird Al 'Poker Face' Parody (Video); Billboard via Hollywood Reporter, 6/4/11

Sofia M. Fernandez and Gary Graff, Billboard via Hollywood Reporter; Lady Gaga Okays Weird Al 'Poker Face' Parody (Video) :

"Lady Gaga has given the okay to Weird Al Yankovic to parody her song "Poker Face.""

[Podcast] Can You Copyright the Human Body? ; On the Media, 6/3/11

[Podcast] On the Media; Can You Copyright the Human Body? :

"The artist who inked Mike Tyson’s infamous face tattoo unsuccesfully tried to block Warner Brothers from releasing the movie "The Hangover: 2", claiming copyright infringement because the film features a character with a similar face tattoo. The judge thought blocking the film's release would harm too many people financially, but found that the artist would likely win monetary damages at trial. Duke University Law Professor James Boyle says allowing people to copyright human bodies could set a dangerous precedent."

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Google's YouTube policy for Android users is copyright extremism; Guardian, 5/31/11

Cory Doctorow, Guardian; Google's YouTube policy for Android users is copyright extremism:

"Clearly, YouTube has something the entertainment industry wants – reach. And the entertainment industry has something YouTube wants – popular video. While it's true that the vast majority of video on YouTube is "home-made", or at least not the mainstream content produced by large commercial rights holders, there's no denying that there is lots of infringing material from the big studios and broadcasters up there too."

No Progress on Google Book Settlement Talks;Tone Changing? ; Publishers Weekly, 6/1/11

Albanese, A., Publishers Weekly; No Progress on Google Book Settlement Talks; Tone Changing? :

"The parties have made no progress on the underlying copyright dispute behind the lawsuits: whether Google’s scanning and limited display of library books is fair use, or infringement."

[Press Release] Former US Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters Named to Copyright Clearance Center's Board of Directors; CCC, 2/16/11

[Press Release] Copyright Clearance Center; Former US Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters Named to Copyright Clearance Center's Board of Directors:

"Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) CEO Tracey Armstrong announced the appointment of the just-retired US Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters to its Board of Directors. With service at the US Copyright Office spanning four decades, Peters adds another seasoned copyright policy expert to CCC."

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

[Press Release] Maria Pallante Appointed 12th Register of Copyrights; Library of Congress, 6/1/11

[Press Release] Library of Congress; Maria Pallante Appointed 12th Register of Copyrights:

"Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has appointed Maria A. Pallante as the 12th Register of Copyrights and director of the United States Copyright Office, effective today. Pallante served as the Acting Register for the past five months, following the retirement of Marybeth Peters on December 31, 2010."

Out of Fear, Colleges Lock Books and Images Away From Scholars; Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/29/11

Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education; Out of Fear, Colleges Lock Books and Images Away From Scholars:

"A library of 8.7 million digital volumes. A trove of 100,000 ocean-science photos. An archive of 57,000 Mexican-music recordings.

A common problem bedevils those different university collections. Wide online access is curtailed, in part because they contain "orphan works," whose copyright owners can't be found. And the institutions that hold the collections—a consortium of major research libraries and the University of California campuses at San Diego and Los Angeles—must deal with legal uncertainty in deciding how to share the works. A university that goes too far could end up facing a copyright-infringement lawsuit."

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Pushing Back Against Legal Threats by Putting Fair Use Forward; Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/29/11

Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education; Pushing Back Against Legal Threats by Putting Fair Use Forward:

"A rarely discussed form of self-censorship happens routinely on college campuses. Professors and graduate students choose not to tackle academic arguments that involve music, movies, or other forms of popular culture. They worry that including relevant clips in their work means the hassle and expense of getting copyright permission for each snippet."

Supreme Court Takes Up Scholars' Rights; Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/29/11

Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education; Supreme Court Takes Up Scholars' Rights:

"The conductor's fight centers on the concept of the public domain, which scholars depend on for teaching and research. When a work enters the public domain, anyone can quote from it, copy it, share it, or republish it without seeking permission or paying royalties.

The dispute that led to Golan v. Holder dates to 1994, when Congress passed a law that moved vast amounts of material from the public domain back behind the firewall of copyright protection. For conductors like Mr. Golan, that step limited access to canonical 20th-century Russian pieces that had been freely played for years."

What's at Stake in the Georgia State Copyright Case; Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/30/11

Chronicle of Higher Education; What's at Stake in the Georgia State Copyright Case:

"A closely watched trial in federal court in Atlanta, Cambridge University Press et al. v. Patton et al., is pitting faculty, libraries, and publishers against one another in a case that could clarify the nature of copyright and define the meaning of fair use in the digital age...

At issue before the court is the practice of putting class readings on electronic reserve (and, by extension, on faculty Web sites)."

What You Don't Know About Copyright, but Should; Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/29/11

Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education; What You Don't Know About Copyright, but Should:

"If Nancy Sims had to pick one word to describe how researchers, students, and librarians feel about copyright, it would probably be "confused."...

For instance, in a recent informal survey she conducted at the university, only 30 percent or so of the faculty respondents knew the answers to basic questions such as how one gets a copyright and how long it lasts. (Librarians did somewhat better.)"

The Copyright Rebellion; Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/29/11

Chronicle of Higher Education; The Copyright Rebellion:

""Copyright law and publishers' business plans are preventing an enormous educational benefit."

Some academics have had enough. In a special report, The Chronicle looks at university faculty and staff members who are pushing, in court and on campus, to keep teaching and research from being starved of material."

From Shelves to Internet: America's Digital Library Takes Shape; Live Science, 5/27/11

Jeremy Hsu, Live Science; From Shelves to Internet: America's Digital Library Takes Shape:

"Palfrey and the library steering committee must also consider how to secure copyright permissions for lending digital materials not in the public domain, so that future library users can enjoy some of the latest best-selling books or Hollywood blockbusters."

[Podcast] Cory Doctorow on copyright and piracy: 'Every pirate wants to be an admiral'; Guardian, 5/30/11

[Podcast] Guardian; Cory Doctorow on copyright and piracy: 'Every pirate wants to be an admiral' :

"Blogger and activist Cory Doctorow argues that all new media – from sheet music to cable TV – is accused of piracy by the mainstream ... until it becomes the mainstream."

British Library creates a "national memory' with digital newspaper archive; Guardian, 5/30/11

Josh Halliday, Guardian; British Library creates a "national memory' with digital newspaper archive:

"The British Library is cautious in its approach to the thorny issue of copyright, initially drawing the line at digitising post-1900 material. The "national memory" still bristles at the mention of James Murdoch, who described himself as "very, very concerned" about the library's plans in May last year. However, archiving a wealth of material from the first world war and Britain's burgeoning suffragette movement remains the ambition."

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Citing Public Interest, Judge Rules for ‘Hangover II’; New York Times, 5/24/11

Noam Cohen, New York Times; Citing Public Interest, Judge Rules for ‘Hangover II’:

"A federal judge on Tuesday allowed the movie “Hangover Part II” to be released for the Memorial Day weekend, rejecting a request by a tattoo artist who says that the movie violates his copyright by using a face tattoo he made for Mike Tyson on a central character in the movie."

Doctors and dentists tell patients, "all your review are belong to us"; ArsTechnica.com, 5/24/11

Timothy B. Lee, ArsTechnica.com; Doctors and dentists tell patients, "all your review are belong to us" :

"The agreement that Dr. Cirka's staff asked me to sign on that February morning began by claiming to offer stronger privacy protections than those guaranteed by HIPAA, the 1996 law that governs patient privacy in the United States. In exchange for this extra dollop of privacy, it asked me to "exclusively assign all Intellectual Property rights, including copyrights" to "any written, pictorial, and/or electronic commentary" I might make about Dr. Cirka's services, including on "web pages, blogs, and/or mass correspondence," to Dr. Cirka. It also stipulated that if Dr. Cirka were to sue me due to a breach of the agreement, the prevailing party in the litigation will pay the loser's legal fees."

The GSU Lawsuit: You Don't Know How Lucky You Are | Peer to Peer Review; Library Journal, 5/19/11

Barbara Fister, Library Journal; The GSU Lawsuit: You Don't Know How Lucky You Are | Peer to Peer Review:

"Three publishers—Sage, Cambridge, and Oxford University Press—want to return us to those good old days, only without any subtlety about fair use or four factors tests. The lawsuit (partly funded by the copyright fees that we pay to the Copyright Clearance Center) that pits scholarly presses against a university and its library and, by extension, the faculty and students who use their e-reserves system, has gone to trial, and the outcome the publishers have demanded, if they prevail, would seriously turn the clock back."

Saturday, May 21, 2011

On Tyson’s Face, It’s Art. On Film, a Legal Issue; New York Times, 5/20/11

Noam Cohen, New York Times; On Tyson’s Face, It’s Art. On Film, a Legal Issue:

"The range of material that individuals and businesses are seeking to get copyright protection for has only been expanding, often at the insistence of movie studios. Mattel has gone to court to assert the copyright of the face of its Barbie doll; fashion companies have been lobbying Congress to pass a law to protect unique, nontrivial new designs. And trademark, which is governed by different laws and is much more contextual, has been used by athletes and coaches to get a measure of control over terms like “three-peat” or “Revis Island.”"

Friday, May 20, 2011

Photographers Respond to Lady Gaga's New Copyright Demands; Rolling Stone, 3/7/11

Matthew Perpetua, Rolling Stone; Photographers Respond to Lady Gaga's New Copyright Demands:

"Lady Gaga is now demanding that photographers surrender the copyright of photos taken at her concerts – and photographers are incensed."

E-Books Outsell Print Books at Amazon; New York Times, 5/20/11

Claire Cain Miller and Julie Bosman, New York Times; E-Books Outsell Print Books at Amazon:

"In the latest chapter in the unfolding tale of the book evolution from ink to pixels, Amazon.com said Thursday that its customers now buy more e-books than print books....

“But we are not to the point where e-books are a majority of unit sales and certainly not a majority of revenue.”"

New Zealand Libraries Considering Shutting Off Public Internet Access To Avoid Three Strikes Law; TechDirt.com, 5/19/11

Mike Masnick, TechDirt.com; New Zealand Libraries Considering Shutting Off Public Internet Access To Avoid Three Strikes Law:

"[I]n order to preserve internet access for those who work at the library, many New Zealand libraries are considering turning off internet access for the public (via TorrentFreak."