Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Another Pop Group Tells Romney to Stop Using Its Song; New York Times, 8/16/12

James C. McKinley, Jr., New York Times; Another Pop Group Tells Romney to Stop Using Its Song:

"A publicist for the Silversun Pickups said the band does not agree that the use of the song is covered under the blanket licenses. Copyright experts say such licenses, usually bought by restaurants and other businesses that play recorded music, do protect the campaign from many copyright complaints, but a politician can still be sued under the federal trademark law for false advertising if the use of the song implies that the musician has endorsed the candidate."

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Divergent Approaches To Copyright Reform Emerge In Europe; Intellectual Property Watch, 8/3/12

Dugie Standeford, Intellectual Property Watch; Divergent Approaches To Copyright Reform Emerge In Europe:

"Two very different views of copyright reform emerged this week, one from a report commissioned by the UK government, the other from a French citizens’ advocacy group. The former envisions an intricately linked system of digital rights exchanges and databases to streamline copyright licensing, the latter broad, “non-market” sharing of protected works between individuals, among other things. Whether either approach is feasible remains to be seen, and, as always, the devil’s in the details, lawyers say."

France will cut funding to its piracy police; paidContent, 8/3/12

Robert Andrews, paidContent; France will cut funding to its piracy police:

"France’s new culture minister is not yet promising to disband the country’s internet piracy enforcement agency, Hadopi. But she already is already planning to cut its budget and to dissuade it from kicking people off the internet."

With Key Filings in, Trials Loom In Google Book Cases; Publishers Weekly, 8/3/12

Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly; With Key Filings in, Trials Loom In Google Book Cases:

"With the battle lines now drawn, how is the fight shaping up? At this stage, observers say, the Authors Guild may be facing an uphill charge. “Google and HathiTrust have made a compelling case that digitization to support full-text search and long-term preservation is a fair use,” New York Law School professor James Grimmelmann told PW. On the other hand, he notes, in the HathiTrust case at least, the Authors Guild has simply not made “a convincing case” that there is harm to the copyright owners."

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

WIPO Still On Course For Instruments On Copyright Exceptions, Broadcasting; Intellectual Property Watch, 12

William New, Intellectual Property Watch; WIPO Still On Course For Instruments On Copyright Exceptions, Broadcasting:

"The World Intellectual Property Organization late last night reached agreement on a timeline for completing treaties – or instruments – on a range of copyright exceptions, including the possibility of a high-level negotiation for visually impaired and blind readers in 2013...

The 24th WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) met from 16-25 July.

The meeting addressed emerging instruments on broadcasters’ rights, and exceptions for visually impaired persons, libraries and archives, and educational and research institutions.

The conclusions document from the meeting shows the timelines of the different topics over the next biennium. The conclusions document is available here [pdf]."

An Upstart Free Course Provider Holds a Cookout to Meet Its Students; Chronicle of Higher Education, 7/29/12

Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education; An Upstart Free Course Provider Holds a Cookout to Meet Its Students:

"Call it a "massive open cookout." Coursera, a company that is working with more than a dozen elite universities to help them run MOOC's, or massive open online courses, held its first official "meetup" here on Saturday for students and professors to connect in person over burgers, chips, and soda.

It was a chance for even the company itself to learn more about what motivates students to take its courses, which bear no official academic credit.

With some 900,000 students registered for its courses, everything the small company does seems to get big quickly. More than 1,100 people signed up for the cookout, and in the end about 650 made the trip".