Sunday, April 24, 2011

Weird Al snubbed by Lady Gaga, releases his parody without permission as fair use; BoingBoing.net, 4/20/11

Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing.net; Weird Al snubbed by Lady Gaga, releases his parody without permission as fair use:

"Lady Gaga denied Weird Al the right to release his parody of BORN THIS WAY, only the second time in his career that he's been denied [ed: the other refusal came from Prince]."

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Lessig At CERN: Scientific Knowledge Should Not Be Reserved For Academic Elite; Intellectual Property Watch, 4/19/11

Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch; Lessig At CERN: Scientific Knowledge Should Not Be Reserved For Academic Elite:

"Free culture leader and Harvard University law professor Larry Lessig was at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) yesterday to talk about access to scientific knowledge on the internet. In the symbolic place where the World Wide Web was invented and where scientists are now trying to unravel the creation of the universe, Lessig praised CERN’s open access initiative and in this temple of reasoning, said the copyright architecture was on the edge of absurdity."

Amazon to Allow Library Lending of Kindle Books (Updated); Library Journal, 4/20/11

Michael Kelley, Library Journal; Amazon to Allow Library Lending of Kindle Books (Updated) :

"Library patrons across the United States will soon be able to borrow ebooks from over 11,000 libraries using Amazon's Kindle reading device."

NZ rushes through internet copyright bill; Sydney Morning Herald, 4/14/11

Sydney Morning Herald; NZ rushes through internet copyright bill:

"New Zealand's parliament has passed under urgency a controversial bill designed to prevent illegal file sharing by internet users.

The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill allows copyright owners to send evidence of alleged infringements to internet service providers (ISPs), who will then send up to three infringement notices to the account holder."

There's a better way to beat the ebook pirates; Observer via Guardian, 4/24/11

Russell Davies, Observer via Guardian; There's a better way to beat the ebook pirates:

"Apparently shocked by the number of pirated ebooks available, the publishers' trade body has decided to create a "copyright infringement portal" where publishers can report any infringing works they find so take-down notices can be issued...

They seem not to have realised that the only way to compete with pirates is to offer a better product and better service; a better combination of price, convenience and availability."

[Podcast] Newspapers vs. The Internet; OnTheMedia.org, 4/22/11

[Podcast] OnTheMedia.org; Newspapers vs. The Internet:

"Newspapers have been teaming up with a lawfirm called Righthaven, to file lawsuits against people posting copyrighted content on the web. Righthaven's detractors call them "copyright trolls," but they say they're much needed protectors of a newspaper's intellectual property. Bob talks to Joe Mullin of Paidcontent.org who has covered Righthaven's lawsuits, and Righthaven CEO Steve Gibson."

Google’s Loss: The Public’s Gain; New York Review of Books, 4/28/11

Robert Darnton, New York Review of Books; Google’s Loss: The Public’s Gain:

"It is too early to do a postmortem on Google’s attempt to digitize and sell millions of books, despite the decision by Judge Denny Chin on March 23 to reject the agreement that seemed to make Google’s project possible. Google Book Search may rise from the ashes, reincarnated in some new settlement with the authors and publishers who had taken Google to court for alleged infringement of their copyrights. But this is a good time to take a backward look at the ground covered by Google since it first set out to provide access to all the books in the world. What went wrong?"

Jury Rebuffs Mattel, Giving Bratz Dolls Rights to a Rival; Associated Press via New York Times, 4/21/11

Associated Press via New York Times; Jury Rebuffs Mattel, Giving Bratz Dolls Rights to a Rival:

"A federal jury on Thursday rejected Mattel’s claims that it owns the copyright to the blockbuster billion-dollar Bratz dolls and instead awarded an upstart rival, MGA Entertainment, more than $88 million in damages for misappropriation of trade secrets."

Saturday, April 16, 2011

YouTube Sentences Copyright Offenders to School; New York Times, 4/14/11

Nick Bilton, New York Times; YouTube Sentences Copyright Offenders to School:

"In many countries around the world, if you break the law by stealing copyrighted content you can be sentenced to prison and heavily fined. But if Google catches you breaking copyright laws, the punishment is more akin to being caught smoking in the boys room in high school: You’re forced to take an online class at YouTube’s Copyright School."

Friday, April 15, 2011

Campus copyright: publishers sue over university "e-reserves"; ArsTechnica.com, 4/14/11

Mark Jaycox, ArsTechnica.com; Campus copyright: publishers sue over university "e-reserves" :

"By refining their arguments, the publishers will further elucidate the core issue of the case: where is the border between the grey area of fair use and the illegal realm of copyright infringement when it comes to e-reserves? To date, the publishers' view has been expansive; even including an uploaded chapter is considered infringement.

Whatever the outcome, the case will have far-reaching consequences for universities across the nation. Even though e-reserves are ubiquitous throughout academia, policies differ by institution."

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Warner Bros. dealt a setback in Superman legal battle: ComicBookResources.com, 4/13/11

ComicBookResources.com; Warner Bros. dealt a setback in Superman legal battle:

"A federal judge on Monday denied an effort by Warner Bros. to gain access to sensitive documents that are alleged to show an agreement between the heirs of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster not to strike further copyright deals with the studio, Hollywood, Esq. reports."

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Ruling Spurs Effort to Form Digital Public Library; New York Times, 4/3/11

Miguel Helft, New York Times; Ruling Spurs Effort to Form Digital Public Library:

“I think the biggest obstacle is copyright,” said Pamela Samuelson, a professor of law and information management at the University of California, Berkeley who opposed the settlement and is working on legal issues facing the digital public library.

Backers of the project say they will lobby Congress for legislation that would make it easier to provide access to orphan books. Meanwhile, others are chipping away at the millions of orphans, trying to find rights holders and to determine which books have fallen into the public domain."

[Podcast] How to Beat Pirates; On the Media, 4/8/11

[Podcast] On the Media; How to Beat Pirates:

"While computer games are theoretically as easy to pirate as any other kind of digital media, the video and computer game industry as a whole seems a little less caught up in anti-piracy zeal than say, the music or film industries. Bob talks to Robin Walker, a game developer for Valve Software, one of the more successful computer game publishers. Walker explains how, rather than trying to catch software pirates, his company tries to make software that's too good to steal."

Saturday, April 2, 2011

HathiTrust/Summon Deal Increases Search Access to In-Copyright Works; LibraryJournal.com, 3/28/11

Josh Hadro, Library Journal.com; HathiTrust/Summon Deal Increases Search Access to In-Copyright Works:

"Still, Wilkin believes there to be more than 2.5 million orphan works among the archive's current holdings and that the proportion of orphan works is likely to far outstrip the amount of public domain material in the archive, currently around 2.2 million items, or 26% of the collection, as more in-copyright works are scanned and indexed. If the true number of orphan works is anywhere near Wilkin's estimate, that's likely to make increased access to those works an even higher priority for librarians, as the likelihood of a licensable orphan works database evaporates with the Google settlement."