Harper Lee Sues Agent Over Copyright on ‘Mockingbird’; New York Times, 5/6/13

Julie Bosman, New York Times; Harper Lee Sues Agent Over Copyright on ‘Mockingbird’ : "According to the complaint, filed in federal court in New York, Mr. Pinkus “engaged in a scheme to dupe Harper Lee, then 80 years old with declining hearing and eyesight,” into assigning the book’s copyright to his company."

Court Dismisses Craigslist Suit Against Competitors; New York Times, 5/1/13

Nick Bilton, New York Times; Court Dismisses Craigslist Suit Against Competitors: "Craigslist does not have exclusive licenses to the postings on its classified advertising Web site, a federal court ruled on Tuesday. Craigslist alleged last year that the listings Web sites PadMapper and Lovely, as well as 3Taps, a company that collects public data and organizes it for the use of developers, were infringing on its copyright and trademark. Craigslist also made a number of other piracy-related claims against the trio and asked the court to shut them down. But Judge Charles R. Breyer of United States District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed the charges on Tuesday. Craigslist’s terms of use do not give it an exclusive license to customers’ data, he said in his ruling, and without an exclusive license, the company cannot sue for infringement."

As Works Flood In, Nation’s Library Treads Water; New York Times, 5/3/13

Jennifer Steinhauer, New York Times; As Works Flood In, Nation’s Library Treads Water: "Fantasia, the R&B star and one-time “American Idol” winner, recently slipped into the library to register a song for copyright, another of the library’s most visible and important functions. Last year the library registered more than 511,500 claims to copyright, many of which fill the storage rooms and off-site locations, walls of hopes and dreams. Roughly 2,000 new items are filed per day. “People will write a poem on a piece of paper and send it in to get it registered,” said David Christopher, chief of operations for the library’s Copyright Office. “Then they will call and ask, ‘Did you get my poem?’ They’re passionate about it. To them, it’s their creative output.”"

Jeffrey Bleich, U.S. Ambassador, Urges Australians To Stop Stealing 'Game Of Thrones'; Reuters via HuffingtonPost.com, 4/26/13

Reuters via HuffingtonPost.com; Jeffrey Bleich, U.S. Ambassador, Urges Australians To Stop Stealing 'Game Of Thrones' : "Taking to Facebook, the U.S. ambassador to Australia is urging Australians to cease their illegal downloads of "Game of Thrones," saying that they are among the world's worst pirates of the wildly popular medieval television drama. In a post titled "Stopping the Game of Clones," Jeffrey Bleich - himself a devotee of the HBO series - compared the rampant piracy of online thieves to the plotting and machinations of the noble houses in the show."