Showing posts with label copyright issues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label copyright issues. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Webb Wright , The Drum; What you need to know about the copyright issues surrounding generative AI; The Drum, August 1, 2023

Webb Wright , The Drum; What you need to know about the copyright issues surrounding generative AI

"“The basic question of whether or not an AI using copyrighted work constitutes copyright infringement is for now an open issue,” says patent attorney Robert McFarlane. Ultimately, McFarlane believes that some uses of generative AI will be deemed to constitute copyright infringement, while others won’t. “These cases that are just starting now are going to try to draw that line,” he says."

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Generative AI in Games Will Create a Copyright Crisis; Wired, July 4, 2023

 , Wired; Generative AI in Games Will Create a Copyright Crisis

"As lame as this story is, it hints at a knotty copyright issue the games industry is only just beginning to unravel. I’ve created a story using my imagination—but to do that I’ve used an AI helper. So who wrote the tale? And who gets paid for the work?"

Saturday, October 22, 2022

Obituary: Marybeth Peters, Former Register of Copyrights; Publishers Weekly, September 30, 2022

Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly; Obituary: Marybeth Peters, Former Register of Copyrights

"Marybeth Peters, who served as the U.S. Register of Copyrights from 1994 to 2010, died on September 29. She was 83.

Peters spent her career working in the copyright field, and was considered a leading expert on both international and domestic copyright issues. Prior to her appointment as Register of Copyrights, Peters held a variety of positions in the copyright office. During her time there, Peters played a key role in adapting copyright to the digital age, including helping to implement both the 1976 Copyright Act and the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The controversial Google Book Search lawsuit also took place during her tenure, and Peters was critical of the proposed settlement, arguing that it was at odds with the law. The settlement was eventually rejected by Judge Denny Chin."

Thursday, January 27, 2022

Stephen G. Breyer may shape tech’s copyright battles for years to come; The Washington Post, January 27, 2022

Cristiano Lima with research by Aaron Schaffer, The Washington Post; Stephen G. Breyer may shape tech’s copyright battles for years to come

"Stephen G. Breyer may shape tech’s copyright battles for years to come

With the looming retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, tech policy wonks say the high court is losing one of the nation’s preeminent thought leaders on intellectual property and copyright.

But while Breyer may be on his way out of federal court, his influence over those standards, and how they map onto emerging technologies, is poised to live on long after.

For decades, Breyer has carved out a unique role on the bench as a copyright specialist, said Meredith Rose, senior policy counsel at consumer group Public Knowledge. And his advocacy for a more limited view of intellectual property rights than some of his colleagues, such as the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, made him a “rarity” in the space, Rose said. 

“He’s definitely got the biggest depth of experience in copyright issues on the bench currently,” she said. “It was really him and Justice Ginsburg were the two titans of copyright.”

Corynne McSherry, legal director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called Breyer “a very strong voice for a balanced intellectual property system” that ensured that copyright and patents are “encouraging innovation, encouraging new creativity … as opposed to thwarting it.”

These traits, they said, were exemplified in one of Breyer’s most recent high-profile copyright cases: the contentious, decade-long Google v. Oracle bout."

Monday, January 24, 2022

Aboriginal flag copyright transferred to Commonwealth, as artist agrees to make flag freely available to all; ABC News, January 24, 2022

Jake Evans, ABC News; Aboriginal flag copyright transferred to Commonwealth, as artist agrees to make flag freely available to all

"The iconic flag that has become a symbol of Aboriginal Australia is now freely available for public use, after its designer agreed to transfer copyright to the Commonwealth following long negotiations.

Luritja artist Harold Thomas created the flag in 1970 to represent Aboriginal people and their connection to the land, and it has been an official national flag since the end of the last century — but its copyright remained with Mr Thomas.

Anyone who wanted to use the flag legally had to ask permission or pay a fee.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt said following negotiations with Mr Thomas, the flag now belonged to all Australians...

Copyright issues with the flag had repeatedly drawn conflict, such as when Mr Thomas handed the rights to use the flag on clothing to a non-Indigenous company, which later threatened legal action against the NRL and AFL for using the flag on player uniforms.

That led to Mr Wyatt encouraging football fans to drape themselves in the Aboriginal flag in protest.

Mr Thomas will retain moral rights over the flag, but has agreed to give up copyright in return for all future royalties the Commonwealth receives from flag sales to be put towards the ongoing work of NAIDOC.

The government has also agreed to establish an annual scholarship in Mr Thomas's honour worth $100,000 for Indigenous students to develop skills in leadership, and to create an online history and education portal for the flag."

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

A Presentation on Legal Issues for Podcasters - Who Owns What?; Lexology, August 3, 2018

Lexology; A Presentation on Legal Issues for Podcasters - Who Owns What?

"Last week, I spoke at Podcast Movement 2018 – a large conference of podcasters held in Philadelphia. My presentation, Legal Issues In Podcasting – What Broadcasters Need to Know, was part of the Broadcasters Meet Podcasters Track. The slides from my presentation are available here. In the presentation, I discussed copyright issues, including some of the music rights issues discussed in my articles here and here, making clear that broadcaster’s current music licenses from ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and even SoundExchange don’t provide them the rights to use music in podcasts. Instead, those rights need to be cleared directly with the holders of the copyrights in both the underlying musical compositions as well as in any sound recording of the song used in the podcast."
 

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Even at a Comics Event, You Can’t Defy Gravitas; New York Times, 7/13/12

Michael Cieply, New York Times; Even at a Comics Event, You Can’t Defy Gravitas:

"Topics for panels at this year’s conference at the San Diego Convention Center include comics and the plight of indigenous peoples, feminist writers and censorship, progressive politics in comics and of course the many financial and copyright issues created by the explosion in Hollywood’s interest.

As a certain archvillain might ask: Why so serious?

“It’s frightening,” said Lisa Vizcarra, a science teacher at Carquinez Middle School in Crockett, Calif. Ms. Vizcarra, who seemed to set the day’s tone, was speaking to a Comic-Con audience about a looming pedagogical crisis: Students, distracted by video, are no longer responding to comics as an educational tool, even as schools increasingly use them in their curriculums...

On the opposite end of the sprawling convention hall, at a seminar called “The Comic Book Law School,” Michael L. Lovitz, a copyright lawyer, was hammering away on another serious matter: the ins and outs of work for hire, the employment term that has become a critical legal issue in multimillion-dollar battles over the ownership of characters like Superman and the Fantastic Four."

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Drilling Down: What Small Businesses Should Know About Pinterest; New York Times, 3/26/12

Gene Marks, New York Times; Drilling Down: What Small Businesses Should Know About Pinterest:

"Q: What are the risks of using Pinterest versus other social media sites?

A: Everyone keeps talking about copyright issues. So I guess the big risk is that Pinterest might be shut down one day because of copyright violations, or Pinterest would be forced to change the functionality and severely limit the way Pinners use the service. The other risk is that, like Facebook, you don’t own your Pinterest account. So you are at the mercy of a third party. This is why it’s always good for a business to have their own Web site and own real estate on the Internet."

Thursday, September 8, 2011

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."

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

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."

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Google bringing fee-based e-book service to Japan: report; Market Watch, 11/25/09

Market Watch; Google bringing fee-based e-book service to Japan: report:

Google Inc. plans to launch a fee-based service in Japan next year that will allow users to read complete books on their computers at a price, according to a report Wednesday.

"Upon the launch of its service, Google Japan aims to stock an online library of up to 10,000 books. It is already in talks with smaller publishers to sell their works on Google Edition, the report said.

But many leading publishers, such as Shueisha Inc. and Shogakukan Inc., remain wary. Their opposition stems from Google's book search, which has raised copyright issues, the Japanese newspaper reported."

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/google-japan-to-start-paid-e-book-service-report-2009-11-25

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Perpetual Protection Of Traditional Knowledge “Not On Table” At WIPO; Intellectual Property Watch, 10/22/09

Kaitlin Mara, Intellectual Property Watch; Perpetual Protection Of Traditional Knowledge “Not On Table” At WIPO:

"The director general also weighed in on issues of copyright.

On the secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, Gurry said that WIPO too did not know a great deal about the talks.

“Naturally we prefer open, transparent international processes to arrive at conclusions that are of concern to the whole world,” he said, citing WIPO’s role as an international, United Nations agency. And, he added, “IP is of concern to the whole world.”

On copyright protection in the internet age, the “problem we have is massive,” he said, citing the example of the newspaper industry and the music industry, both suffering as new technology necessitates changes in old business models."

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/10/22/perpetual-protection-of-traditional-knowledge-%e2%80%9cnot-on-table%e2%80%9d-at-wipo/

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Judge Delays Ruling on Blocking Release of ‘Watchmen’ Film, New York Times, 12/30/08

Via New York Times: Judge Delays Ruling on Blocking Release of ‘Watchmen’ Film:

"Hollywood ownership fights are not rare, but a dispute over a film that has already been shot and is on the verge of being released is highly unusual. Warner released a statement saying, “We respectfully but vigorously disagree with the court’s ruling and are exploring all of our appellate options.”

The film has been eagerly awaited since last year, when the director Zack Snyder, best known for “300,” announced that he planned a movie based on the widely known graphic novel “Watchmen.”

But the film became embroiled in an extraordinary dispute between studios last winter, when Fox filed suit, claiming that it owned the property on which the movie was based. As the case progressed, fingers pointed from all sides at Lawrence Gordon, the veteran producer who brought the film to Warner after failed attempts over the years to make it with Fox, Universal Pictures and then Paramount...

Judge Feess then weighed in with an unusual reprimand. In a footnote to his order indicating that he would rule in favor of Fox, the judge said Mr. Gordon’s decision to invoke attorney-client privilege rather than testify about his contractual arrangements had helped Fox.

“The court takes a dim view of this conduct,” Judge Feess wrote. “The court will not, during the remainder of this case, receive any evidence from Gordon that attempts to contradict any aspect of this court’s ruling on the copyright issues under discussion.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/business/media/30watchmen.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=watchmen&st=cse