Trump Gets Copyright Law Wrong While Defending Release of Jay Leno Letters; Newsweek, March 15, 2023

EWAN PALMER , Newsweek; Trump Gets Copyright Law Wrong While Defending Release of Jay Leno Letters

"Jane C. Ginsburg, professor of literary and artistic property Law at Columbia University School of Law in New York, previously told Newsweek that the principle that the writers of letters, not the recipients, retain the copyright in the text has been "well-established in copyright law" for hundreds of years.

"Going back to a famous case from 1741, in which poet Alexander Pope sued Edmond Curll for publishing Pope's letters," Ginsburg said. "Pope prevailed. Lord Justice Hardwick announced a distinction between the 'property of the paper' which belonged to the recipient of the letters, and the property in the words, which remained with the writer.""

Librarians stir the pot for copyright reform; Brisbane Times, 7/31/15

Natalie Bochenski, Brisbane Times; Librarians stir the pot for copyright reform:

About 1500 libraries around Australia will on Friday, July 31, take part in ALIA's Cooking for Copyright campaign, with everyone else encouraged to take part as well.

Sue McKerracher, of the Australian Librarian and Information Association, said it was inspired by the thousands of vintage recipes that lay dormant in unpublished library collections.

"What we want is for everyone to cook something, photograph it, and send it to us using the hashtag," she said.

Advertisement "That will effectively give us a good petition to take to the government and ask the Attorney-General to review the legislation, make this change and give a gift to the Australian people."

ALIA has declared Friday, July 31, Cooking for Copyright Day, to draw attention to the quirk of legislation that prohibits unpublished documents from being uploaded online.

"We've got lots of real treasures locked up in museums, libraries, galleries, historical societies that can't be shared online with the Australian public because of this copyright restriction," Ms McKerracher said...

Ms McKerracher said the National Library in Canberra alone held more than two million unpublished works.

"Those include letters from Jane Austen, Prince Albert, Captain Cook, Charles Darwin, Dame Nellie Melba, Christobel Pankhurst and Banjo Patterson, but you wouldn't know that, because we can't put them on the web," she said."

Toward a Go-To Gershwin Edition; New York Times, 9/13/13

Larry Rohter, New York Times; Toward a Go-To Gershwin Edition: "Is it to-may-to or to-mah-to? That question may be unanswerable, but an agreement between the estates of George and Ira Gershwin and the University of Michigan, to be announced on Sunday, aims to create the first definitive edition of the Gershwins’ entire joint body of work, including such landmark pieces as “Rhapsody in Blue,” “Porgy and Bess” and “An American in Paris.” The project, which is expected to require several decades of note-by-note and word-by-word analysis, will allow University of Michigan scholars unrestricted access to Gershwin scores, letters and compositional drafts, which are at the Library of Congress and will remain there. From that material, at least 35 volumes are to emerge, in both book and electronic form, with the goal of cementing the Gershwins’ reputation as uniquely American geniuses and providing a reliable road map for future performances... Marc Gershwin, a nephew of George Gershwin who administers his copyrights, said the need for an authoritative critical edition had become increasingly obvious to the heirs in recent years."

Porn bill for couple who can't download, London Guardian, 11/29/08

Via London Guardian [Caution, some graphic language in linked article]: Porn bill for couple who can't download, Innocent people are getting letters from lawyers claiming they should pay for films they've never seen:

"He questions the amount demanded and methods used to identify computers alleged to have downloaded material. He believes the sum demanded is out of all proportion to the alleged injury. "In one case, Davenport Lyons wanted £500 for a £20 game. The alleged file-sharing would have cost only about £50 - the rest is legal costs.""

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/nov/28/internet-porn-bill-mistake