New Zealand Libraries Considering Shutting Off Public Internet Access To Avoid Three Strikes Law; TechDirt.com, 5/19/11

Mike Masnick, TechDirt.com; New Zealand Libraries Considering Shutting Off Public Internet Access To Avoid Three Strikes Law:

"[I]n order to preserve internet access for those who work at the library, many New Zealand libraries are considering turning off internet access for the public (via TorrentFreak."

US ITC Report On China Piracy Shows Billions In Losses: Senators Demand Action; Intellectual Property Watch, 5/18/11

Intellectual Property Watch; US ITC Report On China Piracy Shows Billions In Losses: Senators Demand Action:

"China’s violations of United States intellectual property rights costs the US tens of billions of dollars in economic activity and millions of jobs, according to a report released today from the US International Trade Commission."

Class-action lawsuit targets Righthaven's "extortion litigation"; ArsTechnica.com, 5/18/11

Nate Anderson, ArsTechnica.com; Class-action lawsuit targets Righthaven's "extortion litigation" :

"Righthaven has gone after more than 250 publishers for allegedly violating newspaper copyrights, and it has extracted settlements from many of them. But one defendant is fighting back in Colorado, launching a class-action counterclaim against Righthaven.

"Class Plaintiffs are victims of extortion litigation by Righthaven,” says the counterclaim, “which has made such extortion litigation a part of its, if not its entire, business model.”"

U. of Michigan Copyright Sleuths Start New Project to Investigate Orphan Works; Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/16/11

Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education; U. of Michigan Copyright Sleuths Start New Project to Investigate Orphan Works:

"The University of Michigan on Monday announced a new project to identify orphan works among the millions of volumes in the HathiTrust Digital Library...

The 8.7-million-volume HathiTrust collection, pooled by a consortium of research libraries largely from scans made by Google, may contain in the neighborhood of 2.5 million orphan works, according to one recent estimate."

EDUCAUSE Live! Web Seminar: Alphabet Soup: A P2P, DMCA, and HEOA FAQ, 5/18/11 1 PM EDT

EDUCAUSE Live! Web Seminar: Alphabet Soup: A P2P, DMCA, and HEOA FAQ:

"Three speakers with hard-won experience will provide practical advice on dealing with copyright infringement on campus networks in this free hour-long webinar, “Alphabet Soup: A P2P, DMCA, and HEOA FAQ.”"

The "PROTECT IP" Act: COICA Redux; Electronic Frontier Foundation, 5/12/11

Abigail Phillips, Electronic Frontier Foundation; The "PROTECT IP" Act: COICA Redux:

"Last year’s rogue website legislation is back on the table, with a new name: the "Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011"—or (wink, wink) "PROTECT IP". The draft language is available here."

LimeWire settles filesharing legal battle for $105m; Guardian, 5/13/11

Josh Halliday, Guardian; LimeWire settles filesharing legal battle for $105m:

"LimeWire has agreed to pay record companies $105m (£64m) to end a five-year legal battle over illegal filesharing.

The out-of-court settlement with 13 record companies, including labels owned by the four major groups, comes days after the start of a trial to decide damages following a decision that the service was liable for "massive scale infringement" for helping users pirate digital music files.

LimeWire, which the music groups blame for $1bn in lost sales, was shut down in October following a court ruling."

ACTA Still Open To Interpretation, Legal Experts Say; Transparency Fight Ongoing; Intellectual Property Watch, 5/10/11

Monika Ernert, Intellectual Property Watch; ACTA Still Open To Interpretation, Legal Experts Say; Transparency Fight Ongoing:

"In the United States, ACTA is planned to be passed by executive order and without involvement of Congress, which is possible as long as there is no need to update national law in the US. Yet a study by Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress done on request of Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and kept under the wraps until recently notes that “Depending on how broadly or narrowly several passages from the ACTA draft text are interpreted, it appears that certain provisions of federal intellectual property could be regarded as inconsistent with ACTA.""

Trial Date Set for High-Stakes Copyright Case Involving Georgia State U.; Chronicle of Higher Education, 3/31/11

Josh Fischman, Chronicle of Higher Education; Trial Date Set for High-Stakes Copyright Case Involving Georgia State U.:

"...Georgia case, Cambridge University Press et al. v. Patton et al., may have a profound effect on how much previously published material professors can safely use."

AP Apparently Less Concerned About Others' Copyrights; Sued For Infringing By Courtroom Artist; TechDirt.com, 5/9/11

Mike Masnick, TechDirt.com; AP Apparently Less Concerned About Others' Copyrights; Sued For Infringing By Courtroom Artist:

"Now, you may recall that the Associated Press is one of the more aggressive news-related organizations out there in screaming about the importance of protecting copyright. And, remember how ridiculously aggressive it's been in suing lots of people and companies over their usage of the Obama "Hope" poster images -- which were loosely based on an AP photograph."

Consumers’ Rights Still Not On Equal Footing With Copyright Owners’, Study Finds; Intellectual Property Watch, 5/3/11

Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch; Consumers’ Rights Still Not On Equal Footing With Copyright Owners’, Study Finds:

"The best-rated countries are Moldova, the United States, India, Lebanon and New Zealand, while the worst-rated countries are Thailand, Chile, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Belarus.

The watchlist aims to “provide a snapshot of how a number of the world’s major IP regimes support, or fail to support, consumers’ access to educational, cultural and scientific knowledge,” but also to advertise good practices and encourage countries to review their IP laws to serve the public interest."

Stars Gain Control of Online Images; New York Times, 5/9/11

Jeremy Beiler, New York Times; Stars Gain Control of Online Images:

"Operating in “stealth mode” since last year, WhoSay runs from the Los Angeles office building of the Creative Artists Agency, which represents a Rolodex of household names, including Mr. Hanks. His WhoSay site includes “copyright Tom Hanks” branding and a stack of fine print at the bottom asserting his legal ownership of all content, placed against warnings of “fines and imprisonment” for improper use."

Enforcing Copyrights Online, for a Profit; New York Times, 5/2/11

Dave Frosch, New York Times; Enforcing Copyrights Online, for a Profit:

"Whether the defendant credits the original author or removes the material after being sued matters little. None of the cases have gone to trial yet, and many have been settled out of court. In two instances, judges have ruled against Righthaven in pretrial motions. According to The Las Vegas Sun, which has tracked the cases, the only two publicly disclosed settlements were for $2,185 and $5,000."

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]."

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."

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."

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."

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."

ACRL 2011: A Rallying Cry for Leadership and Risk Taking in the Copyright Wars; Library Journal, 4/11/11

Michael Kelley, Library Journal; ACRL 2011: A Rallying Cry for Leadership and Risk Taking in the Copyright Wars:

"Two papers presented at the recent 2011 Association of College and Research Libraries Conference in Philadelphia drove home the shaky use and understanding of copyright law on university campuses."

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."

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."

Joanne Siegel’s posthumous appeal to Warner Bros.; ComicbookResources.com, 3/28/11

ComicbookResources.com; Joanne Siegel’s posthumous appeal to Warner Bros. :

"“My daughter Laura and I, as well as the Shuster estate, have done nothing more than exercise our rights under the Copyright Act,” Siegel wrote in the letter, obtained and published by Deadline. “Yet, your company has chosen to sue us and our long-time attorney for protecting our rights. [...] The solution to saving time, trouble, and expense is a change of viewpoint. Laura and I are legally owed our share of Superman profits since 1999. By paying the owed bill in full, as you pay other business bills, it would be handled as a business matter, instead of a lawsuit going into its 5th year.”"

With Google Settlement Rejected, Library Groups Keep Eye on Access; Library Journal, 3/24/11

Josh Hadro, Library Journal; With Google Settlement Rejected, Library Groups Keep Eye on Access:

"What the vast majority of librarians hoped to see out of this lawsuit was a precedent-setting determination on the fair-use right to index and search copyrighted materials (recalling the scope of the initial complaint against Google). Barring that, most considered an acceptable consolation prize to be easy access to a full-text union archive of the nation's premier research collections, as the settlement would have provided.

As of Tuesday, neither of those options are in the offing. What librarians can look forward to instead: a renewed commitment from library advocates to make more content accessible to scholars and to the general public, whether via an alternative settlement agreement or legislative recourse."

NY court: Keep Internet copyright disputes at home; Sydney Morning Herald, 3/25/11

Michael Virtanen, Sydney Morning Herald; NY court: Keep Internet copyright disputes at home:

"New York's top court ruled Thursday that publishers should file Internet copyright infringement lawsuits in courts where their businesses are located, even if alleged copyright violations occurred elsewhere."

Baidu apologises to writers in copyright dispute; Sydney Morning Herald, 3/27/11

Sydney Morning Herald; Baidu apologises to writers in copyright dispute:

"Chinese search engine giant Baidu apologised on Saturday to writers who accused it of violating their copyright and promised to delete infringing items within the next three days."

Google, Authors, Will Need To Rethink Digital Book Settlement; Intellectual Property Watch, 3/23/11

Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch; Google, Authors, Will Need To Rethink Digital Book Settlement:

"In his conclusion, Chin said that objectors, including the US government have said that “many of the concerns raised in the objections would be ameliorated if the ASA were converted from an opt-out settlement to an opt-in settlement.” He urged the parties “to consider revising the ASA accordingly.”"

Book Ruling Cuts Options for Google; New York Times, 3/23/11

Claire Cain Miller, New York Times; Book Ruling Cuts Options for Google:

"Advocates of open access to orphan works cheered the rejection of the settlement, saying it could pave the way for legislation that would let anyone — not just Google — use the books...

Google has endorsed such legislation in the past, and people briefed on the negotiations said they expected Google to now aggressively pursue it in Congress."

A Digital Library Better Than Google’s; New York Times, 3/23/11

Robert Darnton, New York Times; A Digital Library Better Than Google’s:

"Perhaps Google itself could be enlisted to the cause of the digital public library. It has scanned about 15 million books; two million of that total are in the public domain and could be turned over to the library as the foundation of its collection. The company would lose nothing by this generosity, and might win admiration for its good deed."

Copyright troll Righthaven achieves spectacular "fair use" loss; ArsTechnica.com, 3/22/11

Nate Anderson, ArsTechnica.com; Copyright troll Righthaven achieves spectacular "fair use" loss:

"Last Friday, a federal judge ruled in one of the company's many lawsuits, saying that even the complete republication of copyrighted newspaper content can be "fair use."...

At a hearing last week, the judge decided that CIO's use of the full article text was, in fact, a fair use under the "four-factor test" enshrined in law."

Judge Rejects Google’s Deal to Digitize Books; New York Times, 3/22/11

Miguel Helft, New York Times; Judge Rejects Google’s Deal to Digitize Books:

"A federal judge in New York rejected Google’s $125 million class-action settlement with authors and publishers, delivering a blow to the company’s ambitious plan to build the world’s largest digital library and bookstore.

The deal was rejected by Judge Denny Chin of United States District Court, who said the deal went too far in granting Google rights to exploit books without permission from copyright owners."

Early Finding of Cal State U. E-Textbook Study: Terms Matter; Chronicle of Higher Education, 3/21/11

Jeff Young, Chronicle of Higher Education; Early Finding of Cal State U. E-Textbook Study: Terms Matter:

"Whether or not students liked their digital textbooks depended on what rules publishers set on how the digital books could be used.

“Every publisher has a little bit different terms and conditions,” said Gerard L. Hanley, senior director of academic technology services at California State University’s office of the chancellor. Such rules, including whether a student can print the whole book or only a portion of it, or whether the text can be downloaded to a computer or only accessed online, “really impact the students’ ability to use the content,” he added."

Judge Rules Against Richard Prince in Copyright Case; New York Times, 3/21/11

Randy Kennedy, New York Times; Judge Rules Against Richard Prince in Copyright Case:

"A federal judge in Manhattan has ruled against the artist Richard Prince in a closely watched copyright case, finding that Mr. Prince – who is well known for appropriating imagery created by others – violated the law by using photographs from a book about Rastafarians to create a series of collages and paintings."

Once in the Public’s Hands, Now Back in Picasso’s; New York Times, 3/21/11

Adam Liptak, New York Times; Once in the Public’s Hands, Now Back in Picasso’s:

"The new case asks whether Congress acted constitutionally in 1994 by restoring copyrights in foreign works that had belonged to the public, including films by Alfred Hitchcock and Federico Fellini, books by C. S. Lewis and Virginia Woolf, symphonies by Prokofiev and Stravinsky and paintings by Picasso, including “Guernica.”"

Next chapter in recopyright law: Supreme Court; Denver Post, 3/8/11

John Ingold, Denver Post; Next chapter in recopyright law: Supreme Court:

"Although the case involves an obscure subject, it raises important constitutional issues, said Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Stanford University law school's Fair Use Project and another attorney on the case. Copyright, the plaintiffs argue, is like the spike strips in a car-rental parking lot: Once a work crosses over into the public domain, it can't back up...

The government, though, argues the recopyrighting law is necessary to comply with an international treaty, which in turn protects the copyrights of American works in foreign countries."

A Letter to Our Readers About Digital Subscriptions; New York Times, 3/17/11

New York Times; A Letter to Our Readers About Digital Subscriptions:

"This week marks a significant transition for The New York Times as we introduce digital subscriptions. It’s an important step that we hope you will see as an investment in The Times, one that will strengthen our ability to provide high-quality journalism to readers around the world and on any platform. The change will primarily affect those who are heavy consumers of the content on our Web site and on mobile applications."

New York Times to Launch Pay Wall March 28; Wall Street Journal, 3/18/11

Russell Adams, Wall Street Journal; New York Times to Launch Pay Wall March 28:

"The New York Times will begin charging readers for unlimited access to the paper's website March 28, an ambitious effort to get consumers to pay for digital news that the paper has long been giving away."

As Library E-Books Live Long, Publisher Sets Expiration Date; New York Times, 3/14/11

Julie Bosman, New York Times; As Library E-Books Live Long, Publisher Sets Expiration Date:

"“We are working diligently to try to find terms that satisfy the needs of the libraries and protect the value of our intellectual property,” John Sargent, the chief executive of Macmillan, said in an e-mail. “When we determine those terms, we will sell e-books to libraries. At present we do not.”"

[Press Release] Restrictions on library e-book lending threaten access to information; American Library Association (ALA), 3/14/11

[Press Release] American Library Association (ALA); Restrictions on library e-book lending threaten access to information:

"As libraries cope with stagnant or decreased budgets, the recent decision by publisher HarperCollins to restrict the lending of e-books to a limited number of circulations per copy threatens libraries’ ability to provide their users with access to information...

The Equitable Access to Electronic Information Task Force (EQUACC) and the ALA will soon launch a website dedicated to developing a model for e-book lending."

Copyright System Must “Adapt Or Perish,” WIPO Director Says; Intellectual Property Watch, 3/15/11

William New, Intellectual Property Watch; Copyright System Must “Adapt Or Perish,” WIPO Director Says:

"“The enticing promise of universal access to cultural works has come with a process of creative destruction that has shaken the foundations of the business models of our pre-digital creative industries,” WIPO Director-General Francis Gurry told a recent conference in his native Australia.

He imparted his vision to the Blue Sky conference in Sydney, on the subject of “Future Directions in Copyright Law,” on 25 February.

The question is, Gurry said, “How can society make cultural works available to the widest possible public at affordable prices while, at the same time, assuring a dignified economic existence to creators and performers and the business associates that help them to navigate the economic system?”"

Depositions Reveal; Glimpse of Kirby/Marvel Copyright Lawsuit; ComicBookResources.com, 3/11/11

Brian Cronin, ComicBookResources.com; Depositions Reveal Glimpse of Kirby/Marvel Copyright Lawsuit:

"In summation, as soon as it was announced the Kirby family was going to attempt to terminate the copyrights to the characters in question, it was seen by many to be an uphill battle to get around the "work for hire" roadblock. Jack Kirby's situation at Marvel was quite dissimilar to earlier examples of notable copyright transferees that have received support from the Court, namely Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster selling their Superman strip to DC Comics or Joe Simon and Kirby selling Captain America to Timely, where the characters in question already existed in independent form before the comic book companies got involved. And after reading the five available depositions, the battle doesn't seem to be any less uphill than before."

Library Rights Are at Stake in New Supreme Court Copyright Case; Chronicle of Higher Education, 3/8/11

Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education; Library Rights Are at Stake in New Supreme Court Copyright Case:

"Does Congress have the right to restore copyright protection to foreign works that have fallen into the public domain?

That issue is at the heart of a major copyright case that the Supreme Court agreed to hear yesterday. Its resolution could have implications for libraries’ ability to share works online, advocates say."

Fury over 'stupid' restrictions to library ebook loans; Guardian, 3/1/11

Benedicte Page, Guardian; Fury over 'stupid' restrictions to library ebook loans:

"Furious librarians are calling for a boycott of publisher HarperCollins over its decision to put a limit on the number of times its ebooks can be loaned.

Under the new policy, announced by distributor Overdrive in a letter to customers last week, libraries will only be able to lend out each purchased ebook published by HarperCollins a total of 26 times before the book's lifetime expires.

The development has led to an explosion of anger among librarians, who up until now have been able to lend any ebook as often as they like – just as they do with print copies. Loans are generally made via the library's website, with users gaining access via a PIN number, and downloaded ebooks remaining live for a two-week loan period."

HarperCollins Puts 26 Loan Cap on Ebook Circulations; Library Journal, 2/25/11

Josh Hadro, Library Journal; HarperCollins Puts 26 Loan Cap on Ebook Circulations:

"In the first significant revision to lending terms for ebook circulation, HarperCollins has announced that new titles licensed from library ebook vendors will be able to circulate only 26 times before the license expires."