Staffer axed by Republican group over retracted copyright-reform memo; ArsTechnica.com, 12/6/12

Timothy B. Lee, ArsTechnica.com; Staffer axed by Republican group over retracted copyright-reform memo: "The Republican Study Committee, a caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives, has told staffer Derek Khanna that he will be out of a job when Congress re-convenes in January. The incoming chairman of the RSC, Steve Scalise (R-LA) was approached by several Republican members of Congress who were upset about a memo Khanna wrote advocating reform of copyright law. They asked that Khanna not be retained, and Scalise agreed to their request."

Feeling the Heat, Yoga Chain Bows to Bikram, Despite Federal Ruling; New York Times, 12/10/12

Andy Newman, New York Times; Feeling the Heat, Yoga Chain Bows to Bikram, Despite Federal Ruling: "A popular New York-based chain of yoga studios accused by Bikram Yoga of copyright infringement has decided to let go, despite a Copyright Office ruling that supported its position. The chain, Yoga to the People, has agreed to stop offering its high-temperature classes that are patterned after Bikram Yoga in order to settle a federal lawsuit filed by Bikram, according to a joint press release issued by both parties last week. But Yoga to the People’s founder, Greg Gumucio, said on Monday that he was not getting out of the hot-yoga business: Yoga to the People is working on a new sequence that will also be offered in a super-heated room and incorporate some poses from the sequence popularized by Bikram’s founder, Bikram Choudhury, but will also include other poses... Correction: December 10, 2012 An earlier version of this post stated erroneously that the federal Copyright Office did not specifically mention Bikram yoga in its ruling that a sequence of exercises cannot be copyrighted. In fact, the the Copyright Office did cite Bikram yoga as an example of an uncopyrightable exercise sequence."

eBooks For Libraries Web Site Relaunches, Focus is Now Public Awareness About Issues; Library Journal,12/11/12

Gary Price, Library Journal; eBooks For Libraries Web Site Relaunches, Focus is Now Public Awareness About Issues: "The eBooks For Libraries web site, sponsored by Library Renewal and the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library in Kansas, has relaunched and will now provide public awareness and news about ebooks for libraries. David Lee King writes, “Our goal isn’t to complain, but to share information about the current ebook landscape, and how it affects libraries. We’ll explain current issues, and what they actually MEAN for libraries.”"

Richard O'Dwyer's two-year extradition ordeal ends in New York; Guardian, 12/6/12

Adam Gabbatt, Guardian; Richard O'Dwyer's two-year extradition ordeal ends in New York: "A British student's two-year fight to avoid extradition to the US ended in less than five minutes on Thursday, when Richard O'Dwyer signed an agreement in a New York court to avoid prosecution and a potential 10-year jail term for breaking copyright laws with the file-sharing website he set up as a teenager."

Publishers brace for authors to reclaim book rights in 2013; paidContent, org, 11/27/12

Jeff John Roberts, paidContent.org; Publishers brace for authors to reclaim book rights in 2013: "Termination rights are not a new idea and have been the subject of famous court cases involving John Steinbeck, Lassie and Superman. The difference is that these older cases are based on a pre-1978 law that often required an author to exercise renewal rights which, in many cases, the author had signed away. The new law has fewer such loopholes and will also mean that what has been a drip-drip of old copyright cases could turn into a flood as nearly every book published after 1978 becomes eligible for termination. The 1978 law also means a threat to the back list of titles that are a cash cow for many publishers."

Posting A Parody Video? Read This First.; Library Journal, 11/29/12

Meredith Schwartz, Library Journal; Posting A Parody Video? Read This First: "While Good Morning America’s film crew was at the library, the show received Sony’s statement above, which Good Morning America, the library, or both interpreted to mean that they now had permission to show the video on YouTube and other third party sites, not just the library website. While that interpretation may have been overly broad, it was apparently good enough for YouTube: according to Giannella, the library didn’t have to re-upload the video, it is now available again at the original URL. Ironically, in an instance of the Streisand Effect, the main result of the temporary blockage has been to gain a far bigger viewership for “Read It” than it ever would have had otherwise."

Beastie Boys call for sampling lawsuit to be dismissed; Guardian, 11/29/12

Sean Michaels, Guardian; Beastie Boys call for sampling lawsuit to be dismissed: "In the Beastie Boys' response to the lawsuit, filed on Monday, they questioned the two-decade gap between their albums' release and TufAmerica's complaint. "Plaintiff is attempting to sidestep the Copyright Act's three-year statute of limitations," their lawyers wrote, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Although TufAmerica argued that the samples are "concealed … [to] the casual listener" and were only detectable "after conducting a careful audio analysis", the hip-hop crew said this means their work is sufficiently different and they should be exempt from damages."

HathiTrust Verdict Could Transform University Access for the Blind; Library Journal, 11/7/12

Meredith Schwartz, Library Journal; HathiTrust Verdict Could Transform University Access for the Blind: "Now that the HathiTrust verdict has held that digitizing works for the purpose of providing access to the blind and print-disabled is not only a fair but a transformative use, schools can feel safer hanging onto those scans until the next student who needs them comes along, and can spend their efforts on improving them or scanning more books, instead of doing the same bare minimum of texts over and over. And Goldstein believes making the text available to sighted persons to crowdsource the manual work would also be fair use. Even more revolutionary than just keeping their own book scans, the Honorable Harold Baer, Jr., held that the University of Michigan libraries can be considered an authorized Chafee entity. That means the library could make digitized collections available not just to the university’s own blind and print disabled students, or even to blind and print disabled students at other colleges, but to any American who qualifies as blind or print disabled under the Chafee amendment."

Reshaping The International Copyright System To Facilitate Education In Developing Countries; Intellectual Property Watch, 11/28/12

Tiphaine Nunzia Caulier, Intellectual Property Watch; Reshaping The International Copyright System To Facilitate Education In Developing Countries: "International copyright flexibilities are ill-suited to the need of developing countries to create effective access to printed materials in schools, a new book argues. The author, whose work was presented last week at the World Intellectual Property Organization, urges a normative and institutional rethinking of the current system. The book, “International Copyright Law and Access to Education in Developing Countries: Exploring Multilateral Legal and Quasi Legal Solutions,” was authored by Susan Isiko Štrba, senior IP and development research affiliate at the University of Minnesota. It was presented alongside a meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee last week. The event was sponsored by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), and the book is available here. The author demonstrates the difficulties in applying the so-called three-step test in copyright, which allows for specific uses of the protected works without the permission of the right holder."

Google Fires a Rare Public Salvo Over Aggregators; New York Times, 11/28/12

Kevin J. O'Brien, New York Times; Google Fires a Rare Public Salvo Over Aggregators: "That all changed this week when Google fired a rare public broadside against a proposal that would force it and other online aggregators of news content to pay German newspaper and magazine publishers to display snippets of news in Web searches. The proposed ancillary copyright law, which is to have its first reading Friday in the lower house of Parliament, the Bundestag, has ignited a storm of hyperbole pitting Google and local Web advocates against powerful publishers including Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Bild and Die Welt."

[Video] How did Richard O'Dwyer strike a deal to avoid extradition?, 11/28/12

[Video: 1 min. 49 sec.] James Ball, Guardian; How did Richard O'Dwyer strike a deal to avoid extradition? : "Guardian data journalist James Ball explains how Richard O'Dwyer, the university student who created a website which linked to programmes and films online for free, has reached an agreement to avoid extradition to the US over copyright infringement allegations. In June, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales launched a campaign with the Guardian in defence of O'Dwyer."

Case Against UCLA For Streaming Licensed DVDs To Students Dismissed Yet Again; TechDirt.com, 11/26/12

Mike Masnick, TechDirt.com; Case Against UCLA For Streaming Licensed DVDs To Students Dismissed Yet Again: "A few years ago we wrote about how UCLA professors were barred from continuing an existing program in which they had streamed properly licensed DVDs to students. The lawsuit came from the Association for Information Media and Equipment (AIME). We noted that one of the key aspects of "fair use" is supposed to be that it allows for educational use, and it seemed ridiculous that any such streaming wasn't fair use. After thinking it over, UCLA decided to stand up for itself and put the videos back online. AIME sat on this for eight or nine months and finally sued, arguing that its contract with the University meant that UCLA had given up its fair use rights, and that even if it was fair use, it was a breach of contract. A year ago, the judge dismissed the case, mostly focusing on the question of whether or not AIME even had standing to sue and whether or not, as a state university, UCLA could hide behind a sovereign immunity claim. AIME filed a new (amended) complaint against UCLA... which basically restated everything it had lost over, and then added a few claims. The court apparently was not impressed. It just dismissed the case all over again with prejudice, meaning that AIME can't just refile."

After Father’s Objection, Play About Amy Winehouse Is Canceled; New York Times, 11/26/12

James C. McKinley, Jr., New York Times; After Father’s Objection, Play About Amy Winehouse Is Canceled: "The Royal Theater in Denmark has canceled a play about Amy Winehouse because Mitch Winehouse, the singer’s father, is blocking use of her music and photographs of her, The Associated Press reported."

Wikipedia founder hails extradition deal with US and calls for law reform; Guardian, 11/28/12

Lizzy Davies, James Ball, Owen Bowcott, Guardian; Wikipedia founder hails extradition deal with US and calls for law reform: "Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has called for a review of Anglo-US extradition arrangements after a legal agreement struck by Sheffield Hallam student Richard O'Dwyer to avoid extradition to America on copyright charges. Wales, who launched a campaign with the Guardian against O'Dwyer's extradition that garnered more than 250,000 signatures, welcomed a settlement announced in the high court on Wednesday morning, and called for reform to prevent similar cases in future... O'Dwyer faced up to 10 years in prison in the US over copyright charges relating a website he set up, TVShack.net, which allowed users to share links to free places to watch TV and movies."

WIPO Committee Finishes A Step Closer To Treaty For Visually Impaired; Intellectual Property Watch, 11/24/12

Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch; WIPO Committee Finishes A Step Closer To Treaty For Visually Impaired: "After a long week of discussions, delegates at the World Intellectual Property Organization last night adopted a working draft text that could become a treaty or other instrument providing copyright exceptions for visually impaired people, and agreed to send the text to the WIPO extraordinary General Assembly next month. Country delegates and visually impaired representatives hailed a constructive atmosphere and progress achieved this week, but a number of delegations highlighted the fact that much more work will be needed to reach final agreement on remaining outstanding issues."

Republicans' brief flash of intellectual property insight; Guardiian, 11/23/12

Dan Gillmor, Guardian; Republicans' brief flash of intellectual property insight: "A small outburst of policy sanity broke out from Republican party circles last weekend. Even though it was stamped out immediately, it's sparking a renewed conversation about the state of what we call "intellectual property" – a concept so warped these days that it begs for reconsideration. An organization called the House Republican study committee published a policy brief, "Three Myths About Copyright Law and Where to Start to Fix it" – a document that called the current copyright system what it is: a grotesque abuse of corporate and government power designed to enrich a few big entertainment companies at just about everyone else's expense. Please read it and come back. As you saw, the brief, by staff member Derek S Khanna, makes a strong case that we have far too much protection for copyrighted materials, and that this protection hinders copyright's original purpose, namely to "promote the progress of science and useful arts"."

Building a Digital Public Library of America; Library Journal, 11/26/12

John Palfrey, Library Journal; Building a Digital Public Library of America: "...how can the DPLA provide access to knowledge in a digital era, given the restrictions of the copyright act and the related constraints of contract law and digital rights management technology? The law is often seen as a constraint to the work of libraries today. In the digital era, many librarians feel that they cannot carry out their mission under the current legal regime. The DPLA as an institution will always respect copyright interests, but it also will take on the role of advocate for libraries in terms of making the most of what the law permits. Dedicated volunteers, many of them top experts in their respective fields, have spent hundreds of hours in meetings talking about each of these questions, among others, and coming up with initial answers to inform the project’s launch. The answers to these big questions, and many others, will be addressed in part through the April, 2013 launch of the DPLA initiative. Each of these essential questions will also be the topic of a future column here in Library Journal in the months to come."

Podcast [2 hours, 3 minutes], Robert Darnton and Susan Flannery: "Digitizing the Culture of Print: The Digital Public Library of America and Other Urgent Projects", 11/2/12

Podcast [2 hours, 3 minutes], Robert Darnton and Susan Flannery: "Digitizing the Culture of Print: The Digital Public Library of America and Other Urgent Projects" : ""The role of the library in the digital age is one of the compelling questions of our era. How are libraries coping with the promise and perils of our impending digital future? What urgent initiatives are underway to assure universal access to our print inheritance and to the digital communication forms of the future? How is the very idea of the library changing? These and related questions will engage our distinguished panelists, who represent both research and public libraries and two of whom serve on the steering committee for the Digital Public Library of America. Robert Darnton is Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor at Harvard, Director of the Harvard University Library and one of America's most distinguished historians. He serves on the steering committee of the Digital Public Library of America and has been a trustee of the New York Public Library since 1995. In a recent essay in the New York Review of Books, Darnton defended a NYPL plan to liquidate some branches in the system while renovating the main Fifth Avenue branch. The essay sparked a number of responses. In November of last year, Darnton provided a status report on the DPLA. Darnton is the author of many influential books including The Case for Books, Past, Present, and Future and The Great Cat Massacre. Susan Flannery is director of libraries for the City of Cambridge and past president of the Massachusetts Library Association."

University Consortium to Offer Small Online Courses for Credit; New York Times, 11/15/12

Hannah Seligson, New York Times; University Consortium to Offer Small Online Courses for Credit: "Starting next fall, 10 prominent universities, including Duke, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Northwestern, will form a consortium called Semester Online, offering about 30 online courses to both their students — for whom the classes will be covered by their regular tuition — and to students elsewhere who would have to apply and be accepted and pay tuition of more than $4,000 a course."

On the Hobbit trail in New Zealand; Guardian, 11/16/12

Rebecca Nicholson, Guardian; On the Hobbit trail in New Zealand: "People involved with Middle Earth-related tours talk wearily of copyright back-and-forths with the Tolkien estate and with New Line Cinema; it was, initially, hard for them to market anything local as an official Lord of the Rings experience. There's very much a sense that the tourism which followed the films' release took all parties by surprise, and they're preparing for it properly this time."

You Can’t Say That on the Internet; New York Times, 11/16/12

Evgeny Morozov, New York Times; You Can’t Say That on the Internet: "Thanks to Silicon Valley, our public life is undergoing a transformation. Accompanying this digital metamorphosis is the emergence of new, algorithmic gatekeepers, who, unlike the gatekeepers of the previous era — journalists, publishers, editors — don’t flaunt their cultural authority. They may even be unaware of it themselves, eager to deploy algorithms for fun and profit. Many of these gatekeepers remain invisible — until something goes wrong... The limitations of algorithmic gatekeeping are on full display here. How do you teach the idea of “fair use” to an algorithm? Context matters, and there’s no rule book here; that’s why we have courts."

Creation and copyright law: the case of 3D printing; Conversation, 11/8/12

Matthew Rimmer, Conversation; Creation and copyright law: the case of 3D printing: "In Australia, the developers of 3D printing face certain risks and uncertainties in respect to litigation under Australian copyright law. Australia does not have a broad, open-ended, flexible defence of fair use, like the United States. Instead, Australia has the much more narrow defence of fair dealing. The permitted purposes for fair dealing include research and study; criticism and review; reporting the news; and parody and satire. The developers of 3D printing would struggle to obtain protection under the defence of fair dealing – outside educational applications within Australian universities. As such, the developers behind 3D printing would be loath to establish their operations in Australia. They would be vulnerable to copyright law suits. Such entrepreneurs would be better off sheltering under the protection afforded by the defence of fair use in the United States. No wonder MakerBot and Solidoodle are based in Brooklyn, not Sydney. Given our comparative disadvantage in the digital economy, with our strict and draconian copyright laws, Australia would be well-advised to revise its copyright laws and adopt a defence of fair use, which is flexible enough to accommodate the emergence of 3D printing."

YouTube videos make people money, but songwriters rarely see any of it; Guardian, 11/13/12

Helienne Lindvall, Guardian; YouTube videos make people money, but songwriters rarely see any of it: "Naturally, songwriters prefer to concentrate on creating music instead of trying to decipher why their digital royalties are so low. But I decided to enquire further, and discovered that the deeper you look into the nature of digital licensing deals, the murkier the waters and that even people working at music companies were confused about them. To begin to understand why, first of all one needs to understand that the copyrights to each record are divided into two categories: the master rights for the recording, which belong to the record label/artist, and the rights to the composition, which belong to the publisher/songwriter. As YouTube marries video and audio, it requires both a performance licence and a mechanical synch licence for each category for each song. Many record labels I spoke to were shocked by how little the songwriters in my article got paid for YouTube videos."

Google Presses Fair Use Case in Book Scanning Appeal; Library Journal, 11/12/12

Gary Price, Library Journal; Google Presses Fair Use Case in Book Scanning Appeal: "On November 9, Google asked a federal appeals court to reverse the May ruling that the Authors Guild’s long running case against Google Books could go forward as a class action. In August, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decided to allow Google to appeal for decertifying the case as a class action...Since the last time Google sought dismissal of the Guild case, in July, Google’s side has been strengthened by the ruling in the Guild’s case against the HathiTrust, for allowing Google to digitize their holdings and putting them to several uses."

The Fight for Free Information: Liberate Our Cultural Assets from Economic Prisons; Library Journal, 11/12/12

John N. Berry III, Library Journal; The Fight for Free Information: Liberate Our Cultural Assets from Economic Prisons: "A huge, much more important question lurks over the entire struggle. We have to participate in the ongoing effort to decide whether the digital brave new world into which we are moving will offer people more freedom of access to information and entertainment, or confine our intellectual resources in a maze of impenetrable legal walls that could ultimately end much of the intellectual freedom we have enjoyed through the print era. Is technology liberating information, or will it allow special interests to use the law to deny access to it? Currently there are many attempts to create models for a digital information future. In most of them, the concept of a book collection is replaced by a universal online catalog of digitized works that everyone can simply tap for downloading onto their own devices. The problem is that many will not be able to afford the fees for such access. Proposed models that require us to pay for each use of our intellectual resources are far more plentiful than those that let us pay once for all of our uses of them."

Authors Guild Appeals HathiTrust Decision, Library Copyright Alliance Issues Statement; Library Journal, 11/9/12

Gary Price, Library Journal; Authors Guild Appeals HathiTrust Decision, Library Copyright Alliance Issues Statement: "On November 8, the Authors Guild appealed the verdict in its case against the HathiTrust to the U.S. Court of Appeals Second Circuit. The Guild had filed suit against the Trust in 2011, alleging that the Trust’s digitization efforts constituted copyright infringement. However, on October 10, Judge Baer of the United States District Court Southern District of New York found overwhelmingly in favor of HathiTrust."

Could US Election Result Reverse Ever-Stronger Copyright Protection?; Intellectual Property Watch, 11/7/12

Intellectual Property Watch; Could US Election Result Reverse Ever-Stronger Copyright Protection? : "US voters returned President Obama for four more years, and kept his party’s dominance of the US Senate as well as the opposition party’s dominance of the House of Representatives. While the Obama administration has generally allied itself with copyright interests, some see the possibility of a reversal in the US Congress of a trend toward stronger copyright protection."

US Makes New Exemptions To Digital Millennium Copyright Act Provision; Intellectual Property Watch, 11/1/12

Maricel Estavillo, Intellectual Property Watch; US Makes New Exemptions To Digital Millennium Copyright Act Provision: "The United States has made new exemptions to a provision in its copyright law that prohibits the circumvention of technological measures to gain access to protected digital works. The Federal Register notice of the new exemptions is here [pdf]. As part of the triennial review of Section 1201(a)(1)(B) of the US Copyright Act, the Librarian of Congress approved the following “classes of work” to be allowed effective 28 October..."

Artist who sued Twitter over copyright declares victory—via settlement; ArsTechnica.com, 11/2/12

Jon Brodkin, ArsTechnica.com; Artist who sued Twitter over copyright declares victory—via settlement: "Two months ago, an artist named Christopher Boffoli sued Twitter for copyright infringement because, he said, the company refused to take down copies of his artwork uploaded to Twitter by its users. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, sites like Twitter are granted a "safe harbor" against prosecution as long as they take copyrighted content down when they are notified of its existence. Boffoli, who made a popular series of photographs of miniature figures posed on and near food, sent Twitter numerous requests to take his artwork off the site, and many of them were ignored..."The matter was settled amicably out of court and I'm pleased to say that we had a productive conversation about copyright, and that I'm satisfied with the outcome," Boffoli told Ars via e-mail."

Aliens Have Landed, Hoping To License All Of Humanity's Music; All Songs Considered, 7/9/12

Bob Boilen, All Songs Considered; Aliens Have Landed, Hoping To License All Of Humanity's Music: "This just in: Aliens from pretty far away have been listening to music from Earth for the past 35 years. As it turns out, the planet's only redeeming quality is our music. From a legal standpoint this is great news, the biggest copyright violation since forever. That's the first thing you want to know about Rob Reid's smart and wacky novel Year Zero, out this week."

Q&A: Troubleshooting Video Problems in Facebook; New York Times, 10/26/12

J.D. Biersdorfer, New York Times; Q&A: Troubleshooting Video Problems in Facebook: "Q.I recently uploaded a video I had shot to Facebook. It took forever to finish uploading and I got a screen that said it was “processing” my file — but then the whole thing disappeared. What’s the deal? A.Check Facebook’s technical requirements for uploaded videos first to make sure your clip is in a compatible format. Although random technical difficulties on either end may have caused a problem with the file or the uploading process, Facebook does note that videos can be removed after uploading if they contain copyrighted material. This includes video clips copyrighted by other people or organizations that you may have uploaded."

Justices Weigh Case on Imported Textbooks; New York times, 10/29/12

Liptak, A., New York Times; Justices Weigh Case on Imported Textbooks: "The general rule for products made in the United States is that the owners of particular copies can do what they like with them. If you buy a book or record made in the United States, for instance, you are free to lend it or sell it as you wish. The question for the justices was whether that rule, called the first-sale doctrine, also applies when the works in question were made abroad. The answer turns on a phrase in the Copyright Act, which appears to limit the first-sale doctrine to works “lawfully made under this title.”... Much of the argument concerned what lawyers call the “parade of horribles” — the hypothetical problems that might follow a ruling in favor of one side or the other."

What You Need to Know About Kirtsaeng v. Wiley; Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/12

Chronicle of Higher Education; What You Need to Know About Kirtsaeng v. Wiley: "Many college students resell their textbooks online. But Supap Kirtsaeng turned textbooks into a profit machine, and his homegrown business is now at the center of a lawsuit that some observers call the most important copyright case in nearly a decade. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on Monday. Here's a guide to what the case means, and how it could send ripples far beyond college campuses."

Supreme Court Appears Divided on Copyright Case Affecting Libraries and Publishers; Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/29/12

Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education; Supreme Court Appears Divided on Copyright Case Affecting Libraries and Publishers: "The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Monday morning in a key copyright-infringement case, with justices asking pointed questions about the resale and reuse of protected works. Many of the questions homed in on possible consequences for individual buyers as well as libraries and other institutions, but did not suggest which way the court was leaning. The outcome of the lawsuit, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons (No. 11-697), has significant implications for publishers, academic libraries, and almost anyone who resells, lends, or displays copyrighted material made and bought outside the United States. The case centers on a dispute over textbooks produced by Wiley for foreign markets."

Victory for HathiTrust and Fair Use; Columbia Science and Technology Law Review; 10/23/12

Rachel Bandli, Columbia Science and Technology Law Review; Victory for HathiTrust and Fair Use: "The Authors Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust, decided earlier this month, marks the second victory this year for fair use of copyrighted works for scholarly purposes (the first being Cambridge University Press v. Becker). In an opinion issued by Judge Baer, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted HathiTrust’s motion for summary judgment, allowing HathiTrust to continue its current use of copyrighted works."

Sony Sued Over William Faulkner Quote in 'Midnight in Paris'; Hollywood Reporter, 10/25/12

Alex Ben Block, Hollywood Reporter; Sony Sued Over William Faulkner Quote in 'Midnight in Paris' : "Sony Pictures Classics and a group of unnamed movie exhibitors have been sued by the owners of the rights to the literary works of the late William Faulkner because a quote from one of his books was used by Woody Allen in the hit 2011 movie Midnight In Paris... In a statement, a representative for the studio said: “This is a frivolous lawsuit and we are confident we will prevail in defending it. There is no question this brief reference (10 words) to a quote from a public speech Faulkner gave constitutes fair use and any claim to the contrary is without merit.”"

Library Associations Brace for First Sale Fight with Owners’ Rights Lobby Effort; Library Journal, 10/23/12

Meredith Schwartz, Library Journal; Library Associations Brace for First Sale Fight with Owners’ Rights Lobby Effort: "The American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) today teamed up with 17 other associations, retailers, and charities to launch a new coalition called the Owners’ Rights Initiative (ORI). ORI is an “informal alliance of stakeholders” that will defend the first sale doctrine, which allows libraries to lend books and other materials, as well as individual owners to resell them. The doctrine is under attack in the case of Kirtsaeng vs. Wiley, for which the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on October 29. Among ORI’s other members are eBay, Overstock, Powell’s Books, textbook buyer and seller Chegg, movie rental company Redbox, Goodwill, and Quality King Distributors, which is notable as the prevailing party in Quality King Distributors v. L’anza Research International, in which the Supreme Court in 1998 held that the first sale doctrine prevents copyright owners from controlling the importation of copyrighted goods sold outside the United States. (Notable for its absence is Costco, which was a party to the split decision Costco v. Omega case that raised similar issues.)"

Teachers make extra money selling materials on the Web; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/20/12

Donna Gordon Blankinship, Associated Press via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Teachers make extra money selling materials on the Web: "While most characterize these sites as an inexpensive way for teachers to supplement textbook materials, some teachers may get pushback from administrators for their entrepreneurial efforts. Seattle Public Schools recently revised its ethics policy, with the new policy prohibiting teachers from selling anything they developed on district time, district spokeswoman Teresa Wippel said. "Anything created on their own time could also cross a gray line, depending on the item and how closely tied it is to classroom work," she said. Teacherspayteachers.com currently has about 300,000 items for sale plus more than 50,000 free items. All told, more than 1 million teachers have bought or sold items on teacherspayteachers.com since it began. After paying the site fees, teachers have collectively earned more than $14 million on the site since it was founded."

Start Nears on Plan to Combat Online Infringement; New York Times, 10/18/12

Ben Sisario, New York Times; Start Nears on Plan to Combat Online Infringement: "Last year, five major Internet service providers and the big entertainment trade organizations announced a joint plan to fight illegal downloading through what might be called a strategy of annoyance. Instead of suing people suspected of copyright infringement, as the record labels have in the past, they would prod and poke people into good behavior through a “six strikes” system that escalate from friendly notices in their e-mail to, ultimately, throttled Internet access. Progress has been slow on the project, called the Copyright Alert System, since it was announced 15 months ago. But in a blog post Thursday, the group created to carry out the process said it would finally begin “over the course of the next two months.”"

Warner wins key victory in Superman battle; Los Angeles Times, 10/17/12

Ben Fritz, Los Angeles Times; Warner wins key victory in Superman battle: "In a crucial legal victory for the Burbank studio, a federal judge in Los Angeles on Wednesday denied an effort by the heirs of Superman co-creator Joseph Shuster to reclaim their 50% interest in the world’s most famous superhero."

Kim Dotcom plans Megaupload reboot; Sydney Morning Herald, 10/12/12

Nick Perry, Sydney Morning Herald; Kim Dotcom plans Megaupload reboot: "Jennifer Granick, the director of civil liberties at the Stanford University law school's Centre for Internet and Society, said Dotcom's case marks the first time the US has attempted to hold somebody criminally liable for copyright infringement committed by others. She said prosecutors are pushing at the boundaries of the law. "It makes the substantive underpinnings of the case highly questionable, legally," Granick said. "It's a novel case.""

Dealing fairly with freelances; Guardian, 10/11/12

Guardian; Dealing fairly with freelances: "Designed to balance the rights of individual freelances with the needs of GNM as an international, multi-platform media concern, the charter initiative stemmed mainly from the longstanding desire of GNM to achieve the highest possible ethical standards in its dealings with contributors, for example by standardising GNM commissioning practice, settling the thorny issue of copyright ownership, and improving payment times to contributors. To emphasise GNM's openness in its freelance relations, the charter is a public document available on our website. It sets out in a detailed but understandable way the terms and conditions under which GNM engages freelances, including the commissioning process, minimum fees, payment terms, rejected work, expenses policy, ethical considerations, etc. Importantly, the charter also outlines our standard copyright terms. In the majority of cases, freelances retain the copyright in their contribution and grant GNM a clearly-defined licence that enables it to undertake its publishing and commercial activities."

Immortal Images of Native Americans; New York Times, 10/12/12

Timothy Egan, New York Times; Immortal Images of Native Americans: "The great task broke Curtis. He died alone, a pauper, in a tiny apartment. He lost the copyright of his work to J.P. Morgan, and ultimately to the public domain. Today, there are fewer than 300 of the completed, intact, 20-volume sets in existence. History, as with many great artists, has been kind to him: A few days ago, a single set sold for $1.44 million in an auction at Swann Galleries — fetching more than any other single lot there in 70 years."

Judge Says Fair Use Protects Universities in Book-Scanning Project; Wired.com, 10/10/12

David Kravets, Wired.com; Judge Says Fair Use Protects Universities in Book-Scanning Project: "Fair use is a defense to copyright infringement and may be invoked for purposes such as criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research, the judge noted. He said the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) also played a major factor. “Although I recognize that the facts here may on some levels be without precedent, I am convinced that they fall safely within the protection of fair use such that there is no genuine issue of material fact,” Baer wrote... Under terms of the trust, full-text searching is only available to works in the public domain. Copyrighted works in the trust require consent from the rights holder. If consent is not granted, a search query only indicates the page number in a work on which a searched term is found."

‘U’ wins copyright lawsuit against Hathitrust digitalization project; Michigan Daily, 10/11/12

Austen Hufford, Michigan Daily; ‘U’ wins copyright lawsuit against Hathitrust digitalization project: "The judge wrote that the case may set an important precedent for future digital copyright laws, noting there are comparatively few prior standards regarding digitization and its fair use. “I cannot imagine a definition of fair use that would not encompass the transformative uses made by (the Hathitrust program) and would require that I terminate this invaluable contribution to the progress of science … ” Baer wrote. When someone uses the database to search a word in a copyrighted book, the full text is not available; only the page number and number of occurrences in the book is shown. The defendants claimed this does not infringe on copyright law because copyrighted books cannot be read in their entirety through the Hathitrust system. The system is also used for preserving physical texts in case the originals are somehow lost or destroyed. It already contains nearly 10 million volumes and about 73 percent of those are copyrighted, the ruling stated."

Russian Social Network vKontakte Held Liable For Copyright Infringement A Second Time; Intellectual Property Watch, 10/12/12

Daria Kim, Intellectual Property Watch; Russian Social Network vKontakte Held Liable For Copyright Infringement A Second Time: "This week, the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and Leningradskaya Oblast announced a decision holding vKontakte, the Russian largest social network, liable for copyright infringement. This is the second case between the parties in which the court sided with the right holder following a decision earlier this year."

Judge Hands HathiTrust Digital Repository a Win in Fair-Use Case; Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/10/12

Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education; Judge Hands HathiTrust Digital Repository a Win in Fair-Use Case: "Academic libraries’ indexing of digitized works counts as fair use. So says the federal judge overseeing a major copyright-infringement lawsuit brought last year by the Authors Guild against the HathiTrust digital repository and its university partners."

Your right to resell your own stuff is in peril; Market Watch, 10/7/12

Jennifer Waters, Market Watch; Your right to resell your own stuff is in peril: "At issue in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons is the first-sale doctrine in copyright law, which allows you to buy and then sell things like electronics, books, artwork and furniture, as well as CDs and DVDs, without getting permission from the copyright holder of those products. Under the doctrine, which the Supreme Court has recognized since 1908, you can resell your stuff without worry because the copyright holder only had control over the first sale."

Stan Lee Media sues Disney for billions over Marvel characters; ComicBookResources.com, 10/10/12

Kevin Melrose, ComicBookResources.com; Stan Lee Media sues Disney for billions over Marvel characters: "Undeterred by numerous legal setbacks, failed dot-com Stan Lee Media on Tuesday filed a $5.5 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit against Disney, claiming the entertainment giant doesn’t actually own the Marvel characters featured in such blockbuster films as The Avengers, X-Men: First Class and Thor, and the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. The dollar amount reflects the estimated revenue from box-office receipts, licensing and merchandising dating back three years, the statute of limitations for copyright infringement."

Man who defaced Tate Modern's Rothko canvas says he's added value; Guardian, 10/7/12

Ben Quinn, Guardian; Man who defaced Tate Modern's Rothko canvas says he's added value: "On Sunday night, a man who identified himself as Vladimir Umanets, and answering a phone number provided for an exhibition of "yellowism", said he was responsible for the incident at the Tate Modern and had done so in order to draw attention to what was going on in contemporary art. "I believe that if someone restores the [Rothko] piece and removes my signature the value of the piece would be lower but after a few years the value will go higher because of what I did," he said, comparing himself to Marcel Duchamp, the French artist who shocked the art establishment when he signed a urinal and put it on display in 1917."