Boy named after Wayne Rooney not allowed personalised Easter egg due to 'copyright law'; Express.co.uk, 4/14/14

Sarah Ann Harris, Express.co.uk; Boy named after Wayne Rooney not allowed personalised Easter egg due to 'copyright law' :

"A LITTLE boy named after England striker Wayne Rooney was told he could not have his name written on an Easter egg because of "copyright issues".

Staff at a branch of Thorntons in Bury, Greater Manchester, refused to ice three-year-old Rooney's name on a chocolate egg in case it broke copyright laws, said the child's angry mother, Jo-anne Scholes.

She said instead, as a compromise, staff agreed to put her son's full name, Rooney Scholes, on the egg, bought by a family friend on Saturday...

There is no copyright or trademark protection for people's names under UK law."

Of Bundles, Bindings, and the Next Great Copyright Law; Library Journal, 4/17/14

Kevin L. Smith, Library Journal; Of Bundles, Bindings, and the Next Great Copyright Law:

"What will the next great copyright law look like? It depends to a large degree on what we think is great about the current copyright law. Many of the problems and proposals for reform that I listened to in Berkeley made me think that the pressure of digital technology is too much for the very notion of copyright, and that the legal regime built around that concept is collapsing under the weight. The question, I think, is whether we should try to keep strengthening the structure of the law to withstand that pressure, which is the approach we have taken so far, or whether perhaps we should reduce the pressure by returning to a more lightweight set of protections. As someone pointed out during the week, our first copyright law in the U.S. protected simply the right to copy, publish, and vend a work. Maybe we could return to that approach by just protecting the right to commercially exploit a work of authorship and stripping away many of the protections, and hence the required exceptions, that cause so many problems for museums, schools, universities, and individuals who simply want to engage in socially beneficial activities that do not threaten the core markets for those works."

Big data and open data: what's what and why does it matter?; Guardian, 4/15/14

Joel Gurin, Guardian; Big data and open data: what's what and why does it matter? :

"Big data and the new phenomenon open data are closely related but they're not the same. Open data brings a perspective that can make big data more useful, more democratic, and less threatening.

While big data is defined by size, open data is defined by its use. Big data is the term used to describe very large, complex, rapidly-changing datasets. But those judgments are subjective and dependent on technology: today's big data may not seem so big in a few years when data analysis and computing technology improve.

Open data is accessible public data that people, companies, and organisations can use to launch new ventures, analyse patterns and trends, make data-driven decisions, and solve complex problems. All definitions of open data include two basic features: the data must be publicly available for anyone to use, and it must be licensed in a way that allows for its reuse. Open data should also be relatively easy to use, although there are gradations of "openness". And there's general agreement that open data should be available free of charge or at minimal cost."

SOPA Defeat Haunts Efforts to Rein In Illegal Copying, British Official Says; New York Times, 4/17/14

Michael Cieply, New York Times; SOPA Defeat Haunts Efforts to Rein In Illegal Copying, British Official Says:

"Following the defeat in 2012 of the Stop Online Piracy Act, movie companies and other advocates for copyright owners both here and in Britain have been pointed toward voluntarism. That has meant, among other things, agreements under which Internet service providers send escalating warnings to those who are believed to be downloading copyrighted material illegally.

But at a news briefing in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Mr. Weatherly, a plainspoken type, also talked of escalating pressure — legal and otherwise — on those who advertise on sites where illegal downloading is taking place. “There are some laws in place, but we might need to beef up a couple of them a bit more,” suggested Mr. Weatherly, who spoke of an effort to “strangle the advertising revenue from the illegal sites.”"

Ted Hughes Estate Cuts Off Access, Biographer Says; New York Times, 3/31/14

Jennifer Schuessler, New York Times; Ted Hughes Estate Cuts Off Access, Biographer Says: "

The estate did not offer an explanation for its withdrawal of access, but rejected the suggestion there were any secrets it was “attempting to keep hidden,” according to The Guardian. The Hughes archive was purchased by the British Library in 2008, but copyright remains with the estate. Mr. Bate said his contract with Faber was canceled by mutual consent, and that he would rewrite the book for HarperCollins, consulting with lawyers about how much he could quote or paraphrase in keeping with fair use laws."

Trace the past with NY Public Library's Open Access Maps Project; CNet, 4/7/14

Bonnie Burton, CNet; Trace the past with NY Public Library's Open Access Maps Project:

"For over 15 years, the Lionel Pincus & Princess Firyal Map Division at the New York Public Library has been scanning maps from all over the world including those of the Mid-Atlantic United States from 16th to 19th centuries and even topographic maps of Austro-Hungarian empire ranging from 1877 and 1914.

Most notably, the NYPL has scanned more than 10,300 maps from property, zoning, and topographic atlases of New York City dating from 1852 to 1922.

There's also a "diverse collection of more than 1,000 maps of New York City, its boroughs and neighborhoods, dating from 1660 to 1922, which detail transportation, vice, real estate development, urban renewal, industrial development and pollution, political geography among many, many other things," NYPL posted in late March on its blog.

These and many more of the 20,000 cartographic works scanned are now available as high-resolution downloads for anyone who wants to visit their site.

"We believe these maps have no known US copyright restrictions," NYPL posted. "To the extent that some jurisdictions grant NYPL an additional copyright in the digital reproductions of these maps, NYPL is distributing these images under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.""

Academic Publishing Waiver Raises Concern; Chronicle of Higher Education via New York Times, 4/6/14

Megan O'Neil, Chronicle of Higher Education via New York Times; Academic Publishing Waiver Raises Concern:

"Faculty authors who contract to write for the publisher of Nature, Scientific American and many other journals could be signing away more than just the economic rights to their work, according to the director of the Office of Copyright and Scholarly Communications at Duke University.

Kevin Smith, the Duke official, said he stumbled across a clause in the Nature Publishing Group’s license agreement last month stating that authors waive or agree not to assert “any and all moral rights they may now or in the future hold” related to their work. In the context of scholarly publishing, “moral rights” include the right of the author always to have his or her name associated with the work and the right to have the integrity of the work protected so that it is not changed in a way that could result in reputational harm.

“In many countries, you can’t waive them as an author,” Mr. Smith said. “But in the Nature publishing agreement you are required to waive them, and if you are in a country where a waiver is not allowed, you have to assert in the contract you won’t insist on those rights.”

Grace Baynes, a spokeswoman for the Nature Publishing Group, declined to say how long the language on moral rights had been included in its license agreement."

Studios hit Megaupload with copyright-infringement lawsuit; Los Angeles Times, 4/7/14

Richard Verrier, Los Angeles Times; Studios hit Megaupload with copyright-infringement lawsuit:

"Hollywood studios are turning the screws on Kim Dotcom, founder of the once infamous piracy website Megaupload.

Several major U.S. studios on Monday filed a lawsuit against Kim Dotcom (a.k.a. Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor) and others associated with Megaupload, alleging that they encouraged and profited from massive copyright infringement of movies and television shows before they were indicted on federal criminal charges and Megaupload was shut down."

Government open data proves a treasure trove for savvy businesses; ComputerWorld, 3/24/14

Cindy Waxer, ComputerWorld; Government open data proves a treasure trove for savvy businesses:

""We're at a tipping point," says Joel Gurin, senior adviser at New York University's Governance Lab (GovLab) and author of Open Data Now: The Secret to Hot Startups, Smart Investing, Savvy Marketing, and Fast Innovation. "This is the year open data goes from being a specialized expertise to becoming part of a CIO's tool kit. It's a very exciting time."

But unlocking open data's value remains a challenge. For one thing, much of today's open data flows from a whopping 10,000 federal information systems, many of which are based on outdated technologies. And because open data can be messy and riddled with inaccuracies, IT professionals struggle to achieve the data quality and accuracy levels required for making important business decisions. Then there are the data integration headaches and lack of in-house expertise that can easily hinder the transformation of open data into actionable business intelligence.

Yet for those IT leaders who manage to convert decades-old county records, public housing specs and precipitation patterns into a viable business plan, "the sky's the limit," says Gurin."

Are MOOCs - massive open online courses - the future of education?; The Australian, 4/5/14

Julie Hare, The Australian; Are MOOCs - massive open online courses - the future of education? :

"TODAY you can study with a Nobel Laureate - at home, for free. Is this the end of traditional university education?

Last August, Diccon Close went back to university, enrolling in an esoteric-sounding course called “Maps and the Geospatial Revolution” from Pennsylvania State University in the US. It was the first proper study Close, 49, had done since he passed his economics degree in the 1980s and he was pleased with himself when he gained a distinction. To do the five-week course, Close didn’t have to fly to the States or turn up to a campus. He completed it on his laptop in moments etched out from his frantic schedule while living and working in Sydney. His cohort consisted of 48,000 people from 150 countries and they were all connected through chat rooms and social media. For all he knows, he might have had a classmate living around the corner. Best of all, it didn’t cost him a cent."

Beastie Boys settle copyright dispute with toy company GoldieBlox; Guardian, 3/18/14

Guardian; Beastie Boys settle copyright dispute with toy company GoldieBlox:

"The Californian toy company GoldieBlox has reached a settlement with the Beastie Boys over its parody of their song Girls, which was used in an advert that went viral.

On 21 November 2013, a San Francisco-based law firm representing GoldieBlox filed a pre-emptive lawsuit asking the court to rule that, because it was a parody, the company’s version of the Beastie Boys song constituted fair use. An agreement to dismiss the claim has now been reached, and was filed in a US district court on 17 March, the Oakland Tribune reported.

The video, which gained more than 8m views in a week, encouraged young women to code apps, build spaceships and become engineers."

Lady Antebellum, Hanson Schmooze Lawmakers, Stump for Copyright Laws; U.S. News, 4/3/14

Tierney Sneed, U.S. News; Lady Antebellum, Hanson Schmooze Lawmakers, Stump for Copyright Laws:

"Neil Portnow, the president and CEO of the Recording Academy announced a new legislative initiative he and other reps from the music industries will be campaigning for during their advocacy day at the Capitol Thursday. Portnow proposed “a music omnibus bill” or a “MusicBus,” as he coined it during the event’s keynote speech. The bill he hopes to craft with lawmakers would strengthen the copyright laws across the music industry – unifying the interests of labels, publishers, performing rights organizations and others – in addition to piecemeal proposals that have been met by pushback from the National Association of Broadcasters."

Somerville resident works to open government data in Mass., other states; Boston Business Journal, 4/4/14

David Harris, Boston Business Journal; Somerville resident works to open government data in Mass., other states:

"Adam Friedman, a 32-year-old Somerville resident who works in the growing field of civic technology, is using his knowledge of programming to try to make state and local governments more accessible to the public.

His latest project. a searchable database of Massachusetts historic election information, gives voters a chance to peek into data that's traditionally been in the hands of the elections division of the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office...

"i [sic] see this as one piece in the larger infrastructure of democracy," he said. "Having this is giving people basic information about how power is transferred. Given that we're paying for the infrastructure to administer and collect votes, the citizens should have access to this anytime. It's a fundamental right."...

Next for Friedman? He's currently in the process of founding a company called Civica, devoted to public interest software — mostly targeted to government at all levels across the country."

UK copyright tweak in June will finally allow ripping of CDs; Guardian, 3/31/14

Charles Arthur, Guardian; UK copyright tweak in June will finally allow ripping of CDs:

"Under the 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, it is not in fact legal to transform a piece of copyrighted content from one storage form to another - so turning a CD, which is encoded in one method, into a file formatted as MP3 or Windows Media Audio or AAC and storing it on a computer hard drive or digital music player is, strictly, against the law.

Record labels have known about this for years - but have turned a blind eye, because prosecuting everyone who bought a music player or transferred files to their phone would be both ruinously expensive and terrible publicity.

But, the IPO guidance points out, "it will still be illegal to make copies for friends or family, or to make a copy of something you do not own or have acquired illegally, without the copyright owner's permission. So you will not be able to make copies of CDs for your friends, to copy CDs borrowed from friends, or to copy videos illegally downloaded from file-sharing websites.""

Jack Kirby’s heirs take Marvel copyright fight to Supreme Court; ComicBookResources.com, 4/3/14

Kevin Melrose, ComicBookResources.com; Jack Kirby’s heirs take Marvel copyright fight to Supreme Court:

"Claiming an appeals court “unconstitutionally appropriated” Jack Kirby’s copyrights and gave them to Marvel, the late artist’s heirs have taken their fight with the comics publisher to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a petition filed March 21, and first reported by Law 360, Kirby’s children argue “it is beyond dispute” that the artist’s Marvel work between 1959 and 1963 was not produced as “work for hire” and, therefore, is subject to a clause in the U.S. Copyright Act that permits authors and their heirs to reclaim copyrights transferred before 1978.

The appeal follows an August decision by the Second Circuit upholding a 2011 ruling that Kirby’s Marvel works were indeed made at the “instance and expense” — that term plays a significant role in the heirs’ petition — with the publisher assigning and approving projects and paying a page rate; in short, they were “work for hire.” As such, the courts found, the 45 copyright-termination notices the artist’s heirs filed in 2009 for such characters as the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and the Hulk were invalid."

Digital Music Pioneer Is Found Liable in Copyright Suit; New York Times, 3/28/14

Ben Sisario, New York Times; Digital Music Pioneer Is Found Liable in Copyright Suit:

"Michael Robertson, a pioneer in the digital music business who has repeatedly clashed with record companies over legal issues, was found liable this week for $41 million in a long-running federal copyright infringement suit.

Mr. Robertson’s latest conflict with the music industry was over MP3tunes, a company he founded in 2005 and shut down two years ago. MP3tunes let its users back up digital music files on remote services on the Internet — an early version of the so-called cloud lockers that technology giants like Apple and Google offer as part of their standard suite of digital music offerings...

During the MP3tunes trial, Mr. Robertson said that the company canceled the accounts of users who abused the locker system. In a statement on Thursday, he accused the music industry of suing his company “to send a message to others not to partner with us or to emulate our business,” and criticized the system of statutory damages for copyright infringement, which led to charges of up to $100,000 per song.

“I’m still holding out hope that the legal system will end up at the right place,” Mr. Robertson added. “Sometimes it takes a while with new technologies.”"

Seeking a Town on the Border of Fiction and Reality; New York Times, 3/28/14

Sam Roberts, New York Times; Seeking a Town on the Border of Fiction and Reality:

"Last week, a reporter for The New York Times noticed a mention on Twitter about fake towns, which mapmakers would invent to guard against copyright infringement. An Internet search turned up Agloe and the Google map, complete with the driving directions. Agloe was a mapmaker’s creation.

“It wasn’t uncommon for cartographers to put something fictitious so if they spotted another work with it they knew it was lifted,” said William Spicer, the president of Maps.com.

Among those countless copyright traps, Agloe achieved a rare distinction: The name stuck. As early as the 1930s, a fishing lodge named Agloe opened nearby (which later helped Rand McNally successfully claim in a lawsuit that the Agloe on its own map had not been copied from Socony’s)."

Ex-Yale President to Join Online Education Venture; New York Times, 3/24/14

Tamar Lewin, New York Times; Ex-Yale President to Join Online Education Venture:

"Richard C. Levin, who stepped down as president of Yale University in June, will next month become the chief executive of Coursera, a California-based provider of online academic courses...

Mr. Levin, who has been an adviser to Coursera since January, has been experimenting with online education for years, beginning in 2000 in a partnership with Stanford and Oxford. In 2007, he started Open Yale Courses to make dozens of classes taught by Yale professors available without cost.

“The main thing we will work on is to establish this model so our partner universities feel that offering large-scale MOOCs is an important part of their mission that helps faculty expand their reach, and benefits the world,” Mr. Levin said.

Mr. Levin, who has extensive experience in China, will also work on expanding Coursera’s presence there. Already, he said, China is the second-biggest source of Coursera enrollment, after the United States."

Steven Tyler tells Congress to walk his way on copyright; Washington Post, 3/25/14

Emily Heil, Washington Post; Steven Tyler tells Congress to walk his way on copyright:

"Onstage, with a view of the Capitol in the background, Tyler capped off a few days of lobbying with renditions of hits like “Cryin’” and “Dream On,” to a crowd of suits who looked like they were reliving their high-school days. The musician spent his visit to Washington meeting with members of Congress to talk about stronger protection for songwriters in the copyright system, including against having their work used, willy-nilly, in samples or mashups by other artists.

Tyler insisted in an interview before the show that he just wants to be a passionate voice in Washington for songwriters — not just the “rich rock stars” like him. “Hopefully, I can touch them, like a modern-day Will Rogers,” he says, evoking the folksy actor-turned advocate of the 1920s and ’30s. “He’d stand up and speak and everyone would listen.”"

Congress should bring copyright law into the 21st century; Los Angeles Times, 3/24/14

Los Angeles Times Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times; Congress should bring copyright law into the 21st century:

"Congress updated copyright law in 1998 to address the nation's shift from analog devices and packaged goods — think turntables and vinyl records — to computers and e-commerce. Unfortunately, the law it wrote has proved to be a better fit for a dial-up era dominated by America Online, not broadband and the World Wide Web. The tools the law created to protect songs, movies, pictures and books from piracy have been no match for the rampant global bootlegging that new technologies have unleashed. At the same time, innovative entrepreneurs eager to help consumers create, store or share content online complain that the law left too much uncertainty over whether they could be held liable when their users violate copyrights.

These are valid complaints, but Congress isn't likely to address them any time soon because there's no consensus among copyright holders and tech companies on how to rewrite the law. The only help from Washington at the moment is a new effort led by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to broker a deal between the tech and copyright industries on voluntary measures to reduce piracy. Although it won't be easy for them to agree, there are steps both sides could take to make the existing system work better."

Google, Viacom settle outmoded YouTube copyright suit; CNet, 3/18/14

Joan E. Solsman, CNet; Google, Viacom settle outmoded YouTube copyright suit:

"Google and Viacom have settled their seven-year copyright lawsuit, a nearly forgotten fight in which the central conflict has largely become an anachronism.

Viacom, the parent company of such television networks as MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon, sued Google shortly after the search giant's acquisition of YouTube. It claimed the sharing platform for user-generated videos hosted thousands of unauthorized clips.

Google and Viacom putting the conflict to rest reflects how much the attitude toward online video has changed for traditional content companies, from one of protective wariness to one of essential opportunity. It also reflects how YouTube, over the course of many years, has improved its control over its platform, enabling it to work more beneficially with those traditional content creators.

In a brief joint statement Tuesday, Google and Viacom said they resolved the suit, without disclosing any terms of the settlement."

After suits, Phoenix backs fair use and copyright law changes; Los Angeles Times, 2/28/14

August Brown, Los Angeles Times; After suits, Phoenix backs fair use and copyright law changes:

"Back in 2010, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig gave a lecture on copyright law. Speaking at a conference for the organization Creative Commons, he used YouTube clips of fans dancing to Phoenix's song "Lisztomania" as an example of proper "fair use" principles. He later uploaded the full lecture, which included the clips, to YouTube.

Liberation Music, the firm that licenses the Phoenix song in Australia and New Zealand, disagreed with Lessig's take. The firm issued a YouTube takedown order, asking that the lecture video be removed, and later threatened their own lawsuit against Lessig.

As perhaps was to be expected when one sues a law professor, Lessig and the Electronic Frontier Foundation countersued for "misusing copyright law."

The flurry of suits finally came to an end this week, according to Billboard, after Liberation admitted being in the wrong and would pay compensation associated with the cases."

Copyright meets “Innocence of Muslims”: Ninth Circuit orders removal of movie from YouTube, on copyright grounds; Washington Post, 2/26/14

Eugene Volokh, Washington Post; Copyright meets “Innocence of Muslims”: Ninth Circuit orders removal of movie from YouTube, on copyright grounds:

"Garcia’s theory is that (1) she owns the copyright to her own performance, (2) Youssef never properly acquired the rights to that performance — for instance, because there was no express assignment of rights — and therefore (3) a court should order Google to take down the video that infringes Garcia’s copyright. The Ninth Circuit held for Garcia, by a 2-1 vote. Chief Judge Alex Kozinski wrote the majority opinion, and was joined by Judge Ronald Gould. Judge N.R. “Randy” Smith dissented."

Unlocking the Benefits of Open Data; HuffingtonPost.com, 2/25/14

Ariel Smilowitz, HuffingtonPost.com; Unlocking the Benefits of Open Data:

"This past weekend marked the third annual Open Data Day, an international event that gathers people around the globe each year in an effort to support and encourage the adoption of open data policies by the world's governments and institutions. Open data is defined as "data that can be freely used, shared, and built-on by anyone, anywhere, for any purpose". With this in mind, over the weekend, designers, coders, statisticians, and those interested in open data participated in workshops and open data hackathons. Ultimately, each event provided participants with the chance to "write applications, liberate data, create visualizations, and publish analyses using public open data." In other words, participants were given a space to come together and collaborate on new ways to visualize, analyze, and spread information throughout the world.

All in all, Open Data Day connected over 100 cities on five continents."

Judge Likely to Dismiss Script Case; New York Times, 2/24/14

Michael Cieply, New York Times; Judge Likely to Dismiss Script Case:

"A federal judge here said she expected to grant summary judgment against a producer who accused Warner Bros. and others of basing the Clint Eastwood baseball film, “Trouble With the Curve,” on a script that belonged to him.

At a hearing on Monday, Judge Dale S. Fischer of the United States District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles said she was unconvinced by expert testimony about similarities between the Eastwood film, which was directed by Robert Lorenz, and a script that had been written for the producer Ryan Brooks, who brought the suit.

“They’re not substantially similar,” said Judge Fischer, who said she had watched the film and read the scripts."

TV Networks Ask Supreme Court to Shut Down Aereo; New York Times, 2/24/14

Leslie Kaufman, New York Times; TV Networks Ask Supreme Court to Shut Down Aereo:

"Aereo, the start-up that uses tiny antennas to stream the free signals of TV stations to its customers’ Internet-connected devices for a fee, is stealing from the broadcast networks on a giant scale, the broadcasters asserted in a filing with the Supreme Court on Monday.

“The Copyright Act does not tolerate business models premised on the unauthorized exploitation of the copyrighted works of others,” said the brief, which was filed by broadcasters including ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.

On April 22, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear American Broadcasting Companies v. Aereo, a case that has significant implications for a television industry undergoing profound changes, as well as challenges from upstart competitors like Netflix and Amazon."

New Legislation Seeks to Modernize Copyright Act to Benefit Songwriters; Billboard, 2/25/14

Ed Christman, Billboard; New Legislation Seeks to Modernize Copyright Act to Benefit Songwriters:

"A member of Congress has introduced legislation this morning aimed at ensuring that the Copyright Royalty Board also consider fair market value when setting songwriter mechanical royalty rates for digital services.

The legislation was introduced by Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), a member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, carrying the name the Songwriter Equity Act. Its purpose is to update provisions in the Copyright Act to level the playing field for songwriter, composers and publishers to receive fair compensation for the use of their intellectual property."

European Union Sees Flurry Of Activity On Copyright Policy; Intellectual Property Watch, 2/21/14

Julia Fraser, Intellectual Property Watch; European Union Sees Flurry Of Activity On Copyright Policy:

"There have been several important developments related to copyright in the European Union in the past week. Below is a summary."

Aereo loses copyright fight, gets banned in 6 states; ArsTechnica.com, 2/19/14

Joe Mullin, ArsTechnica.com; Aereo loses copyright fight, gets banned in 6 states:

"It's been clear for some time now: Aereo's fate will ultimately be decided by the US Supreme Court. Arguments are scheduled for this April.

Notwithstanding the forthcoming argument at the high court, US District Judge Dale Kimball of Utah has gone ahead and issued a preliminary injunction (PDF), which will ban the Aereo service in Utah as well as the rest of the 10th Circuit, which includes Wyoming, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Colorado.

Aereo is currently operating in two cities in the 10th Circuit, Salt Lake City and Denver...

Like one of the dissenters in the 2nd Circuit, Judge Denny Chin, Kimball believes that Aereo's transmission constitutes a "public performance" under the law...

The Supreme Court argument over Aereo is scheduled for April 22. A decision will likely come by June.

Canadian court ruling in Teksavvy file sharing case a blow to copyright trolls: Geist; Toronto Star, 2/21/14

Michael Geist, Toronto Star; Canadian court ruling in Teksavvy file sharing case a blow to copyright trolls: Geist: "The outbreak of copyright trolling cases in the United States and Britain in recent years has sparked considerable anger from courts, Internet providers, and subscribers. These cases, which typically involve sending thousands of legal letters alleging copyright infringement and demanding thousands of dollars to settle, rely on ill-informed and frightened subscribers, who would rather pay the settlement than fight in court.

Canada was largely spared these cases until 2012, when Voltage Pictures, a U.S. film company, filed a lawsuit demanding that TekSavvy, a leading independent Internet provider, disclose the names and addresses of thousands of its subscribers who it claimed infringement its copyright. TekSavvy did not formally oppose the request, but it did ensure that its subscribers were informed about the lawsuit and it supported an intervention from the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, a technology law clinic, that brought the privacy and copyright trolling concerns to the court’s attention (I sit on the CIPPIC advisory board).

The federal court issued its much-anticipated decision on Thursday, granting Voltage’s request for the subscriber names, but adding numerous safeguards designed to discourage copyright trolling lawsuits in Canada...

The big remaining question is whether copyright trolls will now view Canada as hostile territory."

Photographers Band Together to Protect Work in ‘Fair Use’ Cases; New York Times, 2/21/14

Patricia Cohen, New York Times; Photographers Band Together to Protect Work in ‘Fair Use’ Cases:

"To many photographers, a federal appeals court ruling last spring that permitted Richard Prince to use someone else’s photographs in his art was akin to slapping a “Steal This” label on their work.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reasoned that as long as Mr. Prince’s work transformed the images into original art, he was not violating anyone’s copyright.

But photographers are pushing back against that interpretation. Several membership and trade organizations have banded together recently to press their cause in Congress and the courts.

More than half a dozen groups, including the National Press Photographers Association, Professional Photographers of America and the Picture Archive Council of America, have joined together to submit a friend of the court brief to support the photographer Patrick Cariou, after part of his case against Mr. Prince was sent back to a judge for reconsideration."

Widespread Vulnerability Found in Dozens of Government 'Open Data' Websites; Weekly Standard, 2/20/14

Jeryl Bier, Weekly Standard; Widespread Vulnerability Found in Dozens of Government 'Open Data' Websites:

"Nevertheless, while the pages are not official HHS information, neither are they technically cases of hacking. Rather, the creators have exploited a weakness in the "open data" system used by dozens of government websites. The platform was developed by a company called Socrata. The system allows users to create profiles and then manipulate data tables that various governments (federal, state, local) host on their websites. The results can be shared with others for statistical analysis, research, and other purposes, as some users have done. However, in cases like the ones above, a profile page itself can be used to promote a product or information in a way that gives viewers the impression that the host government entity approves or even endorses. A legitimate looking link could even be included in an email to direct recipients to what they may easily perceive as government-provided information."

Why deny US-style Fair Use copyright laws to Australians?; Sydney Morning Herald, 2/19/14

Adam Turner, Sydney Morning Herald; Why deny US-style Fair Use copyright laws to Australians? :

"Why did we gain the restrictions of US copyright law but not the rights?...

After an 18-month review, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has backed calls to bring Australia's copyright laws into the modern age with "Fair Use" exemptions. The change would streamline our current hotch-potch copyright laws, which aren't designed to cope with the rapid pace of technological change.

Australia's current copyright laws need to be rewritten to account for every new technology, an approach which saw everyone breaking the law for almost thirty years until we gained the right to record free-to-air television in 2007. The ALRC's "Copyright and the Digital Economy" report wants to replace this with proactive Fair Use laws which use four technologically-neutral "fairness factors" to determine whether an act of copying is within the law.

Federal Attorney-General George Brandis agrees that copyright laws need an overhaul, describing them as "overly long, unnecessarily complex, often comically outdated and all too often, in its administration, pointlessly bureaucratic"...

Brandis has already signalled his reluctance to embrace Fair Use law due to the supposed uncertainty it would create for copyright holders. This of course conveniently ignores the fact that the United States – one of the world's major content creators – has had similar Fair Use laws in place for decades."

Copyright fair use clause fails to persuade George Brandis; Guardian, 2/14/14

Michael Safi, Guardian; Copyright fair use clause fails to persuade George Brandis:

"The attorney general, George Brandis, says he “remains to be persuaded” that Australia needs a fair use clause in its copyright law.

A report from the Australian Law Reform Commission, tabled in the Senate on Thursday, argues that a flexible fair use law would assist innovation, protect copyright holders and promote the public interest.

“I am convinced that we can do much to improve how copyright works in this country,” Brandis told a copyright forum in Canberra on Friday, but he warned that reform must not “come at the expense of our creative industries”.

The current law provides fair dealing exceptions for specific practices, such as copying CDs to a computer or performing a play in a classroom.

Intellectual property specialist Kimberlee Weatherall said this approach failed to keep pace with rapid technological change."

Don Henley, Steven Tyler Condemn Potential Copyright Law Change; Rolling Stone, 2/13/14

Steve Knopper, Rolling Stone; Don Henley, Steven Tyler Condemn Potential Copyright Law Change:

"Numerous artists have been frightened since a Commerce Department task force submitted a 112-page "green paper" last July analyzing copyright laws and dealing with a huge range of topics, from remixes to YouTube cover songs to the record industry's lawsuits against 30,000 file-sharers. "The question is whether the creation of remixes is being unacceptably impeded," the task force wrote. "There is today a healthy level of production, but clearer legal options might result in even more valuable creativity."

While the green paper only analyzes policy without making specific recommendations for action, the U.S. received dozens of comments from artists, songwriters, authors and companies such as Microsoft, Google and eBay. Some argued for artists' rights to sample older songs without fear of lawsuits or damages; a Future of Music Coalition letter quoted Public Enemy's Chuck D on hip-hop sampling: "By 1994, [sample licensing] had become so difficult to the point where it was impossible to do any of the type of records we did in the late 1980s because every second of sound had to be cleared.""

Interviews With The Candidates For WIPO Director General; Intellectual Property Watch, 2/12/14

William New, Intellectual Property Watch; Interviews With The Candidates For WIPO Director General:

"Member states of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization, the global body for international IP policy issues, will vote on 6 March for the next WIPO director general for six years. Intellectual Property Watch asked the four candidates four key questions. Here are their responses.

Intellectual Property Watch is an independent news publication based in Geneva, Switzerland, which closely follows the activities of WIPO and international IP policymaking. The WIPO Coordination Committee will choose a candidate at its 6-7 March meeting. For more on the WIPO election process, see (IPW, WIPO, 3 February 2014).

The candidates are, in alphabetical order:

Current DG Francis Gurry (Australia)

Current Deputy DG Geoffrey Onyeama (Nigeria)

Ambassador Jüri Seilenthal (Estonia)

Ambassador Alfredo Suescum (Panama)

Their official nominations and CVs are available on the WIPO Coordination Committee website, here. IP-Watch reporting is here (IPW, WIPO, 6 December 2013)."

Open Data Now, book review: An optimistic view of a brave new world; ZDNet, 2/11/14

Wendy M. Grossman, ZDNet; Open Data Now, book review: An optimistic view of a brave new world:

"In early February, the consultant Alan Patrick gave a talk at the Open Data Institute (ODI) on the dark side of open data. Essentially, he said that early adopter geeks are approaching open data with the same starry-eyed, innocent optimism with which they approached the early internet.

All uses will be good! Empowerment for all! Bad guys won't be interested! Patrick's purpose was to warn: look what happened with the internet and security because we didn't plan ahead.

Joel Gurin's Open Data Now focuses primarily on the economic benefits of open data. Gurin acknowledges the potential for improving government transparency, but it gets short shrift by comparison. He is, however, as optimistic and enthusiastic about the potential as they come."

Even Good Films May Go to Purgatory; New York Times, 2/14/14

Nicolas Rapold, New York Time; Even Good Films May Go to Purgatory:

""The answers vary according to the patchwork of rules governing motion picture copyrights at different times all the way back to the silent era.

The earliest films are the easiest to explain: Those from before 1923 are in the public domain.

Until the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act in 1998, films could generally enjoy 75 years of copyright protection. Anything that had fallen out by then, however, was understood to stay in the public domain. That alone covers a wealth of film history, including much of the work of foundational filmmakers including Griffiths and Keaton.

After 1923, public-domain challenges arise when the copyright is not renewed. Later Congressional extensions of copyright complicate the matter (and have been the subject of debate), but the initial period is crucial.

“Most commonly, a film’s copyright might not be renewed after its initial 28 years of protection had expired,” Michael Mashon, head of the moving image section at the Library of Congress, wrote in an email.

He cited the examples of the Buster Keaton film “The General” (1926), “His Girl Friday,” “Meet John Doe” and “Nothing Sacred,” a 1937 screwball comedy starring Carole Lombard.

Other films didn’t follow basic rules for maintaining copyright. For instance, “The Night of the Living Dead” and “Carnival of Souls,” a Herk Harvey horror film that has since received a Criterion Collection release, both failed to display a copyright notice clearly enough in the credits.

That notification eventually ceased to be a requirement, but not before affecting Sam Peckinpah’s debut feature, “The Deadly Companions,” and “Charade.”

College & Research Libraries News; Last sale?: Libraries’ rights in the digital age, February 2014

Jennifer Jenkins, College & Research Libraries News; Last sale?: Libraries’ rights in the digital age:

"In July 2013, the Department of Commerce released a “Green Paper”8 on copyright that solicited comments on digital first sale. In response, the Library Copyright Alliance expressed concern about the “proliferation of licensing” and advocated “restrictions on the enforcement of contractual terms that attempt to limit exceptions to the Copyright Act such as first sale or fair use.”9 Why? Because copyright’s exceptions are as important to its scheme as the exclusive rights themselves. Many librarians are concerned that digital technology has upset the balance between users’ and owners’ rights. In effect, we are back to 1908, except that now the notice that the publisher inserted in that book would have legal force, and would be accompanied by more restrictions.

What would legal reform look like? A farreaching option would be the introduction of a digital first sale right that cannot be waived by contract. Short of this, Congress could grant libraries specific rights allowing them to lend, preserve, and archive electronic materials. Courts might continue to allow fair use to shelter beneficial activities. Finally, private initiatives, such as the Digital Public Library of America and related academic projects, could step in to offer their own solutions to preserve libraries’ freedoms. These efforts to restore balance are important: publishers’ concerns are legitimate, but the cultural freedoms that first sale protects should not depend entirely on a licensor’s whims, either in 1908 or today."

AAAS Launches Open-Access Journal; Science News, 12/12/14

David Malakoff, Science News; AAAS Launches Open-Access Journal:

"Joining a herd of other scientific societies, today AAAS (publisher of ScienceInsider) announced that it will launch the organization’s first online, fully open-access journal early next year. The new journal, called Science Advances, will give authors another outlet for papers that they are willing to pay to make immediately free to the public.

The move marks a shift for AAAS, which has long been a target of complaints from some advocates of open-access publishing. They argue that the nonprofit organization, best known as the publisher of the high-profile subscription journal Science, has been slow to embrace open access, and over the past decade opposed certain proposals to require journals to make government-funded research papers immediately available for free. AAAS and other publishers have generally argued that such policies would imperil a business model that has served the scientific community well for more than a century.

In recent years, however, the conflict has reached something of a resolution. Science and many other subscription journals have adopted a policy of making research papers freely available after 12 months; at the same time, many publishers have launched scores of new open-access journals, which charge authors a fee. For instance, the publishers of Nature, another high-profile subscription title that is considered Science’s main competition, in 2011 launched Scientific Reports, an open-access title."

Linking to a website doesn't infringe copyright, Europe's Court of Justice says; PC World, 2/13/14

Loek Essers, PC World; Linking to a website doesn't infringe copyright, Europe's Court of Justice says:

"The owner of a website does not require authorization of the copyright holder to link to freely accessible copyright works on another site, even if Internet users get the impression that the work is appearing on the site that contains the link, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said Thursday."

U.S. Copyright Office/LC Announces Plans for Public Roundtable on Orphan Works and Mass Digitization Issues; Library Journal, 2/8/14

Gary Price, Library Journal; U.S. Copyright Office/LC Announces Plans for Public Roundtable on Orphan Works and Mass Digitization Issues:

"Two days of roundtable discussions/meetings on potential legislative solutions for orphan works and mass digitization under U.S. copyright law are scheduled to take place on March 10-11, 2014 at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

The public is also invited to submit comments.

The two-day event will include nine sessions."

Catch My Diff: Github's New Feature Means Big Things for Open Data; Atlantic, 2/7/14

Robinson Meyer, Atlantic; Catch My Diff: Github's New Feature Means Big Things for Open Data:

"On Wednesday, Github announced that maps would be “diffable”—a silly-sounding term that means much in the world of Github. It’s a small and even long-expected feature, but an important one, and one that aids Github’s role in the emerging ecosystem around open data.

First, a gloss on some terms. Github is a San Fransisco-based startup whose main product—also called Github—helps developers manage different versions of a project’s code. Many developers already use a piece of software on their computer called git to manage versions of code, and Github gives them a place to store Git’s files in the cloud and collaborate with others about them. It also provides messaging functions that sometimes supplant company email.

While it costs money to host a project on Github privately, the company provides free hosting to any open-source project. If you make your code public, hosting on Github is free.

Github, then, already plays a happy home to code projects. In the past year, it’s tried to make itself friendlier and more useful for projects that use open data.

Open data, meanwhile—the effort to make information already produced by the government available to the public—is a bigger and bigger deal. Late last year, the Knight Foundation gave $250,000 to explore the creation of a U.S. Open Data Institute, an organization centered around freeing data and making it easier for people to use. Freeing, for instance, municipal restaurant health code data will allow local review apps like Yelp to display it."

WIPO Director General Election: How It Works; Intellectual Property Watch, 2/3/14

William New, Intellectual Property Watch; WIPO Director General Election: How It Works:

"On 6 March, the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization will hold its once-every-six-year election for a director general, a prized post in the multilateral system. Tomorrow (4 February), the candidates will face member states and answer their questions. Intellectual Property Watch explains the election process.

On 6-7 March, the WIPO Coordination Committee, a rotating executive body of 83 WIPO member states (out of nearly 200), will hold an extraordinary meeting to decide on a director general (DG)...

The new DG will take over in October 2014, until 2020...

There are four candidates running for the DG post (IPW, WIPO, 6 December 2013), having been nominated by their governments by the December deadline.

The candidates are current DG Francis Gurry (Australia), Deputy DG Geoffrey Onyeama (Nigeria), Amb. Jüri Seilenthal (Estonia), and Amb. Alfredo Suescum (Panama)."

City lays out next steps in Open Data Plan; Chicago Tribune, 2/7/14

Amina Elahi, Chicago Tribune; City lays out next steps in Open Data Plan:

"Using public civic data, developers have created Web apps such as legislation-tracker Chicago Councilmatic and the interactive 2nd City Zoning map.

Others have used the data to build businesses. SpotHero won the 2011 Apps for Metro Chicago contest with a product built on data from the City of Chicago and other local agencies. Today, the parking app is available in seven cities.

The city posts select data sets to GitHub, an open source code-sharing platform. Developers are free to build upon or manipulate that data, since it is covered by an MIT License.

The City of Chicago's Data Dictionary, which anyone can search to find out whether the portal or GitHub hosts data sets on particular topics, is another such tool. In its current form, the technical results may turn off less experienced users, but Schenk says future plans include improving the interface and filtering."

Free Trade Disagreement; New York Times, 2/4/14

Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times; Free Trade Disagreement:

"Issa and other members of Congress have voiced concerns that the leaked versions of TPP suggest that the United States is promoting Internet policies that Congress specifically rejected in January 2012, when the House killed the Stop Online Piracy Act...

Joseph Stiglitz – an economist at Columbia and a contributor to these pages – provided a particularly illuminating list of policies that he argues negotiators should explicitly reject, including: mandates for the extensions of patent terms; mandates for the granting of patents on surgical procedures; monopolies of 12 years on test data for biologic damages; increased damages for infringement of patents and copyrights; the requirement of life plus 70 years of copyright protection; and mandates for excessive enforcement measures for digital information and other restrictions on the dissemination of knowledge.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a leading nonprofit advocate of open access on the Internet, argues that under a cloak of secrecy, the TPP,

“raises significant concerns about citizens’ freedom of expression, due process, innovation, the future of the Internet’s global infrastructure, and the right of sovereign nations to develop policies and laws that best meet their domestic priorities. In sum, the TPP puts at risk some of the most fundamental rights that enable access to knowledge for the world’s citizens. The US Trade Rep is pursuing a TPP agreement that will require signatory countries to adopt heightened copyright protection that advances the agenda of the U.S. entertainment and pharmaceutical industries agendas, but omits the flexibilities and exceptions that protect Internet users and technology innovators.”

Copyright & The Changing Political Environment In Washington - Derek Khanna V. Ben Sheffner (MPAA VP); Forbes, 2/4/14

Derek Khanna, Forbes; Copyright & The Changing Political Environment In Washington - Derek Khanna V. Ben Sheffner (MPAA VP) :

"In January, 2014, I took part in a debate with Ben Sheffner (VP of MPAA) at the Copyright Society in New York City. We were discussing Copyright and the Changing Political environment in Washington, DC...

Madison ominously warned that all monopolies, including copyright, must be “guarded with strictness agst abuse.” Abuse is precisely what we have seen, copyright terms have been expanded by 580%."

Steel City Codefest Shows the Potential for Open Data; 90.5 WESA, 2/4/14

Marnie Schleicher, 90.5 WESA; Steel City Codefest Shows the Potential for Open Data:

"Pittsburgh's second Steel City Codefest is almost here. The second annual 24-hour technology competition aims to create relevant and useful apps for the Pittsburgh area...

Open data has been made available in cities and counties across 39 states, according to Data.gov. This has given rise to numerous apps across the country."

EU's copyright do-over delayed a month; PC World, 2/3/14

Jennifer Baker, PC World; EU's copyright do-over delayed a month:

"The planned overhaul of the European Union’s copyright laws has been set back by a month as a public consultation was extended.

The European Commission had asked for feedback by Feb. 5, but following strong lobbying from all sides, has decided to extend that to March 5. The internal market department said that some interested parties had asked for more time to finalize and submit their contributions...

LIBER, an organization that represents the library community, has also created a guide to help people answer the consultation. “Responding to the consultation is critical because its outcomes will affect anyone who works with researchers, or who cares about future library services and access to cultural heritage,” said the organization in a statement.

The consultation has since received thousands of responses."

Timid About Fair Use?; Inside Higher Ed, 1/30/14

Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed; Timid About Fair Use? :

"Visual arts professionals, including art historians, let real and perceived fears about copyright law get in the way of their work, finds a new report from the College Art Association. And while the fundamentally visual nature of their discipline raises particular concerns among scholars of art, artists, editors and museum curators, experts say their fears are shared across academe -- although some disciplines have worked to develop codes to help scholars navigate the murky waters of fair use."