Mickey Mouse's dark side; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/27/11

Greg Victor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Mickey Mouse's dark side:

"Charles Kenney in Foreign Policy says that "behind its facade of global goodwill, Disney is playing the evil stepmother to the developing world's entrepreneurial Cinderellas."...

This prevents others from adapting works of art and, writes Mr. Kenney, "If these extreme copyright and patent claims were effectively enforced, ... developing countries would owe Western companies $20 billion a year in royalties -- a transfer of wealth so dramatic that even the Vatican recently raised concerns about the 'excessive zeal' of today's intellectual-property bullies.""

Oscars Watchdog Monitors Foul Play in Stores, Online and on Red Carpet; New York Times, 2/26/11

John Eligon, New York Times; Oscars Watchdog Monitors Foul Play in Stores, Online and on Red Carpet:

"Copyright and trademark enforcement make up most of Mr. Quinto’s Academy-related tasks, as he, almost daily, dispatches letters to companies in apparent violation. Some of the more memorable culprits: shops peddling pornographic Oscar statuettes; a Brazilian cigarette maker brandishing the Oscar on its packaging; and a winemaker that used the Oscar in its advertisements. (That last example was “quickly corked,” Mr. Quinto, who has a fondness for corny jokes, wrote in an e-mail.)"

Piracy once again fails to get in way of record box office; ArsTechnica.com, 2/24/11

Nate Anderson, ArsTechnica.com; Piracy once again fails to get in way of record box office:

"The movie business has—yet again—run up record numbers at the box office. In 2010, theaters around the world reported a combined total revenue of $31.8 billion, up 8 percent from 2009. While the industry certainly has its share of piracy problems, they aren't affecting box office receipts."

Kindle e-book piracy accelerates; CNet.com, 2/18/11

David Carnoy, CNet.com; Kindle e-book piracy accelerates:

"You can argue whether it was Napster or the rise of the iPod--or most probably both--that led to the huge amount of music piracy, but the book business will also take its share of big losses as it moves further into the digital realm."

Free Trove of Music Scores on Web Hits Sensitive Copyright Note; New York Times, 2/22/11

Daniel J. Wakin, New York Times; Free Trove of Music Scores on Web Hits Sensitive Copyright Note:

"The site, the Internet Music Score Library Project, has trod in the footsteps of Google Books and Project Gutenberg and grown to be one of the largest sources of scores anywhere. It claims to have 85,000 scores, or parts for nearly 35,000 works, with several thousand being added every month. That is a worrisome pace for traditional music publishers, whose bread and butter comes from renting and selling scores in expensive editions backed by the latest scholarship. More than a business threat, the site has raised messy copyright issues and drawn the ire of established publishers."

Hollywood Property Values; New York Times, 2/20/11

Randy Cohen, The Ethicist, New York Times; Hollywood Property Values:

"The added twist is that while Disney, like its industry cohort, seeks an eternal hammerlock on its productions, many of them originate in our common literary heritage — “Cinderella,” “Snow White,” “The Little Mermaid.” Such an overreaching concept of intellectual property obstructs the exchange of ideas, the referencing and reworking of earlier works that stimulate invention. For Hollywood to thwart this by appropriating our common cultural legacy is as ethically dubious as plagiarism — innovation, perhaps, but not actual progress. Like 3-D."

Thinly Veiled: Lawsuit Over Steamy Rihanna Video Sparks Debate On Copycat Culture; NPR, 2/17/11

[Podcast] Zoe Chace, NPR; Thinly Veiled: Lawsuit Over Steamy Rihanna Video Sparks Debate On Copycat Culture:

"Fashion photographer David LaChapelle is known for staging photo shoots with lots of bright colors, outrageous costumes, and sexy, surreal images. The video for Rihanna's new single, "S&M," has all three — and it looked so familiar to LaChapelle that he's filed a million dollar lawsuit against the singer, her record label, the video's director and production company for copyright infringement."

[Podcast] Stephen Colbert Retaliates Against 'Huffington Post'; NPR's Morning Edition, 2/18/11

[Podcast] NPR's Morning Edition; Stephen Colbert Retaliates Against 'Huffington Post' :

"Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert is angry. The Huffington Post, which just sold itself for millions, posts Colbert's videos without paying him. Now Colbert has re-posted the entire Huffington Post."

Libraries have limited eBooks; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/20/11

Don Lindich, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Libraries have limited eBooks:

"Q: I am looking for an eReader that will allow me to download eBooks from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh or Ohio Public Library. With Kindle, you must buy books through Amazon. With iPad, you must buy books through iTunes. (At least that is my understanding. ) Is there an app or device that will let me "borrow" eBooks from the library? I am looking for current best-sellers.

DONNA DADO
Elizabeth Township"

Leaks Show Real Aim Of ACTA, As Trade Chief Declares It Binding; Intellectual Property Watch, 2/9/11

Intellectual Property Watch; Leaks Show Real Aim Of ACTA, As Trade Chief Declares It Binding:

"The recently completed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), negotiated by the countries that own most of the world’s intellectual property rights, is aimed at developing countries they hope will give value to those rights by protecting them, leaked documents show, according to French group La Quadrature du Net."

Tune In February 25 [2011]: The Future of Fair Use; Educause

Educause; Tune In February 25 [2011]: The Future of Fair Use:

"During this free hour-long web seminar, "The Future of Fair Use," we'll discuss ethics and strategies for overcoming institutional roadblocks to publishing and teaching with copyrighted media, including the myths and realities of fair use, best practices, DMCA exemptions, and the practicalities of working with copyrighted media across a full spectrum of scholarly and pedagogical activities."

Would the Bard Have Survived the Web?; New York Times, 2/15/11

Scott Turow, Paul Aiken, and James Shapiro; New York Times; Would the Bard Have Survived the Web? :

"The rise of the Internet has led to a view among many users and Web companies that copyright is a relic, suited only to the needs of out-of-step corporate behemoths. Just consider the dedicated “file-sharers” — actually, traffickers in stolen music movies and, increasingly, books — who transmit and receive copyrighted material without the slightest guilt.

They are abetted by a handful of law professors and other experts who have made careers of fashioning counterintuitive arguments holding that copyright impedes creativity and progress. Their theory is that if we severely weaken copyright protections, innovation will truly flourish. It’s a seductive thought, but it ignores centuries of scientific and technological progress based on the principle that a creative person should have some assurance of being rewarded for his innovative work."

How Neil Gaiman Went From Fearing 'Piracy' To Believing It's 'An Incredibly Good Thing'; TechDirt.com, 2/11/11

Mike Masnick, TechDirt.com; How Neil Gaiman Went From Fearing 'Piracy' To Believing It's 'An Incredibly Good Thing' :

"Public Knowledge points us to a wonderful short clip of Neil Gaiman, being interviewed by the Open Rights Group, explaining how he has completely changed his mind about "piracy" and copyright".

Emma Thompson's Effie facing copyright fight; Guardian, 2/9/11

Owen Bowcott, Guardian; Emma Thompson's Effie facing copyright fight:

"Emma Thompson's latest film project – a love triangle featuring the 19th century poet and critic John Ruskin – is reported to have been placed in jeopardy by a New York copyright case."

Filesharing prosecutions will face serious problems, says judge; Guardian, 2/8/11

Josh Halliday, Guardian; Filesharing prosecutions will face serious problems, says judge:

"A senior court judge has pointed to severe problems with the way the Digital Economy Act enables copyright owners to accuse people of illegal filesharing.

Judge Birss QC said on Tuesday that the process of connecting copyright infringement to a named individual based on their use of an internet address is fraught with difficulties because internet connections, or IP addresses, are often used by more than one person."

EFF to Judge: Watch for Fairness in Mass Copyright Suits; Electronic Frontier Foundation, 2/7/11

Corynne McSherry, Electronic Frontier Foundation; EFF to Judge: Watch for Fairness in Mass Copyright Suits:

"We decided to submit a further brief, because we thought Judge Howell might like to know about various recent developments, such as the fact that federal judges in West Virginia and California have recognized that it is improper to join thousands of people in one lawsuit based solely on the fact that they all allegedly used the same software protocol to share one or more copyrighted works."

[Podcast] Mardi Gras Indians Seek To Copyright Costumes; NPR's All Things Considered, 2/8/11

[Podcast] NPR's All Things Considered; Mardi Gras Indians Seek To Copyright Costumes:

"With one month until Mardi Gras, Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans are in the final stages of sewing their outrageously elaborate costumes. And this year, some hope they'll be able to share in the profits from photos sold of them after the parades. They're filing for copyright protection for their costumes. For more, host Melissa Block speaks to Ashlye Keaton, an adjunct professor at Tulane Law School; and Chief Howard Miller of the Creole Wild West Mardi Gras Indians."

Online Courses, Still Lacking That Third Dimension; New York Times, 2/6/11

Randall Stross, New York Times; Online Courses, Still Lacking That Third Dimension:

"“Unlocking the Gates,” by Taylor Walsh (Princeton University Press) is a recently published history of M.I.T.’s online venture, as well as those of Columbia, Harvard, Yale, the University of California, Berkeley, and others. Comparing the book’s case studies, I found that Carnegie Mellon seems to have made the most progress in developing fully self-contained online courses. Anyone can use them free, with the proviso that Carnegie Mellon doesn’t offer credit."

US IP Enforcement Coordinator Issues Annual Report; Intellectual Property Watch, 2/7/11

Intellectual Property Watch; US IP Enforcement Coordinator Issues Annual Report:

"The United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator today issued an annual report on IP enforcement.

All Bark, No Bite: Settlement Reached in Balloon Dog Dispute; New York Times, 2/3/11

Kate Taylor, New York Times; All Bark, No Bite: Settlement Reached in Balloon Dog Dispute:

"Clowns everywhere can breathe easier: Jeff Koons’s lawyers have backed down in an intellectual property dispute over balloon dog-shaped bookends."

A Digital Library Guru Discusses New Rules on Sharing Scientific Data; Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/28/11

Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education; A Digital Library Guru Discusses New Rules on Sharing Scientific Data:

"Last week, a significant change went into effect at the National Science Foundation: The agency will now require researchers to submit data-management plans with their grant proposals.

Open government advocates hailed the move as the latest in a series of steps that are expanding public access to work done with taxpayer money. The policy will not go so far as to mandate public sharing of all data, which in this context could mean anything from glacier images to scientific papers to computer code. But it will “require people to essentially justify why they choose not to be open,” says Beth Noveck, a professor at New York Law School who until recently directed the White House Open Government Initiative.

You can find lots of detailed information about the change at the NSF and the Association of Research Libraries sites."

Young inventors prompt colleges to revamp rules; Associated Press, 1/24/11

Associated Press; Young inventors prompt colleges to revamp rules:

"Who owns the patents and copyrights when a student creates something of value on campus, without a professor's help?...

The issue has been cropping up on campuses across the nation, spurred by the boom in computer software in which teenagers tinkering in dorm rooms are coming up with products that rival the work of professional engineers.

Universities have had longstanding rules for inventions by faculty, generally asserting partial ownerships rights to technology created with university resources that have commercial potential. For students, though, policies often were vague because cases didn't come up very often.

With new apps worth big money, the legal questions are now being debated across academia."

Can Your Camera Phone Turn You Into a Pirate?; New York Times, 1/16/11

Nick Bilton, New York Times; Can Your Camera Phone Turn You Into a Pirate? :

"Charles Nesson, the Weld professor of law at Harvard Law School and founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society there, also said that the act of “documenting” a book, as he called it, bears many similarities to pirating music. It could lead to a new wave of legal cases brought by bookstores or publishers, he said, much like the litigation brought by music companies against sites like Napster and LimeWire and their users."

Playing catch-up in a digital library race; New York Times, 1/9/11

Natasha Singer, New York Times; Playing catch-up in a digital library race:

"Lending libraries may have been the newfangled democratizing factor of their day. Centuries later, though, the United States finds itself trailing Europe and Japan in creating the modern equivalent: a national digital library that would serve as an electronic repository for the nation’s cultural heritage.

In other words, there’s a real digital library divide."

Obama Image Copyright Case Is Settled; New York Times, 1/12/11

David W. Dunlap, New York Times; Obama Image Copyright Case Is Settled:

"The Associated Press and the artist Shepard Fairey have settled their copyright battle over the unlicensed use by Mr. Fairey of an A.P. photograph of Barack Obama in the memorable 2008 “Hope” poster. The A.P. announced the settlement on Wednesday.

Under the agreement, The A.P. and Mr. Fairey are to share the rights to make posters and merchandise bearing the “Hope” image, which was based on a photo taken by Mannie Garcia in 2006, and collaborate on a project in which Mr. Fairey will create a series of images based on A.P. photographs. There was also an undisclosed financial settlement.

Perhaps most significantly, the two sides agreed to disagree on whether copyright law was infringed."

[Podcast] Digital Music Sampling: Creativity Or Criminality?; Talk of the Nation, 1/28/11

[Podcast] Talk of the Nation; Digital Music Sampling: Creativity Or Criminality? :

"The advent of the sampler in the '80s brought a long tradition of musical borrowing into the digital age. Today, "sampling," or repurposing a snippet of another artist's music, is mainstream. Is sampling theft, or is copyright law making creativity a crime?"

Fair use for poets, demystified; BoingBoing.net, 1/29/11

Cory Doctorw, BoingBoing.net; Fair use for poets, demystified:

"Pat [Aufderheide] from American University's Center for Social Media sez, "We're excited to announce the launch of a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Poetry, cofacilitated by WCL-AU's Peter Jaszi, UCB's Jennifer Urban, Kate Coles from the Poetry Foundation, and Center for Social Media's Pat Aufderheide. The hashtag is #fairusepoetry"

Music Industry Braces for the Unthinkable; New York Times, 1/24/11

Eric Pfanner, New York Times; Music Industry Braces for the Unthinkable:

""We are at one of the most worrying stages yet for the industry,” he continued. “As things stand now, digital music has failed.”

Music executives disagree, saying there is hope, as long as they can come to grips with piracy, which according to the industry federation accounts for the vast majority of music distributed online.

Stronger measures to crack down on unauthorized copying are taking effect in a number of countries, executives note, and even as the authorities wield a heavier stick, the complementary carrots are appearing, too, in the form of innovative digital services."

Why Some Elite Colleges Give Away Courses Online; Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/19/11

Mark Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education; Why Some Elite Colleges Give Away Courses Online:

"Q. Some of these projects are very popular, but is there evidence of their learning effectiveness?

A. That's part of what makes the OLI [Open Learning Initiative, based at Carnegie Mellon University] so unique, is that built into the environment itself, that accomplishes the teaching, is the mechanism for assessment. ... They have given a control group and a variable group the same final, and found that the students using OLI aren't hurt in the slightest by not having had the same level of in-person instruction—that the system did just as well, if not better, at teaching them this material. ... Beyond those two studies, there really hasn't been a systematic appraisal of learning outcomes based on openly available material writ large. No one disputes that these open-courseware initiatives have done much good. But it's impossible, with the currently available data, to determine how much good."

In Twist, Jeff Koons Claims Rights to ‘Balloon Dogs; New York Times, 1/20/11

Kate Taylor, New York Times; In Twist, Jeff Koons Claims Rights to ‘Balloon Dogs'" :

"The artist Jeff Koons has developed a distinctive style, and made a lot of money, by appropriating pop-culture imagery and mass-produced objects, from inflatable toys to vacuum cleaners and kitschy greeting cards. Over his three-decade career that approach, while helping to make him famous, has also brought accusations of exploiting other people’s copyrighted images. He has been sued for copyright violation four times, losing three of the cases...

Andy Warhol, for example, often used other people’s photographs as sources for his paintings, prompting complaints from several photographers; the disputes were settled out of court. But today the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts vigorously protects its copyrights when it comes to commercial merchandise.

If “you decide to create a calendar with a bunch of well-known Andy Warhol images,” Mr. Landes said, “you’re going to be sued for sure.”"

Mattel Lawyer Accuses MGA Of Luring Bratz Designer; NPR/AP, 1/18/11

NPR/AP; Mattel Lawyer Accuses MGA Of Luring Bratz Designer:

"Toy rivals Mattel Inc. and MGA Entertainment Inc. on Tuesday began the second round of their lengthy legal battle over the rights to the wildly popular Bratz line, with two markedly different versions of the development of the multibillion-dollar brand.

In his opening statement at the copyright infringement case, Mattel attorney John Quinn said MGA conspired with Bratz designer Carter Bryant to steal the idea for Bratz while Bryant still worked for Mattel."

Fair Usage In Caribbean Intellectual Property; Intellectual Property Watch, 1/16/11

Abiola Inniss, Intellectual Property Watch; Fair Usage In Caribbean Intellectual Property:

"At almost any time that the issue of intellectual property is discussed by peoples of the Caribbean there is considerable confusion and uncertainty to be found about what the law says, what it means and what the rights of usage are.

This is not surprising or unexpected since many lawyers are themselves hard put upon to provide pertinent answers to the many arising issues. This is not aided in the least by broad statements on intellectual property such as the definitions given by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which are a general aid to understanding the subject area but which cannot deal with the variations in national laws and which do not explain that with any of the rights described, responsibilities also exist."

The Catcher in the Rye 'sequel' to be published; Guardian, 1/12/11

Stephen Bates, Guardian; The Catcher in the Rye 'sequel' to be published:

"Colting's lawyers were granted an appeal hearing and Publishers' Weekly says that under a settlement signed last month he has agreed not to publish or distribute his book in the US or Canada until the expiry of copyright on the original, but is allowed to publish elsewhere. Publishers in six countries are said to be interested."

[Podcast] Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Public Imagination; On the Media, 1/14/11

[Podcast] On the Media; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Public Imagination:

"On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. did what he’d done countless times before, he began building a sermon. And in his sermons King relied on improvisation - drawing on sources and references that were limited only by his imagination and memory. It’s a gift – and a tradition - on full display in the 'I Have A Dream' speech but it’s also in conflict with the intellectual property laws that have been strenuously used by his estate since his death. OTM producer Jamie York speaks with Drew Hansen, Keith Miller, Michael Eric Dyson and Lewis Hyde about King, imagination and the consequences of limiting access to art and ideas."

Brussels Wants 7-Year Limit on Works Digitized by Google; New York Times, 1/11/11

James Kanter, New York Times; Brussels Wants 7-Year Limit on Works Digitized by Google:

"Companies like Google that digitize artworks and books from public bodies should allow other companies and institutions to commercialize those materials after seven years, three experts advising the European Commission said Monday."

Library of Congress Gets a Mile of Music; New York Times, 1/10/11

Larry Rohter, New York Times; Library of Congress Gets a Mile of Music:

"Under the agreement negotiated during discussions that began two years ago the Library of Congress has been granted ownership of the physical discs and plans to preserve and digitize them. But Universal, a subsidiary of the French media conglomerate Vivendi that was formerly known as the Music Corporation of America, or MCA, retains both the copyright to the music recorded on the discs and the right to commercialize that music after it has been digitized...

Much of the material has been stored at Iron Mountain, the former limestone mine near Boyers, Pa., that also holds numerous government and corporate records."

The 373-Hit Wonder; New York Times, 1/9/11

Zachary Lazar, New York Times; The 373-Hit Wonder:

"You might expect that Girl Talk’s success has made Gillis a legal target. His sound collages are radically different from their sources, far more than the sum of their parts, but to an entertainment lawyer they might look like a lawsuit. Or, in the words of Lawrence Lessig, author of “Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy,” “a gold mine.”

To secure permission to use the 373 samples on “All Day” would cost, Gillis estimates, millions of dollars. Some labels would refuse, others would draw him into endless negotiation. But he has never been sued. No one has ever asked him to stop doing what he’s doing. One of the acts he samples on “All Day,” the Toadies, proudly put a link to Girl Talk on their home page.

“We don’t realize how much the notion of creation has changed for people under the age of 25,” Lessig says. He suggests that in 20 years the sampling issue will seem “completely bizarre.”"

Hip-Hop and Copyright Law in the [sic] Classroomleg; Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/5/11

Ben Wieder, Chronicle of Higher Education; Hip-Hop and Copyright Law in the [sic] Classroomleg:

"Kembrew McLeod’s youthful interest in 1980s hip-hop became a life-long scholarly pursuit when some of the groups he’d listened to as a teenager were sued in the early 1990s for using samples of previously recorded music.

“The issue—how the law affects sampling—is the entire reason I’m a professor,” says Mr. McLeod, an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Iowa.

It’s the subject of his second documentary film, Copyright Criminals, co-directed by Ben Franzen, which ran last year as part of PBS’s Independent Lens series and will be released on DVD in March. It is also available at Hulu.com."

Counting on Google Books; Chronicle of Higher Education, 12/16/10

Geoffrey Nunberg, Chronicle of Higher Education; Counting on Google Books:

"Scholars can't download the entire corpus right now, but the impediments are legal and commercial rather than technological. (Google could make available a corpus of all the public-domain works published through 1922 without raising any copyright issues, but it has decided not to do that.) In the meantime, scholars have access to the corpus via the Web sites Ngrams.GoogleLabs.com, and culturomics.org."

What Was 2010′s Most Pirated TV Show?; Spinoff Online, 12/31/10

Graeme McMillan, Spinoff Online; What Was 2010′s Most Pirated TV Show?:

E-Books Outsell Paper Books On Barnes & Noble's Online Store; AP/Huffington Post, 12/30/10

AP/Huffinton Post; E-Books Outsell Paper Books On Barnes & Noble's Online Store:

"Bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc. on Thursday said its line of Nook e-reading devices are the biggest-selling items in its history, and added it sold nearly 1 million e-books on Christmas Day."

Uncertainty About 'Fair Use' Is Hurting Academic and Research Libraries, ARL Report Says; Library Journal, 12/28/10

Michael Kelley, Library Journal; Uncertainty About 'Fair Use' Is Hurting Academic and Research Libraries, ARL Report Says:

"A lack of consensus about how to apply the fair use provision of copyright law is consistently impairing the mission of academic and research libraries, according to a new report.

The report, released December 20 by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), concludes that librarians often feel ill-equipped to make decisions about fair use and increasingly have as their primary goal avoiding litigation and harm to their institution, regardless of what the law allows and what the user community needs."

Oracle Owed Interest by SAP in Infringement Case, Judge Rules; Bloomberg, 12/29/10

Joel Rosenblatt, Bloomberg; Oracle Owed Interest by SAP in Infringement Case, Judge Rules:

"Oracle Corp. must be paid interest on the $1.3 billion copyright-infringement jury verdict it won against SAP AG last month, a federal judge said."

Righthaven responds to fair use defense in suit; Miami Herald, 12/27/10

Miami Herald; Righthaven responds to fair use defense in suit:

"A company suing websites on behalf of the owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal says an Oregon nonprofit that helps immigrants isn't exempt from copyright laws."

Looking at the cloud from both sides now; Los Angeles Times, 12/28/10

Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times; Looking at the cloud from both sides now:

"I recognize that one can't "own" a Kindle book any more than one can own a cat. One can only "license" the book — on terms that are part of a 2,000-word user agreement. The agreement allows a licensee to keep a permanent copy of the book and view it an unlimited number of times. But it also encrusts every book with restrictions on what else can be done with it, including how many reading devices it can be installed on at a time.

These restrictions only proliferate. In a famous example, the terms of use of a digital version of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" included: "This book cannot be read aloud." The digital publisher also tried to limit how many pages of the text a user could print in a given time period. The author's copyright on "Alice," it should be noted, expired in 1907."

GEMA Music Collection Society No Longer Will Let Kindergartens Get Away With Teaching Music For Free; TechDirt, 12/30/10

Mike Masnick, TechDirt.com; GEMA Music Collection Society No Longer Will Let Kindergartens Get Away With Teaching Music For Free:

"We've discussed a few times how the German music collection society GEMA often appears to be one of the worst of the worst when it comes to copyright maximalism."

Google Streamlining its Approach to Digital Copyright; Wired.com, 12/2/10

Sam Gustin, Wired.com; Google Streamlining its Approach to Digital Copyright:

"As the battle over intellectual property and online piracy heats up, web titan Google is announcing some significant changes to the way it deals with copyright infringement on its ubiquitous search engine."

Top IP-Watch Stories Of 2010: Copyright Fights, ACTA, Medicines Access; Intellectual Property Watch, 12/30/10

William New and Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch; Top IP-Watch Stories Of 2010: Copyright Fights, ACTA, Medicines Access:

"At Intellectual Property Watch, a list of the top 25 posts of 2010 reveals your – our readers’ – top interests of the past year.

The clear winner in terms of frequency on the list was the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), as about a third of the top stories dealt with that treaty in the headline and several more indirectly. But the top two on the list were articles about the ongoing struggle to balance the push by copyright holders for greater protection in the digital environment with the push to ensure that knowledge may be accessed by the maximum number of people. Given that stories about enforcement far outnumber stories about new ideas to spread open access or to generate revenue, one might conclude that enforcement may be the core business model for many."

50 Cent Named In NY Copyright Infringement Lawsuit; NPR, 12/15/10

NPR; 50 Cent Named In NY Copyright Infringement Lawsuit:

"Lawyers for Tyrone Simmons, an Atlanta rapper who goes by "Caliber," filed a copyright infringement lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn."

Viacom Replays Copyright Claims In YouTube Appeal; NPR, 12/3/10

NPR; Viacom Replays Copyright Claims In YouTube Appeal:

"Viacom Inc., the owner of MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, is trying to revive a federal lawsuit that seeks more than $1 billion in damages from YouTube for showing tens of thousands of pirated video clips from its shows."