Saturday, November 20, 2010

Senator: Web censorship bill a "bunker-busting cluster bomb"; ArsTechnica.com, 11/19/10

Nate Anderson, ArsTechnica.com; Senator: Web censorship bill a "bunker-busting cluster bomb":

"Ed Black, CEO of computing industry trade group CCIA, was testifying at the hearing, and he agreed that COICA was a "good example of what not to do in an important, complicated digital ecosystem."...

While the bill looks dead this year, the idea has met with thunderous applause from the movie and music industries, who are sure to back it next year."

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/11/senator-web-censorship-bill-a-bunker-busting-cluster-bomb.ars

Pirate-slaying censorship bill gets unanimous support; ArsTechnica.com, 11/19/10

Nate Anderson, ArsTechnica.com; Pirate-slaying censorship bill gets unanimous support:

"This morning, COICA unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"We are disappointed that the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning chose to disregard the concerns of public-interest groups, Internet engineers, Internet companies, human-rights groups and law professors in approving a bill that could do great harm to the public and to the Internet," said Public Knowledge president Gigi Sohn, who pledged to craft a "more narrowly tailored bill" next year to deal with "rogue websites.""

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/11/pirate-slaying-censorship-bill-gets-unanimous-support.ars

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Panellists: Copyright Law’s ‘Byzantine Maze’ Stalling New Business Models; Intellectual Property Watch, 11/9/10

Kaitlin Mara, Intellectual Property Watch; Panellists: Copyright Law’s ‘Byzantine Maze’ Stalling New Business Models:

"While piracy remains an oft-cited problem for the creative content industry, it is the ‘Byzantine maze’ of copyright law that is stalling monetisation of new business models better designed to deliver content in the digital age, panellists at the World Intellectual Property Organization said last week."

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/11/09/panellists-copyright-law%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98byzantine-maze%e2%80%99-stalling-new-business-models/

EXCLUSIVE: 'Superman' Lawsuit Delay Lifted; Depositions of Siegel and Shuster Families to Begin Immediately; Hollywood Reporter, 11/17/10

Matthew Belloni, Hollywood Reporter; EXCLUSIVE: 'Superman' Lawsuit Delay Lifted; Depositions of Siegel and Shuster Families to Begin Immediately:

"The Nov. 16 order is the latest in the cartoonishly nasty battle between Warners and the Superman heirs over rights to the lucrative character. After a judge ruled a few years back that the studio might lose certain copyrights associated with the Man of Steel, Warners sued Marc Toberoff, the attorney for the families, claiming he improperly convinced them to back out of deals and terminate their copyright assignments relating to Superman."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/thr-esq/superman-lawsuit-delay-lifted-depositions-46688

Google Strikes Deal With French Publisher; New York Times, 11/18/10

Eric Pfanner and David Jolly, New York Times; Google Strikes Deal With French Publisher:

"Google said Wednesday that it had reached a deal with the publisher Hachette Livre, which has broken ranks with its French rivals and agreed to allow Google to scan thousands of out-of-print books for its digital library project."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/business/global/18book.html

The Case Against COICA; Electronic Frontier Foundation, 11/16/10

Peter Eckersley, Electronic Frontier Foundation; The Case Against COICA:

"In September, digital rights advocates and Internet engineers helped to delay the Combatting Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), a terrible bill that would have allowed the Attorney General to censor the Internet in the name of copyright enforcement. Now that the November elections are over, COICA is back on the Senate Judiciary Committee schedule for markup this Thursday and could pass out of committee during the "lame duck" session of Congress."

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/11/case-against-coica

Professors Publish Guide to Copyright Issues of Multimedia Projects; Wired Campus, 11/17/10

Paige Chapman, Wired Campus; Professors Publish Guide to Copyright Issues of Multimedia Projects:

"Students often create multimedia projects for classes that blend in clips from YouTube videos or hit songs, and many want to post their creations online for a wider audience. But does that violate copyright law?

It might, and many students fail to understand the legal risks. A new study, titled “Copying Right and Copying Wrong With Web 2.0 Tools in the Teacher Education and Communications Classrooms,” attempts to educate students about both the appropriate and inappropriate ways to use copyrighted materials that are available to mass audiences on the Internet."

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/professors-publish-guide-to-copyright-issues-of-multimedia-projects/28254