Open Data Awards Celebrate Smart Uses Of Public Data; Forbes, 7/10/15

Paul Miller, Forbes; Open Data Awards Celebrate Smart Uses Of Public Data:

"Open Data’s rockstars gathered at Bloomberg’s London offices last night, for the second Open Data Awards. Organized by the Open Data Institute (ODI), the Awards celebrate “a generation of network thinkers who are changing the world with open data.” More importantly, they demonstrate some of the ways in which services and applications powered by Open Data are transforming lives and creating business opportunities around the world. ODI co-founders, Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee and University of Southampton Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, presented the Awards and shared their perspectives on the work that is still to be done.

Awards covered five categories, comprising a Business award, an Innovation award, a Social Impact award, an Individual Champion award, and a Data Publisher award."

Stephen Hawking, Russian Billionaire Launch New Alien-Hunting Effort; Huffington Post, 7/20/15

Jacqueline Howard, Huffington Post; Stephen Hawking, Russian Billionaire Launch New Alien-Hunting Effort:

"At the Royal Society in London today, the famed physicist and Russian tech billionaire Yuri Milner announced the launch of a $100-million initiative to search for signs of intelligent life beyond Earth, BBC News reported. The initiative -- part of the Breakthrough Initiatives group -- is named Breakthrough Listen.

"With Breakthrough Listen, we’re committed to bringing the Silicon Valley approach to the search for intelligent life in the universe," Milner said in a written statement. "Our approach to data will be open and taking advantage of the problem-solving power of social networks."...

Milner said the search will be transparent and will rely on open-source software so that its findings can be shared with space enthusiasts around the world."

Grooveshark co-founder Josh Greenberg found dead at 28; Washington Post, 7/20/15

Abby Phillip, Washington Post; Grooveshark co-founder Josh Greenberg found dead at 28:

"The site Greenberg co-founded once had more than 35 million users, nearly 150 employees and two offices at its peak. But for much of its existence, it had been beset by legal challenges.

Record labels accused the site of playing music without acquiring licenses by leaning heavily on user-uploaded music.

In May, the site was shuttered, and Greenberg and co-founder Sam Tarantino issued an apologetic statement after a federal judge ruled that they had willfully violated copyright law.

“We started out nearly ten years ago with the goal of helping fans share and discover music,” they wrote in an apology. “But despite the best of intentions, we made very serious mistakes. We failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service.”

They added: “That was wrong. We apologize. Without reservations.”

As part of the settlement, the company agreed to hand over its Web site, mobile apps and intellectual property. They faced up to $75 million in penalties if the terms of the settlement were violated."

Pirates face 10 years in prison under UK copyright shake-up; Wired.com, 7/20/15

Michael Rundle, Wired.com; Pirates face 10 years in prison under UK copyright shake-up:

"Pirates found guilty of copyright infringement could face up to 10 years in prison under new plans unveiled by the government.

The maximum sentence for commercial copyright infringement is currently two years, but that would be increased by five times under the new plans, unveiled as part of a consultation on intellectual property.

The new prison sentence would apply only to "commercial scale" copyright infringement, however, meaning the vast majority of internet users would not be at risk...

Individuals and organisations are able to make their views known on the consultation to the Intellectual Property Office by emailing enforcement@ipo.gov.uk, with the full details available via Gov.uk. The responses will be collated and published before the proposals move forward through the Commons.

The new proposed measures come in the context of tougher controls over pirate sites and proxies, and intense lobbying from the music, film and digital entertainment industries over digital theft."

Judge Trims 'Blurred Lines' Song Dispute Verdict to $5.3M; Associated Press via New York Times, 7/14/15

Associated Press via New York Times; Judge Trims 'Blurred Lines' Song Dispute Verdict to $5.3M:

"A judge on Tuesday trimmed more than $2 million from a verdict against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams over their hit "Blurred Lines," but Marvin Gaye's family will also get a significant share of future earnings from the 2013 hit song.

U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt ruled that the copyright infringement verdict a jury reached in March should be cut from nearly $7.4 million to $5.3 million. The judge's ruling, however, gives Gaye's family 50 percent of the song's future royalties.

Kronstadt's 56-page ruling dealt with several post-trial issues, including a request by Thicke and Williams' lawyers for a new trial. The judge rejected that motion, and also refused to issue an injunction requested by Gaye's family that would have temporarily blocked sales and performance of "Blurred Lines.""

Facebook's video plan? Grow like hell, deal with copyright later; Forbes, 7/10/15

Jeff John Roberts, Forbes; Facebook's video plan? Grow like hell, deal with copyright later:

"The challenge of chasing down copyright infringers has led content owners, in general, to claim the safe harbor rules are too lax, and that platforms like YouTube should do more to take down unauthorized videos. Studios have filed a spate of lawsuits to argue that more websites should be liable under a “red flag” provision in the copyright law, which can strip a site’s legal immunity in the event they obviously should have known about the infringement, or if they are directly making money from it.

But so far those lawsuits, including a long-running one against YouTube, have not really changed websites’ responsibilities when it comes to copyright, according to Lothar Determann, a copyright lawyer with Baker & McKenzie in San Francisco. He added more broadly that the law’s larger goal of protecting tech platforms still applies, and courts will not order websites to conduct copyright investigations.

The freebooter issue for Facebook, then, appears to be less of a legal problem than a moral one. Video owners may come to blame Facebook – safe harbors notwithstanding – for using their content to get rich while flouting their copyright concerns. Such claims, whether fair or not, have dogged Google and YouTube for years, and led to legal and political headaches."

Appeals judges hear about Prince’s takedown of “Dancing Baby” YouTube vid; ArsTechnica.com, 7/7/15

Joe Mullin, ArsTechnica.com; Appeals judges hear about Prince’s takedown of “Dancing Baby” YouTube vid:

"A long-running copyright fight between the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Universal Music over fair use in the digital age was considered by an appeals court today, a full eight years after the lawsuit began.

EFF and its client Stephanie Lenz sued Universal Music Group back in 2007, saying that the music giant should have realized Lenz's home video of her son Holden dancing to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" was clearly fair use. Under EFF's view of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Universal should have to pay damages for a wrongful takedown.

If EFF wins the case, it could have repercussions for how copyright takedowns work online. The group is trying to make Universal pay up under 17 USC 512(f), the section of the DMCA that penalizes copyright owners for wrongful takedowns. Currently, victories under that statute are exceedingly rare and happen only in extreme circumstances."