Axanar isn’t fair use, judge finds, setting stage for Star Trek copyright trial; Ars Technica, 1/5/17

Cyrus Farivar, Ars Technica; 

Axanar isn’t fair use, judge finds, setting stage for Star Trek copyright trial

"In additional court filings submitted on Wednesday, CBS, Paramount, and Axanar Productions all put forward their list of witnesses. CBS said it would put John Van Citters, an executive who has worked with Paramount and CBS on Star Trek for nearly 20 years, on the stand.

Van Citters, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, "knows the canon of Star Trek intimately as well as the history and personnel involved in the production of Star Trek in order to be able to efficiently assess whether or not material CBS is presenting to the public is accurate and fits with existing canon."

Axanar Productions, for its part, will counter with Christian Tregillis, a financial consultant who will "rebut Plaintiffs’ theory of lost profits that they claim resulted from Defendants’ alleged infringement, i.e., that funds donated to making of Defendants’ works have resulted in lost revenue or profits to Plaintiffs," according to its own filing.

The film company will also offer up Henry Jenkins, a professor of media studies at the University of Southern California, who is an expert on Star Trek’s historical relationship between its creators and its fans."

Bulgarians Listen to Classics Thanks to Copyright War; Balkan Insight, 1/5/17

Mariya Cheresheva, Balkan Insight; Bulgarians Listen to Classics Thanks to Copyright War

"At 00.01 am on January 1, 2017, instead of hearing the official Bulgarian anthem, as they do every year, listeners to Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, were surprised to hear an alternative version performed by BNR’s own choir and symphonic orchestra.

This was not an independent decision of the music editors of BNR. It turned out that they had been banned from playing the official national anthem owing to a decision of Musicautor, Bulgaria’s non-profit society of composers, lyricists and music publishers, which exists to collectively manage copyright issues.

Musicautor, which hold the copyright to over 14,000,000 songs of Bulgarian and worldwide artists, suspended its contract with BNR from the beginning of the new year, demanding higher fees.

It has banned BNR from playing much contemporary Bulgarian and foreign music until the fee issue is resolved."

Robert L. Hulseman, Inventor of the Solo Cup, Dies at 84; New York Times, 12/30/16

Richard Sandomir, New York Tines; Robert L. Hulseman, Inventor of the Solo Cup, Dies at 84:

"Robert L. Hulseman, a corporate executive who developed the sturdy red Solo cup that became indispensable at picnics, tailgate parties and barbecues and inspired a song by the country singer Toby Keith, died on Dec. 21 at his home in Northfield, Ill. He was 84...

Mr. Hulseman spent nearly all of his career at the Solo Cup Company in Lake Forest, Ill., a maker of disposable cups, plates and bowls. One of his other legacies was helping to create a coffee cup lid that may now be as prevalent as the Solo cup.

The company’s products might have been seen as unremarkable party essentials in a throwaway age if not for the creation of the Solo cup in the mid-1970s. It became a mainstay at beer keggers, where its size, typically 16 ounces, durability and opacity were prized attributes.

Mr. Hulseman preferred that his cups be used at family outings, not at rowdy, boozy blowouts.

“The cup’s design was for strength,” Paul Hulseman said in an interview. “Not for a shot, a wine and a beer.”"

How Ronda Rousey Clips Reveal Facebook’s Copyright Challenge; Fortune, 1/3/17

Jeff John Roberts, Fortune; 

How Ronda Rousey Clips Reveal Facebook’s Copyright Challenge:

"The copyright conundrum arose in early 2015 after Facebook (FB, +1.52%) faced a barrage of criticism over the phenomenon of "free-booting" in which people make copies of clips they see on YouTube (GOOG, +1.86%) and elsewhere, and then upload them as their own to Facebook, where the videos can be seen thousands or millions of times.

In response to the criticism—including an essay called "Theft, Lies, and Facebook Video"—the company in 2015 said it took the intellectual property issues seriously, and that it was expanding tools to help copyright owners protect their content.

Based on the latest proliferation of Rousey clips, though, it's hard to see how Facebook has made much progress. Unlike similar clips that appear on YouTube, the Facebook fight videos don't come with advertising, which means the copyright owner is not making any money from them. (YouTube has long had a system called Content ID that flags infringing clips and either remove them or place ads one them)."

Germany’s Latest Best Seller? A Critical Version of ‘Mein Kampf’; New York Times, 1/3/17

Melissa Eddy, New York Times; Germany’s Latest Best Seller? A Critical Version of ‘Mein Kampf’:

"The dual-volume doorstop of a meticulously historically annotated version of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” was one of Germany’s best-selling works of nonfiction last year, its publisher said on Tuesday, announcing that it would bring out a sixth run at the end of the month.

Originally published in the 1920s and banned for seven decades in Germany, the new version, “Hitler, Mein Kampf, A Critical Edition,” spent 35 weeks on Der Spiegel’s best-seller list and sold about 85,000 copies, according to the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich.

The success of the critical and annotated version, it said, was proof that the attempt by a team of historians to annotate, criticize and contextualize the original much-reviled work was worth it. The project had been planned to follow the expiration at the end of 2015 of a 70-year copyright held by the state of Bavaria and stirred controversy during the three years it took to complete."

Amazon's Multi-Billion Dollar Patent Expires In 2017; Forbes, 1/2/17

Ian Morris, Forbes; Amazon's Multi-Billion Dollar Patent Expires In 2017:

"Amazon's 1-Click is responsible for making the firm a decent amount of money over the years. Certainly, it's produced enough revenue for Amazon to defend its exclusivity of it in the courts, at great cost. But the bad news for Amazon is that its patent on this technology expires in 2017, and it's likely we'll see a lot of online stores adopting similar.

Amazon first applied for a patent on 1-Click in 1997, and it was granted in 1999. The core of the proposition is that by storing your payment and address details you only need to click a single button to order something. This means that there are fewer steps to ordering, which is less time-consuming and what is termed "frictionless".

10 Things to Know About MOOCs in Online Education; U.S. News, 12/20/16

Jordan Friedman, U.S. News; 

10 Things to Know About MOOCs in Online Education