Krista L. Cox, Above The Law; NBA Player LeBron James And Alabama Football Coach Nick Saban Squabble Over Copyright
"[LeBron] James may be trying to assert protection over the idea of a series filming a conversation with sports stars in a barbershop. The problem here, of course, is that a very basic understanding of copyright involves recognition of the idea/expression dichotomy. Although a rightholder can hold copyright over the expression of an idea, he cannot copyright the idea itself. Not even all expression is protectable, since there may be a limited way to express a set of facts, for example. Talking in a barbershop is not only a non-protectable idea under copyright, but it’s not even a unique idea.
Talking in a barbershop is so common that Hollywood basically made a movie about it, entitled Barbershop. And then made two more sequels. Plus a spinoff called Beauty Shop. While there may be more to James’ claim, if his position really is that his idea is copyrightable, well, he’s unlikely to find a sympathetic judge."
Saturday, April 7, 2018
Sunday, April 1, 2018
THE TRICKY ETHICS OF THE NFL'S NEW OPEN DATA POLICY; Wired, March 29, 2018
Ian McMahan, Wired; THE TRICKY ETHICS OF THE NFL'S NEW OPEN DATA POLICY
"SINCE 2015, EVERY player in the National Football Leaguehas been part cyborg. Well, kind of: Embedded in their shoulder pads is an RFID chip that can measure speed, distance traveled, acceleration, and deceleration. Those chips broadcast movement information, accurate to within six inches, to electronic receivers in every stadium. Even the balls carry chips.
So far, that data has stayed within the walls of each individual team, helping players and coaches understand offensive and defensive patterns. But this week, the NFL’s competition committee made good on its intention to share data on all 22 players after every game—with all the teams.
That move will give competitors a greater understanding of player movement across the league. But it could also begin to change the essence of the game. Much of the challenge of sports is the ability to quickly process and react to information, an instinctual gift of great coaches and players. By stripping away some of the uncertainty of competition, data will shift who holds that analytical advantage—and introduce some new ethical questions."
"SINCE 2015, EVERY player in the National Football Leaguehas been part cyborg. Well, kind of: Embedded in their shoulder pads is an RFID chip that can measure speed, distance traveled, acceleration, and deceleration. Those chips broadcast movement information, accurate to within six inches, to electronic receivers in every stadium. Even the balls carry chips.
So far, that data has stayed within the walls of each individual team, helping players and coaches understand offensive and defensive patterns. But this week, the NFL’s competition committee made good on its intention to share data on all 22 players after every game—with all the teams.
That move will give competitors a greater understanding of player movement across the league. But it could also begin to change the essence of the game. Much of the challenge of sports is the ability to quickly process and react to information, an instinctual gift of great coaches and players. By stripping away some of the uncertainty of competition, data will shift who holds that analytical advantage—and introduce some new ethical questions."
Sweet settlement: Cookie shop trademark suit resolved; RichmondBizSense, March 29, 2018
Mike Platania, RichmondBizSense; Sweet settlement: Cookie shop trademark suit resolved
"Richmond-based Red Eye Cookie Co. earlier this month reached a settlement in trademark infringement case filed against it last year by Insomnia Cookies. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Insomnia, which filed suit in Charlottesville federal court in January 2017, claimed Red Eye’s business model, logo and brand were too similar to its own. Each company offers late-night cookie delivery and their logos both feature a crescent circle."
"Richmond-based Red Eye Cookie Co. earlier this month reached a settlement in trademark infringement case filed against it last year by Insomnia Cookies. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Insomnia, which filed suit in Charlottesville federal court in January 2017, claimed Red Eye’s business model, logo and brand were too similar to its own. Each company offers late-night cookie delivery and their logos both feature a crescent circle."
Saturday, March 31, 2018
RIP John Sulston, open science hero and father of the Human Genome Project; BoingBoing, March 9, 2018
Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing; RIP John Sulston, open science hero and father of the Human Genome Project
"Sulston won the Nobel in 2002 and was a force for open science and access to knowledge. His two claims to greatness were his contributions to genomics and his moral leadership. He will be missed."
"Sulston won the Nobel in 2002 and was a force for open science and access to knowledge. His two claims to greatness were his contributions to genomics and his moral leadership. He will be missed."
Judge Refuses to Dismiss Copyright Lawsuit Over LeBron James Tattoo in 'NBA 2K'; Hollywood Reporter, March 30, 2018
Eriq Gardner, Hollywood Reporter; Judge Refuses to Dismiss Copyright Lawsuit Over LeBron James Tattoo in 'NBA 2K'
"When the lawsuit was first brought in 2016, no judge had ever firmly declared that tattoo designs are copyrightable. One tattoo artist once sued Warner Bros. over Hangover 2 for a reproduction of Mike Tyson's face tattoo. That case settled. Another dispute came from a tattoo artist who inked a UFC fighter and later asked a bankruptcy court to determine the value of his tattoo claim against videogame publisher THQ.
"When the lawsuit was first brought in 2016, no judge had ever firmly declared that tattoo designs are copyrightable. One tattoo artist once sued Warner Bros. over Hangover 2 for a reproduction of Mike Tyson's face tattoo. That case settled. Another dispute came from a tattoo artist who inked a UFC fighter and later asked a bankruptcy court to determine the value of his tattoo claim against videogame publisher THQ.
Copyright law protects original works of expression fixed in a tangible medium, but the question on a motion to dismiss filed by Take-Two was whether the use of tattoos was too fleeting to be considered an infringement.
U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain isn't ready to adjudicate this quite so readily."
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Open access to scientific publications must become a reality by 2020 - Robert-Jan Smits; Horizon: The EU Research & Innovation Magazine, March 23, 2018
Joanna Roberts, Horizon: The EU Research & Innovation Magazine; Open access to scientific publications must become a reality by 2020 - Robert-Jan Smits
"A lot of lip service is being paid to making scientific papers free to access but when it comes to action there is a lot of hypocrisy, according to Robert-Jan Smits, the EU's outgoing director-general for research, science and innovation. He has recently been appointed the EU's special envoy on open access, tasked with helping make all publicly funded research in Europe freely available by 2020.
"A lot of lip service is being paid to making scientific papers free to access but when it comes to action there is a lot of hypocrisy, according to Robert-Jan Smits, the EU's outgoing director-general for research, science and innovation. He has recently been appointed the EU's special envoy on open access, tasked with helping make all publicly funded research in Europe freely available by 2020.
Making scientific publications free to read is a big change in a world dominated by subscription journals. Why is it so important that science publications become open access?
At the moment we are putting a lot of public money at national, European and global level into science. But we don’t have free access to the published results of the research we fund because this is locked behind paywalls. We have to spend an enormous amount of money each year on subscriptions to journals where scientific articles are published and on making these results immediately available in open access. Imagine if all the billions we are now putting into these expensive subscription journals could be put into research. That’s also why in the 3 O’s policy of Commissioner Moedas (the EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation), open access is mentioned explicitly as a top priority within the open science agenda.
'Open access to research results will help to have more and faster innovations, to have quicker solutions to the problems we are facing and to allow further research to be carried out.
'There is with regard to open access also another dimension, to which we don't pay a lot of attention. If we want to see that also in the developing countries a science base is being built, we should give these countries easy and low-cost access to scientific publications because these countries just cannot afford to pay for these expensive subscription journals.'"
UC libraries launch tool to help achieve open access; Berkeley Library News, March 21, 2018
Berkeley Library News; UC libraries launch tool to help achieve open access
"To help address this problem, the scholarly community has been working toward achieving open access, helping to unlock this wealth of information by making it free to everyone, everywhere. But after nearly 20 years of work, much of the world’s scholarly information is still not as available as it could be — only 15 percent of journal articles, for example, are openly accessible at the time of publication.
Today, to accelerate toward free readership for all, the University of California Libraries published Pathways to Open Access, a toolkit for campuses and research institutions to help make more knowledge openly available...
The UC campus libraries look to be leaders in reforming scholarly publishing and making universal open access a reality. The UC Berkeley Library already supports many open access initiatives, and the institution has signed the OA2020 Expression of Interest, declaring its intention to repurpose funds toward open access publishing. To do that on a greater scale means working collaborating with a variety of partners, including other UC campuses. In recognition of this fact, the UC libraries formed a working group in August to analyze open access funding scenarios and strategies, to help equip UC campuses to make informed decisions about their own paths to help make research openly available."
"To help address this problem, the scholarly community has been working toward achieving open access, helping to unlock this wealth of information by making it free to everyone, everywhere. But after nearly 20 years of work, much of the world’s scholarly information is still not as available as it could be — only 15 percent of journal articles, for example, are openly accessible at the time of publication.
Today, to accelerate toward free readership for all, the University of California Libraries published Pathways to Open Access, a toolkit for campuses and research institutions to help make more knowledge openly available...
The UC campus libraries look to be leaders in reforming scholarly publishing and making universal open access a reality. The UC Berkeley Library already supports many open access initiatives, and the institution has signed the OA2020 Expression of Interest, declaring its intention to repurpose funds toward open access publishing. To do that on a greater scale means working collaborating with a variety of partners, including other UC campuses. In recognition of this fact, the UC libraries formed a working group in August to analyze open access funding scenarios and strategies, to help equip UC campuses to make informed decisions about their own paths to help make research openly available."
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