U.S. Postal Service must pay $3.5 million after confusing Statue of Liberty with ‘sexier’ Las Vegas replica; The Washington Post, July 7, 2018

Avi Selk, The Washington Post;

U.S. Postal Service must pay $3.5 million after confusing Statue of Liberty with ‘sexier’ Las Vegas replica

"Last week, a federal judge ordered the Postal Service to pay the statue’s creator $3.5 million for exploiting the sculpture without permission or consent.

So much for love stories.

When thing started to go bad, some people blamed the statue.

More exactly, they blamed the artist, Robert S. Davidson. He sued for copyright infringement in 2013, claiming that the Postal Service had sold billions of the stamps, even after the government realized it had confused an image of his plaster sculpture at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for the 19th-century stone-and-copper behemoth off the shore of the real New York."

Europe's copyright plan: Why was it so controversial?; BBC, July 5, 2018

BBC; Europe's copyright plan: Why was it so controversial?

"What happens next?

The proposed directive is due to be revisited in September, with a European Parliament debate and possible changes.

It's not yet known whether Articles 11 and 13 will be removed or amended.

If eventually adopted by the European Parliament, the directive will be sent to the EU Council, which also has to approve it - a process that could take months.

Usually, the Parliament and the Council agree - but if they don't, they'll form a committee to try and reach consensus.

Once they've both agreed and approved the directive, it has to be put into law by every member state on a country-by-country basis, in a process the EU calls transposition.

That can take a year or two, as each country navigates its own legal and parliamentary system."

Judge Orders Chinese Wind-Turbine Maker To Pay $59 Million For Stealing Trade Secrets; NPR, July 6, 2018

Jim Zarroli, NPR; Judge Orders Chinese Wind-Turbine Maker To Pay $59 Million For Stealing Trade Secrets

"A federal judge has ordered China's largest wind-turbine firm, Sinovel, to pay $59 million for stealing trade secrets from a Massachusetts-based technology company.

Last January, Sinovel was found guilty of stealing trade secrets in federal criminal court in Madison, Wis. The company paid an Austria-based employee of American Superconductor Corp. to steal its source code for software that powered wind turbines.

This kind of intellectual property theft has been highlighted by the Trump administration as a reason for levying 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods entering the U.S., which began on Friday. China retaliated with tariffs on $34 billion worth of U.S. goods."

California Can Lead the Way in Open Access; Electronic Frontier Foundation, June 11, 2018

Elliot Harmon, Electronic Frontier Foundation; California Can Lead the Way in Open Access

"There’s a bill in the California legislature that would be a huge win for open access to scientific research. The California Assembly recently passed A.B. 2192 unanimously. We hope to see it pass the Senate soon, and for other states to follow California’s lead in passing strong open access laws.

Under A.B. 2192, all peer-reviewed, scientific research funded by the state of California would be made available to the public no later than a year after publication. Under current law, research funded by the California Department of Public Health is covered by an open access law, but that provision is set to expire in 2020. A.B. 2192 would extend it indefinitely and expand it to cover research funded by any state agency."

Tech Giants Win a Battle Over Copyright Rules in Europe; The New York Times, July 5, 2018

Adam Satariano, The New York Times; Tech Giants Win a Battle Over Copyright Rules in Europe

"It’s a fight nearly as old as the internet.

On one side are news organizations, broadcasters and music companies that want to control how their content spreads across the web, and to be paid more for it. On the other are tech companies such as Facebook and Google, which argue that they funnel viewers and advertising revenue to media outlets, and free-speech advocates, who say that regulating the internet would set a dangerous precedent and limit access to information.

That battle flared up in Europe on Thursday. Two powerful industries faced off — technology against media, platforms against publishers — in an unusually aggressive lobbying campaign in the European Parliament over a bill that would impose some of the world’s strictest copyright laws, which would have required tech companies to filter out unlicensed content and pay for its use.

On this occasion, tech prevailed; the proposal was voted down."

Equity pending: Why so few women receive patents; The Christian Science Monitor, July 2, 2018

E'oin O'Carroll, The Christian Science Monitor; Equity pending: Why so few women receive patents

"The causes for the gender gap are varied and complex, but much of it can be explained by women’s underrepresentation in patent-intensive jobs, particularly engineering. Research shows women make up roughly 20 percent of graduates from engineering schools, but hold less than 15 percent of engineering jobs. Female engineering grads are not entering the field at the same rate as their male counterparts, and they are leaving in far greater numbers.

“It’s the climate,” says Nadya Fouad, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “The organizational environment is very unforgiving.”

Professor Fouad, who spent three years surveying women with engineering degrees about their career choices, cites inflexible schedules, a lack of opportunities for advancement, and incivility toward women. “It’s not the women’s fault,” she says, noting that she found no difference in levels of confidence in those who stayed and those who left.

Other barriers women face are an absence of supportive social networks and implicit bias on the part of venture capitalists."

The EU's dodgy Article 13 copyright directive has been rejected; Wired, July 5, 2015

James Temperton, Wired; The EU's dodgy Article 13 copyright directive has been rejected

"The European Parliament has voted against a controversial proposed new copyright law that critics warned could imperil a free and open internet.

The Copyright Directive, which contained the particularly concerning Article 13, was rejected by 318 votes to 278, with 31 abstentions. The EU’s proposed copyright reforms will now be debated again in September, giving policymakers more time to discuss and refine the crucial dossier...

The rejected proposals would have placed far greater responsibility on individual websites to check for copyright infringements. It gained the support of former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, while Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web, warned it threatened internet freedom."