Panels Brainstorm Ideas On Innovation And Drug Access; Intellectual Property Watch, 6/15/16

Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch; Panels Brainstorm Ideas On Innovation And Drug Access:

"The Harvard Global Health Institute and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society & Global Access in Action co-organised an event on practical strategies to expand access to medicine and promote innovation on 13 June. The event was partly webcast.

In his introductory remarks, Ashish Jha, K.T. Li professor of international health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, talked about the tension between two communities with two competing sets of ideas.

The first set, he said, is the real practical need for more innovation for treating diseases and diagnostic tests. However, innovation fundamentally is expensive, “and there is no shortcut that we know of to make innovation happen without anybody’s forces,” he said.

The opposing factor, he said, is that a very large proportion of the world’s population that cannot afford to pay for the innovation. “The idea that innovation would only benefit those who can afford to pay for it is an idea that we feel is both from a moral, economic, and intellectual perspective, unsustainable.”

“We have to move forward beyond this tension, beyond this point of contention … and find practical solutions” that both support innovation yet ensure that there is broad access, he said."

Mr. Modi, Don't Patent Cow Urine; New York Times, 6/16/16

Achal Prabhala and Sudhir Krishnaswamy, New York Times; Mr. Modi, Don't Patent Cow Urine:

"The B.J.P. government released India’s first National Intellectual Property Rights Policy last month, and it is dangerously misguided. Although the paper reaffirms the basic tenets of India’s admirably farsighted patent laws, it also calls for protecting traditional remedies like cow urine. Taken to its logical conclusion, this policy could open the door to many more exceptions, playing into the hands of patent-happy international pharmaceutical companies.

Big Pharma justifies aggressive patenting by claiming that profit-making drives invention by giving labs and companies an incentive to invest in research. Indian law takes the opposite view: Higher standards for legal protection leave more room for innovation. Unlike many other countries, India does not allow patents for natural substances, traditional remedies, frivolous inventions or marginal innovations.

This is a good thing — a great thing, in fact. Having fewer patents means more competition for more generic drugs, which means more affordable medicine for more people. Imatinib, a drug used to treat a form of leukemia, is available in India at about one-tenth the price it costs in much of the world. In 2000, when the only anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS available were produced by Western companies, the annual cost of treatment was about $10,000. The price has dropped to about $350, at least in the developing world, thanks to generic equivalents that were developed in India.

Naturally, all this drives Big Pharma mad. Its business model relies largely on patenting small tweaks to existing technologies, which multiplies financial returns with only minimal investment in research."

Paramount Says 'Star Trek' Fan Film Lawsuit Lives On; Hollywood Reporter, 6/16/16

Eriq Gardner, Hollywood Reporter; Paramount Says 'Star Trek' Fan Film Lawsuit Lives On:

"The two studios filed a copyright infringement lawsuit at the very end of 2015, and over objections that the Star Trek rights-owners couldn't really copyright elements like the Klingon language or the pointy Vulcan ears, a judge rejected a motion to dismiss. The legal dispute over a project hyped as a would-be studio-quality film that's set before Captain James. T. Kirk's voyage on the U.S.S. Enterprise has commanded attention in large part because the studios have either tolerated or encouraged fan-made works through the years.

In mid-May, during a promotional event for Star Trek Beyond, Abrams raised the hopes of many by hinting the lawsuit would be over soon...

So far, that hasn't turned out to be the case."

Apple gets patent for wrap-around iPhone screen; CNN Money, 6/14/16

Chris Isidore, CNN Money; Apple gets patent for wrap-around iPhone screen:

"Apple was granted a patent Tuesday for a 360-degree screen, which would put a display on all sides of an iPhone: front, back and slide.

Apple's application says the 360-degree screen would let customers play video games or watch videos that would play on both sides of the phone. It could also display a still photo that would appear in a continuous loop around the iPhone...

The patent application doesn't disclose any details about actual plans to incorporate this feature into an upcoming version of an iPhone. Very often patents are granted for innovations that are not brought to market by the patent holder for reasons such the cost of the new device or problems with getting it to function in the real world."

Carla Hayden is one Senate vote away from becoming a groundbreaking librarian of Congress; Washington Post, 6/10/16

Peggy McGlone, Washington Post; Carla Hayden is one Senate vote away from becoming a groundbreaking librarian of Congress:

[Kip Currier: Carla Hayden was an Assistant Professor in the Library and Information Science Department of the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences from 1987-1991.]

"Carla D. Hayden — President Obama’s nominee to become the 14th librarian of Congress — is one vote away from making history.

The Senate Rules Committee recommended that the full Senate approve the nomination of Hayden, 63, to become the new head of the Library of Congress. If approved, the head of Baltimore’s public library system would be the first woman and the first African American to lead the federal agency.

A past president of the American Library Association, Hayden has served on the National Museum and Library Services Board since 2010. She earned a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Chicago. She is credited with improving the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, where she has been chief executive for 23 years, by upgrading its technology and establishing it as a vital community resource...

Appearing before the Senate committee in April, Hayden acknowledged the challenges facing the sprawling library. Last year, a congressional report criticized the agency for widespread technological failures that wasted tax dollars and caused problems for the Copyright Office and for services for the disabled. Hayden told lawmakers she believed the library could become a model for all libraries, which must adapt to a changing world...

The oldest federal cultural institution, the Library of Congress has 3,200 employees and an annual budget of $630 million. It serves as the research arm of Congress, provides Congress with legal advice and runs the Copyright Office, a major player in the world’s digital economy."

Led Zeppelin’s ’Stairway to Heaven’ in Copyright Trial; Wall Street Journal, 6/14/16

[Video] Mark Kelly, Wall Street Journal; Led Zeppelin’s ’Stairway to Heaven’ in Copyright Trial:

"A jury trial begins on Tuesday in Los Angeles to determine whether the opening notes to Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" were copied from the song "Taurus" by the band Spirit."

Citigroup Sues AT&T Over 'Thanks' Word: Copyright Infringement; Tech Times, 6/12/16

Horia Ungureanu, Tech Times; Citigroup Sues AT&T Over 'Thanks' Word: Copyright Infringement:

[Kip Currier: 2 mistakes in this Tech Times article: 1. In the headline. Copyright is neither relevant nor at issue in this case. 2. The Tech Times article's author says "Gizmodo showcases a picture of the patent, in case you need to see it to believe it.", but Patent is not relevant in this case either.

These are two striking examples of how different types of intellectual property are so often misunderstood and confused with one another. This story is an example of Trademark and Gizmodo gets the story right.]

"An unlikely lawsuit started as Citigroup filed a complaint against AT&T, which the credit card company says is infringing upon its trademark.

AT&T did not steal Citigroup's logo or slogan or anything of the sort, but it did have the audacity to use the word "thanks" in a campaign addressing customer-loyalty. The bank sued the telecom company, underlining the fact that it has secured a trademark for the word "thanks" some years ago.

This is not a late April Fool's Day joke, although we really wish it was.

According to the legal complaint that was filed in a Manhattan federal court, AT&T's campaign infringes a few of the trademarks of Citigroup. For example, the credit card enterprise owns both "Citi ThankYou" and "ThankYou." Gizmodo showcases a picture of the patent, in case you need to see it to believe it.

As a reminder, Citigroup has been making use of the "ThankYou" trademark since 2004, when it began a customer-loyalty program. The company says that over seven million of its clients have credit cards with the ThankYou slogan written in big letter across them."

New York Times Says Fair Use Of 300 Words Will Run You About $1800; New York Times, 6/10/16

Tim Cushing, TechDirt; New York Times Says Fair Use Of 300 Words Will Run You About $1800:

"Fair use is apparently the last refuge of a scofflaw. Following on the heels of a Sony rep's assertion that people could avail themselves of fair use for the right price, here comes the New York Times implying fair use not only does not exist, but that it runs more than $6/word.

Obtaining formal permission to use three quotations from New York Times articles in a book ultimately cost two professors $1,884. They’re outraged, and have taken to Kickstarter — in part to recoup the charges, but primarily, they say, to “protest the Times’ and publishers’ lack of respect for Fair Use.”

These professors used quotes from other sources in their book about press coverage of health issues, but only the Gray Lady stood there with her hand out, expecting nearly $2,000 in exchange for three quotes totalling less than 300 words.

The professors paid, but the New York Times "policy" just ensures it will be avoided by others looking to source quotes for their publications. The high rate it charges (which it claims is a "20% discount") for fair use of its work will be viewed by others as proxy censorship. And when censorship of this sort rears its head, most people just route around it. Other sources will be sought and the New York Times won't be padding its bottom line with ridiculous fees for de minimis use of its articles.

The authors' Kickstarter isn't so much to pay off the Times, but more to raise awareness of the publication's unwillingness to respect fair use."

The OPEN Government Data Act Would, Uh, Open Government Data; Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), 6/10/16

Elliot Harmon and Aaron Mackey, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF); The OPEN Government Data Act Would, Uh, Open Government Data:

"The U.S. government has made huge strides in its open data practices over the last few years. Since it launched in 2009, data.gov has become a crucial source for everything from climate and agricultural data to Department of Education records. For the most part, this new era of data disclosure didn’t happen because Congress passed new laws; it happened through presidential orders and procedural improvements in the Executive Branch.

Unfortunately, it might be just as easy for future administrations to roll back the current open data program. That’s why EFF supports a bill that would mandate public access to government data and urges Congress to pass it.

Recently introduced in both the House and Senate, the Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary Government Data Act (OPEN Data Act, S. 2852, H.R. 5051) would require all federal government agencies to automatically make public any data sets they produce, subject to narrow exceptions for national security or other reasons (more on those reasons in a minute).

It would also require that that data be shared in a machine-readable format—that is, a format that can be processed by a computer without a person having to manually tinker with each entry. In 2013, President Obama issued an executive order that government data be shared in machine-readable formats. The OPEN Government Data Act would lock that requirement into law and provide a stronger legal definition for machine-readable data.

EFF applauds the OPEN Data Act and hopes to see it pass. By turning the good practices that the Executive Branch has gradually adopted into law, the OPEN Data Act can help usher in a new era for U.S. data transparency."

Open access: All human knowledge is there—so why can’t everybody access it?; Ars Technica, 6/7/16

Glyn Moody, Ars Technica; Open access: All human knowledge is there—so why can’t everybody access it? :

"In 1836, Anthony Panizzi, who later became principal librarian of the British Museum, gave evidence before a parliamentary select committee. At that time, he was only first assistant librarian, but even then he had an ambitious vision for what would one day became the British Library. He told the committee:

I want a poor student to have the same means of indulging his learned curiosity, of following his rational pursuits, of consulting the same authorities, of fathoming the most intricate inquiry as the richest man in the kingdom, as far as books go, and I contend that the government is bound to give him the most liberal and unlimited assistance in this respect...

The example of The Pirate Bay shows that the current game of domain whack-a-mole is not one that the lawyers are likely to win. But even if they did, it is too late.

Science magazine's analysis of Sci-Hub downloads reveals that the busiest city location is Tehran. It wrote: "Much of that is from Iranians using programs to automatically download huge swathes of Sci-Hub’s papers to make a local mirror of the site. Rahimi, an engineering student in Tehran, confirms this. 'There are several Persian sites similar to Sci-Hub'."

In this, people are following in the footsteps of Aaron Swartz, with the difference that we don't know what he intended to do with the millions of articles he had downloaded, whereas those mirroring Sci-Hub certainly intend to share the contents widely. It would be surprising if others around the world, especially in emerging economies, are not busily downloading all 45 million papers to do the same."

Beyoncé faces lawsuit over claims Lemonade trailer 'copied' ideas; Guardian, 6/9/16

Guardian; Beyoncé faces lawsuit over claims Lemonade trailer 'copied' ideas:

"A filmmaker has issued a lawsuit against Beyoncé, claiming the trailer for her visual album Lemonade copied images from a short film he had made.

Matthew Fulks says his film Palinoia had been seen by a member of Beyoncé’s team, and that a number of scenes appeared to have been recreated in the Lemonade trailer. “The number of aesthetic decisions included in Plaintiff’s Palinoia Work that are parroted in Defendants’ Lemonade Trailer demonstrates that the Lemonade Trailer is substantially similar to the Palinoia Work,” the complaint says. “The misappropriated content includes both the particular elements that the Plaintiff chose to comprise the Palinoia Work and the coordination and arrangement of those particular elements.”"

Ed Sheeran Sued For $20 Million For Allegedly Plagiarzing ‘Photograph’; Huffington Post, 6/8/16

Julia Brucculieri, Huffington Post; Ed Sheeran Sued For $20 Million For Allegedly Plagiarzing ‘Photograph’ :

"The English musician, who happens to be BFFs with Taylor Swift, is reportedly being sued for $20 million dollars over his song “Photograph,” according to Billboard.

Songwriters Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard and their publishing company claim the song borrows heavily from their track, “Amazing,” which was released as a single by 2010 “X Factor” winner Matt Cardle. Harrington and Leonard have written hits for some of the industry’s biggest stars, including Kylie Minogue.

To help with their case, the plaintiffs are working with attorney Richard Busch, who was involved in the copyright lawsuit between Marvin Gaye’s family and Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams over the song “Blurred Lines.” If you recall, Thicke and Williams lost the case and contested a $7.4 million jury verdict that found they plagiarized the Motown great’s “Got to Give It Up.”

The lawsuit against Sheeran says “Photograph” is too similar to the original composition of “Amazing” by Harrington and Leonard and the version recorded by Cardle. The plaintiffs claim the two songs share 39 identical notes."

Sweden bans M&M's logo in trademark battle; BBC News, 6/8/16

BBC News; Sweden bans M&M's logo in trademark battle:

"A Swedish court has ruled that the confectionery firm Mars can no longer advertise its M&M's brand with the lower case lettering "m&m".

The court ruled that the logo is too similar to the single lower case "m" used by the Swedish chocolate covered peanut brand Marabou.

If Mars doesn't appeal it will have to use the capital M&M logo in Sweden starting in July...

In January, Nestle lost its case to trademark the finger shape of its KitKat bars. A British court ruled that a Norwegian bar, called Kvikk Lunsj, was entitled to use the same shape."

Hacker Lexicon: What Is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act?; Wired, 6/6/16

Kim Zetter, Wired; Hacker Lexicon: What Is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act? :

"THE CALL FOR copyright reform in America has grown so loud that Congress has finally heard it. Lawmakers have ordered a slate of studies to look into how to fix what has become a broken system, and activists are cautiously optimistic that this could be the first step toward reform. The source of the fracture? The Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The DMCA was passed in 1998 as an anti-piracy statute effectively making it illegal to circumvent copy protections designed to prevent pirates from duplicating digital copyrighted works and selling or freely distributing them. It also makes it illegal to manufacture or distribute tools or techniques for circumventing copy controls.

But in reality the controversial law’s effects have been much broader by allowing game developers, music and film companies and others to keep a tight control on how consumers use their copyrighted works, preventing them in some cases from making copies of their purchased products for their own use or from jailbreaking smartphones and other devices to use them in ways the manufacturers dislike.

The DMCA has two problematic sections: section 1201, which deals with the circumvention of copy-protections, and section 512, which allows a copyright holder to send a so-called takedown notice to web sites and others believed to be infringing a copyright."

Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ to Be Scrutinized in Court in Copyright Case; New York Times, 6/5/16

Ben Sisario, New York Times; Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ to Be Scrutinized in Court in Copyright Case:

"Whatever happens with the Led Zeppelin trial, the industry is still trying to understand the effects of the “Blurred Lines” case, which is under appeal.

Matt Pincus, the chief executive of Songs Music Publishing, an independent publisher that works with current pop and hip-hop acts like the Weeknd and Desiigner, said his company was seeing far more claims of infringement now — most made privately, outside of court — than ever before. But the reasons were not clear, he said.

“It could be opportunism, because lawyers are smelling blood,” Mr. Pincus said. “But it could also be because we have moved to a real collaboration economy now, where pop records have multiple collaborators in a way that they didn’t five or six years ago.” Those collaborators may dispute credits or royalties after the fact."

Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose is trying to get a 'fat photo' off the Internet; CNet, 6/5/16

Aloysius Low, CNet; Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose is trying to get a 'fat photo' off the Internet:

"What would you do if you were the lead singer of Guns N' Roses and some young punks on the Internet used a photo of you to make fat jokes? Well, Axl Rose thinks the best way to deal is to wipe all traces of the picture off the web, and he's starting with Google...

Interestingly, the copyright for the original image is tricky. While TorrentFreak did hunt down the original photographer to check if Axl Rose has the right to take down the image, Web Sheriff, the company performing the takedown, says that photographers at the singer's show sign an agreement transferring copyright ownership to his company."

IBM has been awarded an average of 24 patents per day so far in 2016; Quartz, 6/2/16

[2,500th post since this blog was started in 2008--Kip Currier]

Mike Murphy, Quartz; IBM has been awarded an average of 24 patents per day so far in 2016:

"The media tends to focus on the crazy things Google, Facebook, and Apple patent, but they’re still dwarfed by more traditional companies like IBM and Samsung when it comes to the number of patents they’re awarded each year. Through the first half of 2016, IBM has, yet again, been the leader in technology patents, averaging roughly 23.6 patents awarded each day..."

The company is in the middle of a painful reinvention, that sees the company shifting further away from hardware sales into cloud computing, analytics, and AI services. It’s also plugging away on a myriad of fundamental scientific research projects—many of which could revolutionize the world if they can come to fruition—which is where many of its patent applications originate."

Public info, now: As county and city improve, the state stays lousy; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6/6/16

Editorial Board, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Public info, now: As county and city improve, the state stays lousy:

"County officials in recent days have rolled out new online tools to make certain types of public information more accessible.

Controller Chelsa Wagner on Thursday debuted alleghenycounty.opengov.com, which features graphs, charts and sortable data about spending, vendors, employees, salaries and benefits. She also introduced allegheny.openbookportal.com, providing instant access to contracts with vendors...

Local governments are getting better at providing basic financial and vendor information to the public, and some officials, such as city Controller Michael Lamb, take pride in providing easy access to public information...

Across the state, however, access to public documents is uneven, and obtaining anything beyond routine documents, such as annual budgets, often involves a cumbersome right-to-know process in which the government agency drags its feet and attempts to keep secret anything potentially embarrassing or controversial. Incremental progress on openness should be applauded, but it is important to remember that the larger battle is far from won."

The Google/Oracle decision was bad for copyright and bad for software; Ars Technica, 6/2/16

Peter Bright, Ars Technica; The Google/Oracle decision was bad for copyright and bad for software:

"Oracle's long-running lawsuit against Google has raised two contentious questions. The first is whether application programming interfaces (APIs) should be copyrightable at all. The second is whether, if they are copyrightable, repurposing portions of those APIs can be done without a license in the name of "fair use.""

Open-access journal eLife gets £25-million boost; Nature, 6/1/16

Ewen Callaway, Nature; Open-access journal eLife gets £25-million boost:

"When three of the world’s biggest private biomedical funders launched the journal eLife in 2012, they wanted to shake up the way in which scientists published their top papers. The new journal would be unashamedly elitist, competing with biology’s traditional ‘big three’, Nature, Science and Cell, to publish the best work. But unlike these, eLife would use working scientists as editors, and it would be open access. And with backers providing £18 million (US$26 million) over five years, authors wouldn’t need to pay anything to publish there.

Four years and more than 1,800 publications later, eLife’s funders — the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland, the Wellcome Trust in London and the Max Planck Society in Berlin — announced on 1 June that they will continue their support. They will back the non-profit eLife organization with a further £25 million between 2017 and 2022 (see ‘eLife by the numbers’)."

Madonna prevails in copyright lawsuit over 'Vogue' song; Reuters, 6/2/16

Dan Levine, Reuters; Madonna prevails in copyright lawsuit over 'Vogue' song:

"In a 2-1 vote, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California ruled that a general audience would not recognize the 0.23-second snippet in "Vogue" as originating from the song "Love Break."

Shep Pettibone, a producer of "Vogue," also recorded "Love Break" in the early 1980's, according to the court ruling.

The plaintiff, VMG Salsoul LLC, owns the copyright to "Love Break" and alleged Pettibone sampled the "horn hit" from the earlier work and added it to "Vogue."...

The dissenting judge, Barry Silverman, said even a small sample of music, used without a license, should be a copyright violation. "In any other context, this would be called theft," Silverman wrote.

Robert Besser, a lawyer for VMG Salsoul, said in a phone interview: "I agree with the dissent because it should be an infringement for copying any piece of any sound recording." He said his client would review its legal options."

Game of Thrones is taking action against Pornhub for breach of copyright; BBC News, 6/1/16

BBC News; Game of Thrones is taking action against Pornhub for breach of copyright:

"The makers of Game of Thrones are taking action against Pornhub over breach of copyright.

HBO says it's because some scenes from the show have appeared on the site.

Some other videos even include parodies of porn stars pretending to be characters such as Cersei Lannister and Lord Varys from Game of Thrones."

Music World Bands Together Against YouTube, Seeking Change to Law; New York Times, 5/31/16

Ben Sisario, New York Times; Music World Bands Together Against YouTube, Seeking Change to Law:

"The fight over the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has touched a nerve. The music industry is bracing for what may be a high-wattage lobbying battle reminiscent of the one over the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill that was abandoned in 2012 after opposition from technology activists and Internet giants like Google and Wikipedia.

The copyright law gives “safe harbor” to Internet service providers that host third-party material. While music groups criticize the law, some legal scholars and policy specialists say any change to it would need to be considered carefully, particularly to preserve protections like fair use.

“Anything that rewrites the D.M.C.A. isn’t just going to affect YouTube,” said James Grimmelmann, a law professor at the University of Maryland. “It is going to affect blogs. It is going to affect fan sites. It is going to affect places for game creators and documentarians and all kinds of others.”

In December, the United States Copyright Office asked for comments about D.M.C.A. as part of a review of the law, and filings by record companies show how laborious copyright policing can be."

Reprint of Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ Tests German Law; New York Times, 6/1/16

Melissa Eddy, New York Times; Reprint of Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ Tests German Law:

"A German publisher of right-wing books has begun selling a reprint of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” originally issued in 1943 by the Nazi party’s central publishing house, a move that risks violating Germany’s law against the distribution of Nazi propaganda.

A copyright on “Mein Kampf” that was held by the Bavarian government expired on Dec. 31, and an annotated scholarly edition was published this year with government permission.

Now, state prosecutors in the German city of Leipzig, where the publisher, Der Schelm, is based, are investigating whether they can press charges . Last week, prosecutors in Bamberg opened a separate investigation after a bookseller, who was not identified, advertised Der Schelm’s edition.

Although Hitler’s two-volume treatise, written from 1924 to 1927 and laying out his ideas on race and violence, is widely available on the internet, the annotated version is the only one that is legal in Germany. The 3,500 comments accompanying the text provide context for the work, and they are aimed, in part, at trying to prevent a new generation from taking up Nazi ideologies.

“Promoting an edition without annotations is considered a criminal offense,” Christopher Rosenbusch, a spokesman for prosecutors in Bamberg, said on Wednesday."

Donald Trump's 'playbooks' offer a glimpse into his ruthless business practices; Guardian, 6/1/16

Rupert Neate and Lauren Gambino, Guardian; Donald Trump's 'playbooks' offer a glimpse into his ruthless business practices:

"US district court judge Gonzalo Curiel on Tuesday made public more than 400 pages of Trump University “playbooks” describing how Trump staff should target prospective students’ weaknesses to encourage them to sign up for a $34,995 Gold Elite three-day package.

Trump University staff were instructed to get people to pile on credit card debt and to target their financial weaknesses in an attempt to sell them the high-priced real estate courses.

The documents contained an undated “personal message” from Trump to new enrollees at the school: “Only doers get rich. I know that in these three packed days, you will learn everything to make a million dollars within the next 12 months.”...

New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman, who has also sued Trump University, renewed his attacks on Trump on Tuesday. “You are not allowed to protect the trade secrets of a three-card Monte game,” Schneiderman said ahead of the document’s release."

Why Google’s fair use victory over Oracle matters; Guardian, 5/31/16

Pamela Samuelson, Guardian; Why Google’s fair use victory over Oracle matters:

"Further cascades of liability could have happened outside the Android ecosystem. An Oracle victory in the Google case would have emboldened other software firms with valuable APIs to become more aggressive in challenging unlicensed uses of those APIs. Someone wanting to develop a program to run on another firm’s platform must use that platform’s API to enable the second program to interoperate with the platform. (Think of an API as an information equivalent to the plug and socket configurations that are necessary for physical devices to interoperate with the electrical grid.) If the second program isn’t configured to send and receive information in the precise way that the first program’s API specifies, it just won’t work at all.

If the developer of an API owns copyright in that API, it can say no to any unlicensed use of it. Or it can condition its willingness to license use of the API on high royalties or impose restrictions on the other firm’s development (such as forbidding adaptation of the same program to run on other platforms).

Since 1992, courts have overwhelmingly rejected copyright claims in program interface specifications. These rulings are consistent with the prevailing norm in the computing industry since its early days: that it is OK to use another firm’s API as long as the second firm reimplements the API in independently written code. Over the past two decades, the software industry has thrived because the court rulings converged with industry norms that allow innovative software developers to build upon existing programs and platforms to offer consumers many choices of products for smart phones and other computing devices."

Open Data Platform Lets Aid Groups Respond More Efficiently To Crises; Huffington Post, 5/27/16

Eleanor Goldberg, Huffington Post; Open Data Platform Lets Aid Groups Respond More Efficiently To Crises:

"When a humanitarian crisis hits, there’s an inevitable mad scramble to collect data, which is often scattered, limited and fail to offer a “big picture” of the situation at hand.

Nearly two years after the launch of the Humanitarian Data Exchange, however, governments, nonprofits, aid workers and the general public can now share information from the ground and upload it to one platform so that it’s stored, and accessible, in a single location.

The goal is to be able to offer up humanitarian aid in an efficient and faster way.

The project, which is managed by the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs, now covers about 250 locations across the world. Those include Ecuador and Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp, according to Reuters."

Kraftwerk loses hip-hop music-sampling copyright case; Ars Technica, 5/31/16

Jennifer Baker, Ars Technica; Kraftwerk loses hip-hop music-sampling copyright case:

"After a decades-long battle, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (the supreme German Constitutional Court) has overturned a ban on a song that used a two-second sample of a Kraftwerk recording.

In 1997, music producer Moses Pelham used a clip from 1977 release Metall auf Metall (Metal on Metal) in the song Nur mir (Only Mine) performed by Sabrina Setlur.

Lead singer of Kraftwerk, Ralf Huetter, sued Pelham, and in 2012 the electropop pioneer won his case for copyright infringement in Germany's Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof), gaining damages and a block on Nur mir. However, in today’s judgment, the eight judges of the First Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court decided that the lower court did not sufficiently consider whether the impact of the sample on Krafwerk might be “negligible.”

Pelham successfully argued that sampling is common practice in the hip hop genre and that in some cases “artistic freedom overrides the interest of the owner of the copyright.""

Universities seek united front in open access debate; University World News, 5/13/16

Munyaradzi Makoni, University World News; Universities seek united front in open access debate:

"Both a unified front and a paradigm shift around access to knowledge were needed in order to deal with rising journal costs and exclusionary copyright provisions imposed by the mainstream academic publishing industry, a Leadership Dialogue on open access and African research publishing heard.

Embracing open access initiatives was now critical, according to Piyushi Kotecha, chief executive officer of the Southern African Regional Universities Association or SARUA, which hosted the Leadership Dialogue in Cape Town ahead of the British Council’s Going Global 2016 conference, held from 3-5 May.

Attended by vice-chancellors from a range of countries, the meeting was supported by UNESCO, the Magna Charta Observatory and the University of Cape Town’s Intellectual Property Unit.

With an emphasis on collaborative solutions, the aim was to explore open access approaches as a means to address problems of scholarship access among Southern African universities at a time when the global debate was shifting to “less dogmatic ways of interpreting open access”, according to the event invitation."

Why Google's victory in a copyright fight with Oracle is a big deal; Vox, 5/26/16

Timothy B. Lee, Vox; Why Google's victory in a copyright fight with Oracle is a big deal:

"Google's version of Java didn't reuse any code from Oracle's version. But to ensure compatibility, Google's version used functions with the same names and functionality.

This practice was widely viewed as legal within the software world at the time Google did it, but Oracle sued, arguing that this was copyright infringement. Oracle argued that the list of Java function names and features constitutes a creative work, and that Google infringed Oracle's copyright when it included functions with the same names and features.

Google argued that the list of function names, known as an application programming interface (API), was not protected by copyright law.

Google's defenders pointed to a landmark 1995 ruling in which an appeals court held that the software company Borland had not infringed copyright when it created a spreadsheet program whose menus were organized in the same way as the menus in the more popular spreadsheet Lotus 1-2-3.

The court held that the order of Lotus 1-2-3 menu items was an uncopyrightable "method of operation." And it concluded that giving Lotus exclusive ownership over its menu structure would harm the public...

Google believed that its own copying was directly analogous to what Borland had done. There were thousands of programmers with expertise in writing Java programs. By designing its platform to respond to the same set of programming commands as Oracle's Java system, Google allowed Java programmers to become Android programmers with minimal training — just as Borland's decision to copy Lotus's menu structure avoided unnecessary training for seasoned Lotus 1-2-3 users."

Skrillex and Justin Bieber on Sorry copyright claims: 'We didn't steal this'; Guardian, 5/30/16

Guardian; Skrillex and Justin Bieber on Sorry copyright claims: 'We didn't steal this':

"Dienel, also known as White Hinterland, claims the pair used her vocal loop without permission on their No1 track. The clip in question is used repeatedly through her 2014 song Ring the Bell, and she reportedly claims that the “unique characteristics of the female vocal riff” have been copied.

When asked about the case, US DJ Diplo, who worked with Bieber and Skrillex on the Jack Ü project, told TMZ: “I thought they sampled it, but I thought they cleared it. I’m sure they’ll work out a deal with her. They don’t want to go to court with it.""

In dramatic statement, European leaders call for ‘immediate’ open access to all scientific papers by 2020; Science, 5/27/16

Martin Enserink, Science; In dramatic statement, European leaders call for ‘immediate’ open access to all scientific papers by 2020:

"In what European science chief Carlos Moedas calls a "life-changing" move, European Union member states today agreed on an ambitious new open access (OA) target. All scientific papers should be freely available by 2020, the Competitiveness Council—a gathering of ministers of science, innovation, trade, and industry—concluded after a 2-day meeting in Brussels. But some observers are warning that the goal will be difficult to achieve.

The OA goal is part of a broader set of recommendations in support of Open Science, a concept which also includes improved storage of and access to research data. The Dutch government, which currently holds the rotating E.U. presidency, had lobbied hard for Europe-wide support for Open Science, as had Carlos Moedas, the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation...

A spokesperson for the Competitiveness Council admits the 2020 target "may not be an easy task," but stresses the importance of the council's new resolve. "This is not a law, but it's a political orientation for the 28 governments. The important thing is that there is a consensus."

The council's statement is also slightly ambiguous on what exactly should be accomplished by 2020."

Must stop bill to copyright public records; San Jose Mercury News, 6/28/16

Thomas Peele, San Jose Mercury News; Must stop bill to copyright public records:

"In a blog post EFF legislative counsel Ernesto Falcon made it clear the potential chilling effect on free speech and public participation Stone has proposed.

"Such a broad grant of copyright authority to state and local governments will chill speech, stifle open government, and harm the public domain," Falcon wrote. "If a citizen infringed on a state owned copyright by making a copy of a government publication, or reading that publication out loud in a public setting, or uploading it to the Internet, they could be liable. ..."

Does Stone want to keep news organizations and others from freely posting public records that show wrongdoing, abuse, corruption, misuse of public funds?

Rather than working to make access to records more difficult, state lawmakers should working to make them more accessible."

Judge Orders Release of Documents in Trump University Lawsuit; Wall Street Journal, 5/28/16

Jacob Gershman, Wall Street Journal; Judge Orders Release of Documents in Trump University Lawsuit:

"Among the documents to be unsealed are two sets of Trump University “playbooks,” outlining rules and procedures for running Trump University events and employee scripts for engaging with customers.

Some of the documents have already surfaced online. Online political website Politico in March posted a 2010 Trump University playbook, which instructed employees to rank students by liquid assets to help determine what kind of course packages they could afford to buy.

Other documents would be made public for the first time, including a sales playbook the judge said contained marketing techniques for selling Trump University programs. The unsealed versions will redact phone numbers and noncorporate email addresses.

Judge Curiel ordered the documents released by June 2. He was responding to an April request by the Washington Post for the records to be unsealed. Lawyers for Mr. Trump opposed making the documents public, arguing that the materials contained trade secrets."

Google Prevails as Jury Rebuffs Oracle in Code Copyright Case; New York Times, 5/26/16

Nick Wingfield and Quentin hardy, New York Times; Google Prevails as Jury Rebuffs Oracle in Code Copyright Case:

"Some lawyers cautioned against viewing the verdict as a green light for the type of software development Google performed, saying that the earlier federal appeals court decision validated the idea that A.P.I.s can be copyrighted.

“I don’t think the industry can sit back and rely on this decision and exhale and say these things won’t be protected,” said Christopher Carani, a lawyer at McAndrews, Held & Malloy. “I think what you’re still going to see is a lot more attention paid to securing approval to use other copyrights before the fact.”

John Bergmayer, a senior staff attorney at Public Knowledge, a consumer rights group, cheered the verdict in a statement, but said he remained troubled by the implications of the earlier court decision. “Other courts of appeal should reject the Federal Circuit’s mistaken finding of copyrightability,” he said. “For now, though, the jury’s verdict is a welcome dose of common sense.”"