Congress: Merry Chrismas! We're Turning Off Your Analog Outs

Congress: Merry Chrismas! We're Turning Off Your Analog Outs
Public Knowledge, publication date: 16 December 2005
"The government is proposing that devices (consumer electronics, computers, software) manufactured after a certain date respond to a copy-protection signal or watermark in a digital video stream, and pass along that signal when converting the video to analog. The same goes for analog video streams, to pass on the protection to the digital video outputs."

Court won't hear National Geographic CD-ROM case

Court won't hear National Geographic CD-ROM case
Reuters
Yahoo News, publication date: 12 December 2005
"The appeals court ruled that the CDs represented an 'electronic replica' of the magazine and were a permissible 'revision' under copyright law, even if some new copyrightable materials, such as an introductory sequence and a computer software program, had been added."

EU proposes extending TV rules to online film and video

EU proposes extending TV rules to online film and video
By Simon Taylor
InfoWorld, publication date: 13 December 2005
"...it would include some measures such as having to provide a 'culturally diverse' range of content. 'This might involve requirements in terms of the catalogue they offer,' said Martin Selmayr, a European Commission spokesman.

Other requirements to be applied to online service providers include proposals protecting children from unsuitable material and preventing online racial hatred."

Clogger of P2P networks to shut down

Clogger of P2P networks to shut down
by JOHN BORLAND
ZDNet, publication date: 9 December 2005
"Seattle-based Loudeye said Friday that it is shuttering its Overpeer division, effective immediately, in an attempt to bolster the parent company's bottom line."

Song sites face legal crackdown

Song sites face legal crackdown
by IAN YOUNGS
BBC News, publication date: 12 December 2005
"He said unlicensed guitar tabs and song scores were widely available on the internet but were 'completely illegal'"

Copyright Mythbusters: Believe It or Not, Fair Use Exists.

Copyright Mythbusters: Believe It or Not, Fair Use Exists
by DONNA WENTWORTH
Copyfight, publication date: 05 December 2005
"The truth -- that copyright has built-in limits to protect free speech, scholarship, research, and innovation (the 'progress of science and useful arts') -- sounds like a lie. Surely all of that stuff is just bleeding-heart liberal, mushy-minded nonsense?

Oh, well, actually -- no. Fair use exists, and for very good reasons."

Putting pirates behind bars is best deterrent

Putting pirates behind bars is best deterrent
by ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT
Bangkok Post, publication date: 06 December 2005
"David Mattinson, the IFPI Asian regional office's investigator, said Thailand should impose jail terms in order to discourage pirates, an approach that has proved successful in Hong Kong and Singapore in recent years."

Ex-FT editor heads copyright review

Ex-FT editor heads copyright review
Freelance UK, publication date: 05 December 2005
"Now the former Reuters junior will test to see whether improvements could be made to the UK's IP regime, in light of the DTI's pledge to 'modernise copyright and other forms of intellectual property...for the digital age'.

...

The Gowers Review will also probe into the suitability of the legal and technical IP infringement framework in the digital age, and assess whether ?fair use? claims by citizens are reasonable."

Will Fair Use Survive?

Will Fair Use Survive? (final version, PDF document)
by MARJORIE HEINS and TRICIA BECKLES
The Free Expression Policy Project, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, publication date: December 2005

DMCA Triennial Rulemaking: Failing the Digital Consumer

DMCA Triennial Rulemaking:
Failing the Digital ConsumerPDF document
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), publication date: 01 December 2005

How Not to Make eBooks "Take Off"

How Not to Make eBooks "Take Off"
by BILL MCCOY
Blogs.Adobe.com, publication date: 21 November 2005
"The DRM and client issues seem clearly to be Adobe's: atlhough they might arguably exist with alternative eReading systems, that's immaterial to this poor guy's particular experience. But the first three issues are really more with Amazon and its suppliers' etailing infrastructure and DRM rights-offering choices. In fact therein lies a dilemma for infrastructure vendors like Adobe. Apple's vertically-integrated iTunes Store in many ways provides a better end to end experience to users. For example Apple FairPlay [sic] DRM rights are consistent and reasonably simple to understand. Yet, Apple's ecosystem is completely closed and proprietary, and gives users and publishers no choices. In order to create a compelling eBook user experience, must we abandon an open ecosystem, where publishers and users have choices of different kinds of rights and different channels for acquiring content?"

Finding a balance between digital copyright and consumers%u2019 rights

IST Results - Finding a balance between digital copyright and consumers' rights
IST Results, publication date: 29 November 2005
"Most European researchers agree that there are two crucial but as yet unresolved issues facing the deployment of DRM: interoperability between different technologies and the need to balance consumers' rights to fair use with the right of content providers and authors to avoid illegal duplication of their audiovisual works.

The first problem is technical as well as political, in the business sense of the word, while the second holds social and cultural implications. Both must be solved, however, if the media industry is to effectively use DRM to protect its revenue - and hence its ability to innovate and create new content - in an era in which personal computers and the Internet have made illegal copying and access to illegal copies all too easy."

Website offers MP3 storage

Website offers MP3 storage
by CHRIS NUTTALL
Financial Times, publication date: 29 November 2005
"Two software developers who have attracted lawsuits from media organisations are behind an online music service launching on Wednesday that seems certain to be scrutinised for copyright violations."

BBC2 to switch on web TV

BBC2 to switch on web TV
by KEN YOUNG
VNUNet, publication date: 29 November 2005
"'The other big question is that of copyright. A lot of BBC content is made by
independent production houses who may retain the rights to content being made available over the internet. So that may impact how much content is available in this way.'"

Free Encyclopedia Wikipedia.de Has Copyright Issues

Free Encyclopedia Wikipedia.de Has Copyright Issues
Deutsche Welle, publication date: 29 November 2005
"The offending articles have been placed in quarantine in a newly created category and given a warning notice that says the entry most likely includes copyrighted material."

Aflac claims copyright infringement

Aflac claims copyright infringement
by CHRISTOPHER BOYCE
Ledger-Enquirer, publication date: 30 November 2005
"Assurant Inc. advertises the slogan 'Our Plans Are Based on Yours' for its health insurance arm Assurant Health. Aflac thinks they've taken that slogan a bit too literally and is suing the company for copyright infringement of insurance policies.

....

'Aflac has a lot of competitors selling competitive policies and it is open to competition," Harbin said. "But if you look at the policies, the actual policies' language is in large part identical and other parts are substantially similar.'"

Daily Digest

Daily Digest
by HENRY K. LEE
San Francisco Chronicle, publication date: 30 November 2005
"In a plea agreement Monday, Maksym Vysochanskyy, 27, also known as Maksym Kovalchuk, admitted that he marketed and sold counterfeit software through various Web sites and through eBay."

Russian customs opens 270 anti-pirating cases in 9M05

Russian customs opens 270 anti-pirating cases in 9M05
RIA Novosti, publication date: 30 November 2005
"Filippov said the most frequent copyright violations concerned the smuggling of counterfeit audio and video products, particularly CDs and DVDs."

Copyright Suit Filed Over Thomas Friedman Book Cover

Copyright Suit Filed Over Thomas Friedman Book Cover
by DAVE ASTOR
Editor and Publisher, publication date: 29 November 2005
"When notified this April that Paradise Cay's right to sell the art was in question, FSG pulled the original cover and substituted a new one. But von Perbandt said thousands of books with the original cover are still circulating around the U.S. and have been released abroad."

DMCA more a hindrance than a help

DMCA more a hindrance than a help
by IAIN THOMSON
VNUNET.COM, publication date: 28 November 2005"The research
examined 876 requests to remove copyright information from web sites and search engines and found that over half of them were being made by companies targeting the competition and 30 per cent of claims are so thin they may not stand up in court. "

Kazaa to install anti-piracy tool

Kazaa to install anti-piracy tool
Associated Press
Jam Music, publication date: 28 November 2005"Sharman Networks Ltd. has until next week to develop a filtering system that would block files based on about 3,000 keywords, most likely the names of popular recording artists."

View From Here: Copyright clampdown

View From Here: Copyright clampdown
by CAROLYN BOYLE
TMCNet, publication date: 23 November 2005
"Then earlier this year the Malaysian Government announced that it was considering turning the draconian provisions of the Internal Security Act 1960 against repeat infringers as a last resort. Michael Soo of Shook Lin & Bok explains that the Act empowers police officers to arrest without warrant anyone they 'have reason to believe' has acted or is likely to act 'in any manner that is prejudicial to the security of Malaysia'.

Suspects may initially be detained in solitary confinement for up to 60 days - extendable for up to two years with the approval of the Minister for Home Affairs - and may be denied legal representation and access to relatives during this time. "

Waiting for Google to Search for One More Author: Ann Woolner

Waiting for Google to Search for One More Author: Ann Woolner
by ANN WOOLNER
Bloomberg.com, publication date: 25 November 2005
"Say an author is fine with one of the search engines scanning her book on the promise that only snippets would be accessible, and she wants to deny that right to other search engines she considers insufficiently protected against hackers, Aiken suggests.

If Google wins, the author has no say over who gets to scan the book, and certainly no right to demand compensation from the copier.

Google says it would be virtually impossible to seek permission from the copyright holders on the millions of copyright-protected books it wants to scan.

Unfortunately for Google, there is no ``it's-too-darn-hard'' exception in copyright law."

Entertainment industry 'trying to hijack data retention directive'

Entertainment industry 'trying to hijack data retention directive'
by GRAEME WEARDEN and KAREN GOMM
ZDNet UK News, publication date: 24 November 2005
"But the Creative and Media Business Alliance (CMBA), a group of media companies including EMI, SonyBMG and TimeWarner, has lobbied the EU to allow this data to be used to investigate all crimes, not just serious offences such as terrorism."

France expected to cut iPod levy in time for Christmas

France expected to cut iPod levy in time for Christmas
by PETER SAYER
Macworld, publication date: 25 November 2005
"In France, as in some other European countries including Germany and Italy, it is legal to copy music for private use - but in return the law imposes copyright levies on blank media, including cassettes, CDs, DVDs, hard drives and flash memory devices. The copyright levy is intended to compensate composers, performers and producers for revenue opportunities lost due to private copying of music."

The End Of Copyright

The End Of Copyright
by ERNEST ADAMS
Gamasutra, publication date: 28 November 2005
"The lawsuits, the spyware, the DMCA: these are the death struggles of an outdated business model. It's the modern-day equivalent of throwing the Christians to the lions in an effort to discourage Christianity. It didn't work for the ancient Romans and it won't work now.

...

In short, there are a heck of a lot of ways to recover the development and marketing costs of video games besides trying to sell individual physical copies and prevent their duplication. That system is awkward, wasteful, and theft-prone. It supports too many middlemen and, like Prohibition, puts money in the pockets of some very nasty gangsters."

NCC declares MCSN illegal, nullifies Adewopo?s approval

NCC declares MCSN illegal, nullifies Adewopo?s approval
by OZULUA UHAKHEME and RICHARD EGHAGHE
Daily Independent [Nigeria], publication date: 25 November 2005
"The president may have acted swiftly to save the copyright community, to which he also belongs as an author, from further embarrassment in the confusion rocking copyright owners and users in the entertainment industry, over collective administration of royalties, following unhealthy rivalry between the registered Performing and Mechanical Rights Society of Nigeria (PMRS) and the now deregistered MCSN, which was purportedly approved few months ago. The president was also said to have acted in the spirit of his ongoing anti-corruption crusade in the country."

Siva in Chronicle of Higher Ed: A Risky Gamble with Google

Siva in Chronicle of Higher Ed: A Risky Gamble with Google
by SIVA VAIDHYANATHAN
Chronicle of Higher Education, publication date: 02 December 2005
via Siva's blog
"And it dangerously elevates Google's role and responsibility as the steward --with no accountability -- of our information ecosystem. That's why I, an avowed open-source, open-access advocate, have serious reservations about it.

It pains me to declare this: Google's Library Project is a risky deal for libraries, researchers, academics, and the public in general. However, it's actually not a bad deal for publishers and authors, despite their protestations.

...

So the copyright-infringement suits brought by authors and by publishers against Google Library will present the courts with an interesting dilemma: Should they favor the norms of the Web (opt out) over the norms of the real world (opt in)? Google is clearly asserting the right to do what it has always done in the Web world — copied without permission for the purpose of providing an important commercial service that rides free on others' copyrighted work. The courts will have to decide if that is a bit too presumptuous and disruptive in the real world.

...

So I worry. We need services like that provided by Google Library. But they should be "Library Library" projects. Libraries should not be relinquishing their core duties to private corporations for the sake of expediency. Whichever side wins in court, we as a culture have lost sight of the ways that human beings, archives, indexes, and institutions interact to generate, preserve, revise, and distribute knowledge."

Webcasting Prominent In WIPO Broadcasting Talks Despite Few Supporters

Webcasting Prominent In WIPO Broadcasting Talks Despite Few Supporters
by WILLIAM NEW
Intellectual Property Watch, publication date: 28 November 2005
"Member governments of the World Intellectual Property Organisation last week spent significant time discussing a proposal to include the delivery of broadcasts over the Internet in a treaty updating the rights of broadcasters. But the proposal appears to have almost no supporters among the member governments."

Boston Globe Throws Mud at Peter Quinn -- Mud Lands on Boston Globe

Boston Globe Throws Mud at Peter Quinn -- Mud Lands on Boston Globe
Groklaw, publication date: 26 November 2005
"Let's see. If one doesn't want to use Microsoft's formats, because one thinks they are not open enough for one's legitimate needs as a government agency, what happens to one? Microsoft's goons and allies will comb through your life looking for dirt, or something that looks a little like dirt, to ruin your reputation? And so the Boston Globe decided to investigate how completely Peter Quinn dotted his I's and crossed his T's on his expense account:"

iPod DRM faces another reverse-engineering challenge

iPod DRM faces another reverse-engineering challenge
by JIM DALRYMPLE
Playlist, publication date: 22 November 2005
"Content downloaded from iTunes is encoded with the FairPlay DRM system, effectively putting limits on how customers can use the content. Content providers want to use FairPlay because of the popularity of the iPod, which is incompatible with all DRM formats other than FairPlay. Apple has declined to license the technology to outside vendors."

USC/Berkeley Report: over 30% of DMCA take-down notices are improper

USC/Berkeley Report: over 30% of DMCA take-down notices are improper.
by JASON SCHULTZ
Copyfight, publication date: 22 November 2005
"The report finds that nearly 1/3rd of all notices are improper and potentially illegal. The full report will be out in March 2006."

BitTorrent shakes hands with MPAA

BitTorrent shakes hands with MPAA
by STEVE MALONE
PC Pro, publication date: 23 November 2005
"'BitTorrent is an extremely efficient publishing tool and search engine that allows creators and rights holders to make their content available on the Internet securely,' said Cohen in a statement. 'BitTorrent discourages the use of its technology for distributing films without a licence to do so. As such, we are pleased to work with the film industry to remove unauthorized content from BitTorrent.com's search engine'."

Backing up software could have legal implications

Backing up software could have legal implications
by JOHN AGSALUD
[Honolulu] Star Bulletin, publication date: 21 November 2005
"How do you know if your software is copy protected? You could read the fine print on the license agreements, but the backup policy is not always well-defined."

University Network i2hub Shut Down

University Network i2hub Shut Down
Associated Press
Top Tech News, publication date: 21 November 2005
"'I've never believed i2hub was illegal,' Chang said. 'A lot of people have met their significant others on there, have received or given homework help, etc. It was a real-time social network.'"

Politicos wary of changes to copyright law

Politicos wary of changes to copyright law
by ANNE BROACHE
CNet News, publication date: 16 November 2005
"But panelists encountered reservations--and outright opposition--from several members of the House subcommittee, including Chairman Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican, who said he thought the solution should lie in
technology, 'not necessarily in legislation.'
...
Stearns and others said they were concerned that any law allowing circumvention of copy-protection devices would undercut the purpose of the DMCA and could be exploited by criminals looking to pirate works.

"I hope we can slow down the movement of (the consumer) bill or stop it entirely," said Rep. Mary Bono, a California Republican who described herself as a "staunch opponent" of the bill.

Barton and Boucher said they disagreed: The same penalties would continue to apply to pirates, they said."

Fair Use and Free Speech

Fair Use and Free Speech
Release of the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use (PDF file)
Center for Social Media, publication date: 18 November 2005

Copyright isn't the last word

Copyright isn't the last word
by ELAINE DUTKA
Los Angeles Times, publication date: 18 November 2005
"Stories such as these spurred the creation of 'The Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use,' a document to be released today as a guideline for judging when material is free for use. The statement describes situations in which filmmakers believe the code applies, saving documentarians the cost of consulting attorneys. The law is intentionally vague, intended to be interpreted case by case."

Sony's Copyright Overreach

Sony's Copyright Overreach
by LORRAINE WOELLERT
BusinessWeek, publication date: 17 November 2005
"Now the tide might be turning, thanks to a classic case of overreaching that has fomented a backlash against the industry. On Oct. 31, blogger Mark Russinovich discovered a hidden program installed on his PC by a Sony (SNE) BMG music disk. The code was designed to prevent purchasers of the CD from copying it or converting it. But the program was disturbing for another reason -- in an apparent effort to prevent garden-variety hackers from circumventing the copy restrictions, Sony designed the program to surreptitiously bury itself deep within the Windows operating system, completely hidden from view."

Naxos Pulls Historical Recordings From Stores in Copyright Settlement

Naxos Pulls Historical Recordings From Stores in Copyright Settlement
by BEN MATTISON
Playbill Arts, publication date: 16 November 2005
"The independent record label Naxos has asked stores to remove some of its historical recordings from their shelves and return them, a spokesman for the label confirmed today.
The recall is part of a settlement with Capitol Records stemming from a copyright-infringement case that Capitol had filed against Naxos."

UK inquiry into DRM and the law

UK inquiry into DRM and the law
by OUT-LAW.COM
The Register, publication date: 15 November 2005
'It points to wider applications of DRM in, for example, allowing individuals to buy the right to read a book just once, or pay a fraction of a penny every time they play a song. This allows publishers greater flexibility in the services they offer and leads to increased consumer choice, says the Parliamentary Group.

"DRM systems bring threats and opportunities to both publishers and consumers," said APIG Chairman Derek Wyatt MP. "This inquiry will seek to establish how consumers, artists and the distribution companies should be protected in a continually evolving market place."'

DOJ-Authored Law Would Punish 'Intent To Infringe'

DOJ-Authored Law Would Punish 'Intent To Infringe'
by MARK HACHMAN
ExtremeDRM, publication date: 13 November 2005
"The IPPA would dramtically widen the concept of 'willful infringement'. Rather than applying the penalties to someone who infringes on a copyright, the act would criminalize the 'intent to infringe' the copyright as well."

Google's Stumble

Google's Stumble
by CHRIS KRAEUTER
Forbes.com, publication date: 08 November 2005
"Google's book database would be available only through its own search engine. Even if Google wins in court, it will have sacrificed time and public-relations currency with the very people with whom it is trying to do business.


Ultimately, sales are what matters--to Google and to the publishers--so Google's vision might yet come to fruition, and publishers and authors might become loyal Google converts. But this battle will be withering and will allow competitors the time and opportunity to test their own methods."

Justice Dept. proposes tougher copyright laws

Justice Dept. proposes tougher copyright laws
Reuters
Computerworld, publication date: 11 November 2005
"A recording-industry trade group praised the bill, but a public-interest group, Public Knowledge, said the Justice Department should consider measures that would protect consumers' fair-use rights as well. The bill has not yet been introduced in Congres"

Blackboard use raises copyright concerns

Blackboard use raises copyright concerns
by IAN YARETT
The Phoenix [Swarthmore], publication date: 10 November 2005
"According to college librarian Peggy Seiden, “The college’s practice, which goes back to our extensive print reserves collections, is to make it the faculty or department’s responsibility to seek permissions from copyright owners. We don’t have the staff to centralize that function, though we will help [administrative assistants] and faculty find addresses and the appropriate contacts.”

The first time that a work is used for a specific class it is considered to be fair use, but after that, faculty should seek permission for subsequent uses such as when the course is re-taught, she explained. “It’s an ongoing process of educating the faculty about when to seek permissions,” she said."

Copyright Act Amendments and Rootkits

Copyright Act Amendments and Rootkits
by LARRY LEAN
Digital Copyright Canada, publication date: 09 November 2005
"Notice the chilling speculation that if you point out what Sony CD's do with technical details, publicly, you may be committing a criminal or civil offence. Were our amendments in place, it would be ditto, would it not? This is no longer hypothetical but a real situation that the law has to account for or plainly ought to: it should not place users in a position of helplessness with respect to their personal property ('Can't remove the DRM') or defend a trespass and tampering with their computer equipment ('Couldn't they think of this?')."

Google's Tough Call

Google's Tough Call
by LAWRENCE LESSIG
Wired Magazine, publication date: November 2005
"Schroeder is right, but the Authors Guild and the AAP are wrong. Copyright law has been turned on its ear, but it's not Google that did the turning; it's the Internet. Nor is it Google that is exploiting this turn; that title goes to the Authors Guild and the AAP.

Indeed, their claims about Google represent the biggest landgrab in the history of the Internet, and if taken seriously, will chill a wide range of innovation. Because if the AAP is right, it's not Google Print that's illegal. The outlaw is Google itself - and Yahoo!, and MSN Search, and the Internet Archive, and every other technology that makes knowledge useful in a digital age."

Bush administration wants tougher piracy laws

Bush administration wants tougher piracy laws
by BROOKS BOLIEK
Hollywood Reporter, publication date: 11 November 2005
"Gonzales said the new laws were necessary because technological changes make it easier for pirates to steal material and the money generated by the activity can fund other criminal ventures such as terrorism."

Supremes won't review freelancer's source code defeat

Supremes won't review freelancer's source code defeat
by OUT-LAW.com
The Register, publication date: 10 November 2005
"Unfortunately for Titleserv, the question of ownership and copyright in the programs had never been fully agreed, and on his departure, according to court papers, Krause took with him the only copies of the source code for two of the disputed programs, leaving copies of the other six."

Pulp friction

Pulp friction
The Economist, publication date: 10 November 2005
"This month, Google announced that it is moving forward with its plans to digitise books from several big libraries, despite two lawsuits filed in October by authors and publishers who claim that the firm's actions violate their copyrights. (Google says its actions are legal under a “fair use” exception in the law.)
...
'In the future, the only thing that will get read is something that will be online. If it isn't online, it doesn't exist,' proclaims Jim Gerber, director of content partnerships at Google. "

Region coding for PS3 unlikely

Region coding for PS3 unlikely
by ANDREW COLLEY
Australian IT, publication date: 08 November 2005
"SCE Australia recent lost a lengthy legal battle which reached the High Court and brought its policy of coding discs specifically for market regions under scrutiny from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)."

Grokster Calls It Quits on Sharing Music Files

Grokster Calls It Quits on Sharing Music Fileswarning: registration required
by JEFF LEEDS
The New York Times, publication date: 08 November 2005
"The company said it planned to create a 'safe and legal' service and refer users to a new Web site, www.grokster3g.com. Grokster is expected to be absorbed by Mashboxx, a new venture run by Wayne Rosso, a former Grokster president, who has already struck a deal to license music from Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the world's second-biggest music company."

Study of Sony Anti-Piracy Software Triggers Uproar

Study of Sony Anti-Piracy Software Triggers Uproar
by BRIAN KREBS
Washington Post, publication date: 02 November 2005
"Privacy and security experts charged that the technology built into many of Sony's music CDs since March is unnecessarily invasive and exposes users to threats from hackers and virus writers."

Congress divided on broadcast flag plan

Congress divided on broadcast flag plan
by ANNE BROACHE
CNET News.com, publication date: 03 November 2005
"Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, said that 'we should do what we can to support content owners from being ripped off.' But she said that protection should not come at the expense of limiting the rights of consumers or impeding the growth of new technology."

HK man jailed in world's first copyright violation case

HK man jailed in world's first copyright violation case
The Associated Press
International Herald Tribune, publication date: 07 November 2005
"A Hong Kong man on Monday was sentenced to three months in prison in what local officials said was the world's first successful prosecution of copyright violation using the popular file-sharing software BitTorrent."

Peer-to-Peer Goes Legit

Peer-to-Peer Goes Legit
by NIALL MCKAY
Wired News, publication date: 03 November 2005
"Now the company has built Microsoft Digital Rights Management technology into its software, allowing users to see a complete list of tracks available on the Gnutella network. However, they can only download tracks that they are willing to pay for, or that are not copyright protected.


'We are the first true P2P company to legalize our service,' said Talmon Marco, president and co-founder of iMesh. 'Unlike iTunes or Rhapsody or Napster, we will also provide access to another 15 million so-called 'gray market' soundtracks free of charge.'"

Who Owns XML?

Who Owns XML?
by WADE ROUSH
Technology Review, publication date: 26 October 2005
"But now executives at Scientigo, a small software maker based in Charlotte, NC, say the company owns two U.S. patents (No. 5,842,213 and No. 6,393,426), that cover one of the fundamental concepts behind XML: the idea of packaging data in a self-defining format that allows it to be correctly displayed wherever it travels.

Scientigo CEO Doyal Bryant says the company plans to capitalize on the patents either by reaching licensing agreements with big corporate users of XML or by selling them to another company."

Copyright events at MCN

Copyright events at MCN

by AMALYAH KESHET
publication date: 25 October 2005
The Museum Computer Network's Intellectual Property SIG is pleased to sponsor two sessions at the organization's annual conference, MCN 2005, in Boston, November 3-5, 2005. More information on the conference can be found at: http://www.mcn.edu/Mcn2005/mcn2005index.htm

"From Hip Hop to Oil on Canvas: Sampling, Art & Copyright"
The concept of sampling is integral to contemporary music, and a hot topic in terms of intellectual property. But the idea of licensing art and photography under a sampling license has yet to be explored. Does the painter in us tune into terms like "remix" and "mash?" Does looking at the latest Creative Commons project, ccmixter.org, intrigue the art historian in us with the idea of establishing a "family tree" of re-mixed samples during the creation of a new, collaborative, work of art? Can digital image files be remixed under similar technology and licensing terms? Join our panelists in hashing out current opinions on the state of the art of sampling, its importance in visual culture, and how copyright law fits in - or doesn't.

Panelists: Henry Jenkins, Director, Comparative Media Studies Program and Co-Director, Media in Transition, MIT, and Tyler Ochoa of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law. Moderator: Amalyah Keshet

"Contract and Copyright: Whatever Happened to Fair Use?"
Is contract law supplanting copyright law when the latter provides "too much" latitude for fair use? Licenses controlling the use of copyrighted works govern whether and how we can access materials important for education, research, and creativity. Contracts that supersede user rights protected under copyright law threaten not only fair use but raise other social policy issues. This roundtable discussion will explore the limits of licensing and contracts. Participants will have 10 minutes to speak about their particular concerns, then will be asked to address a series of museum-based hypothetical scenarios presented by the Session Chair. This discussion will be followed by audience questions.

Panelists: Wendy Gordon, Boston University School of Law, Christine Sundt, University of Oregon, and Maureen A. OíRourke, Boston University School of Law. Moderator: Diane Zorich.


We look forward to some very lively discussion during these sessions, with your participation.


Amalyah Keshet
Head of Image Resources & Copyright Management
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Chair, MCN Intellectual Property SIG

Between What's Right and What's Easy

Between What's Right and What's Easy
by TARLETON GILLESPIE
Inside Higher Ed, publication date: 21 October 2005
"Automating the clearance process undoes the possibility of utilizing, and more importantly challenging, this slow disintegration of fair use. Even if the Blackboard mechanism allows instructors simply not to send their information to CCC for clearance (and it is unclear if it is, or eventually could become, a compulsory mechanism), the simple fact that clearance is becoming a technical default means that more and more instructors will default to it rather than invoking fair use."

Google's battle over library books

Google's battle over library books
by ELINOR MILLS
CNet News.com, publication date: 24 October 2005
"However, David Drummond, Google's general counsel, argued that Google's plans fall under the "fair use" provisions of U.S. copyright law, which do not require getting authorization from copyright holders in certain circumstances.

Last month, the Authors Guild, filed suit against Google, and this week the Association of American Publishers sued on behalf of McGraw-Hill, Simon & Schuster, John Wiley & Sons, Pearson Education and the Penguin Group"

What Are Affirmative Defenses?

What Are Affirmative Defenses?
by WILLIAM PATRY
The Patry Copyright Blog, publication date: 12 October 2005
"In Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises, the Supreme Court held (at my urging) that fair use is an affirmative defense. It has to be pled by defendant, who has the burden of proving it."

Copyright for the digital age

Copyright for the digital age
by BILL THOMPSON
BBC News, publication date: 17 October 2005
"The [Adelphi] charter continues that tradition, trying to make sense of a body of intellectual property law that is increasingly seen as unsupportable and damaging both to the development of the new economy and to the creative freedom that new technologies should make possible."

Who Did the Trade Minister Consult About Copyright?

Who Did the Trade Minister Consult About Copyright?
by RAMPHOLO MOLEFHE [Botswana]
allAfrica.com, publication date: 17 October 2005
"Secondly, there is the matter of principle. Government is busy with the
business of privatisation and it has framed what is now popularly known as
the 'privatisation master plan'.
The government now forms a copyright company that it wants to run at the
same time as it wants to give the impression that it is serious about
privatisation. What exactly does the government want to do?"

Judge laments lack of central copyright register

Judge laments lack of central copyright register
by NICK GENTLE
AsiaMedia, publication date: 16 October 2005
"It has been alleged that Cheung, chief shareholder in Topwide, signed a deal with a Thai company to produce VCDs in Hong Kong for distribution across Thailand. He had been given documents written in Thai purporting to be licensing agreements for reproducing those works in Hong Kong.

But unbeknownst to him, according to his defence counsel, the alleged licensing agreements were no good outside Thailand."

Copyright activists let off steam in London

Copyright activists let off steam in London
by INGRID MARSON
ZDNet UK, publication date: 17 October 2005
"A number of other copyright activists spoke at the event, including Salim Fadhley, an open source developer for the Plone CMS and Zope application server projects. He said that recent developments in the entertainment
industry confound the music industry's view that copyright promotes
creativity."

The big picture behind Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, Real, and Sun deal-o-mania

The big picture behind Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, Real, and Sun deal-o-mania
by DAVID BERLIND
Between the Lines, publication date: 13 October 2005
"Meanwhile Microsoft has a competing technology for music, but it's not doing nearly as well as Apple's. At least not yet. It's busy licensing it's playback and DRM technologies to as many licensees as it can to create the same sort of feeding frenzy around its PlaysForSure ecosystem has it did with system vendors for the Windows ecosystem (much to the chagrin of Apple). It's even giving away its DRM technology until the end of the year just to stimulate interest. By the time 2009 rolls around, when analysts think MP3-player demand will spike, I suspect the balance of power in the audio market will have shifted substantially towards the direction of the Microsoft PlaysForSure ecoysystem."
via Dan Gillmor

Europeans paying twice over for music downloads

Europeans paying twice over for music downloads
by SIMON AUGHTON
PC Pro, publication date: 14 October 2005
"The Business Software Alliance has found that most Europeans are paying 'private copying' levies on digital equipment. The monies collected are going to record companies and other copyright holders as compensation for supposed lost income as a result of copying."

PSU cracks down on copyright law

PSU cracks down on copyright law
The Daily Vanguard [Portland State University], publication date: 14 October 2005
"Following copyright law is not only time-consuming, it's more expensive, especially because the copyright holder sets the price. When the copy center gets a packet request, they obtain the copyright license and that fee gets factored into the price of the packet and the cost gets transferred to the student."

Sneak Preview of FEPP'S Fair Use Research Project Report

Sneak Preview of FEPP'S Fair Use Research Project Report
Brennan Center for Justice, NYU School of Law, publication date: October 2005
"But the digital age, bringing with it a tilt toward increased control by owners of 'intellectual property' (or 'IP'), now poses a major challenge to fair use, and to related doctrines that protect free expression under trademark law.3 The employment of 'digital rights management' to restrict access to and copying of cultural products;"
via Siva Vaidhyanathan

Time-Shifted Video for the Masses

Time-Shifted Video for the Masses
by JENNY LEVINE
ALA TechSource, publication date: 12 October 2005
"All very interesting, but it worries me all the more when all of this is sold directly to the consumer and bypasses libraries. It's times like this I re-light a candle that Audible will wake up from its coma and bridge the Digital Rights Management (DRM) gap between libraries and iPods. Right now, I believe OverDrive is the only company that lets libraries circulate copyright-protected videos, but of course Overdrive's Windows-Media-encrypted files don't work on iPods."

Apple's new thing? Video iPod. But more crap-o copy-blocking.

Apple's new thing? Video iPod. But more crap-o copy-blocking.
by XENI JARDIN
Boing Boing, publication date: 12 October 2005
"But if you believe that hardware manufacturers shouldn't restrict your ability to enjoy video files you've purchased and have the legal right to play, you'll be disappointed."

CCC/Blackboard Integration

CCC/Blackboard Integration
by MIKE MADISON
Madisonian.net, publication date: 11 October 2005
"If you are using a CCC-enabled Blackboard system, is there any justification for relying on fair use in connection with teaching materials? As a practical matter, I doubt it. The CCC has taken even the Steve Martin defense "I forgot" out of the equation."
[Ed. note: In my previous job I was a Reserve librarian, overseeing our then brand new Electronic Reserve Service. When the CCC started offering permissions clearance for e-reserves, they introduced a $5 per request fee, regardless of whether or not the publisher actually agreed to grant them. They are also responsible for introducing a per-student charge into the permissions equation, and the result has been an enormous increase in the amount of money charged by publishers. Digital should not be an excuse to gouge the customer but libraries are so fearful on the copyright issue that they are paying. Here's hoping more universities just say no to the CCC.]

Stopping the Signal: Broadcast Flag Update #2

Stopping the Signal: Broadcast Flag Update #2
by DONNA WENTWORTH
Copyfight, publication date: 10 October 2005
"In other words, if government-mandated DRM + the DMCA remove your rights, Congressman Barton wants a way for you to take them back. Which Patrick Ross tells us is bad because it infringes upon...the freedom of corporations to impose a unilateral 'contract.'"

RIAA Sues Three Harvard Network Users for Music Copyright Infringement in New Round of Law Suits

RIAA Sues Three Harvard Network Users for Music Copyright Infringement in New Round of Law Suits
by MATTHEW S. LEBOWITZ
The Harvard Crimson, publication date: 11 October 2005
"The lawsuits accuse all of the university-network defendants of using i2hub--a software program that allows users to upload and download files over the intercollegiate network Internet--to illegally share copyrighted music.
"

Of Piracy, Motherboards, and Microsoft

Of Piracy, Motherboards, and Microsoft
by ED FOSTER
The Gripelog, publication date: 11 October 2005
"In other words, the reader's customer -- who has done nothing wrong other than have a motherboard fail on him -- has the choice of paying ransom to E-Machines or to Microsoft to have a functioning OS again. Which led the reader to wonder just what would constitute piracy in such a situation."

We've Not Seen the Last of The Copyright Class Action

We've Not Seen the Last of The Copyright Class Action
by CAROLE EBBINGHOUSE
Information Today, publication date: 10 October 2005
Quoting Edward Hasbrouck:
"On the eve of the court hearing scheduled for this coming Tuesday to decide whether to approve a proposed settlement giving the New York Times and its co-defendant copyright infringers future rights in perpetuity to sell, license, and sublicense the electronic rights to freelance articles that they've been stealing for years, the Times this past Monday began charging new fees (a US$50 monthly subscription fee and/or a per-article fee, none of which goes to the authors) for online access to articles (including those to which the Times has never paid for, nor acquired, the electronic rights).

The Times has been gearing up for this for months. So it's odd that they launched the new subscription fee and services now, rather than waiting a week for the settlement granting them rights to be approved. But their greed is, apparently, impatient."

Copying is Still the Sincerest Form of Flattery

Copying is Still the Sincerest Form of Flattery
by JOHN MAEDA
Simplicity, publication date: 06 October 2005
"Lexi was reeling from an interview from the previous evening where someone asked her how she felt about her movie being available to download for free off the Internet. First of all, she was surprised that it had happened to her movie. Second of all, she wasn't happy. Uh uh."

Any DVDs, Games You Want Cracked?

Any DVDs, Games You Want Cracked?
by HOLLY J. WAGNER
Wired News, publication date: 07 October 2005
"The DMCA forbids cracking of copy-protected or encrypted digital media, with certain exceptions. When the law was passed, Congress mandated the register of copyrights revisit the anti-circumvention section every three years to make sure consumers have proper access to materials they purchased -- even if content creators have them locked down.


If the copyright office finds instances where copy protection prevents fair use of the work, then those copy protections can be legally circumvented.


'I suspect that we will hear shortly from people who feel they have not been able to use copyrighted materials because of the DMCA,' said Ralph Oman, an intellectual property attorney and former register of copyrights."

iTunes for video? Don't hold your breath

iTunes for video? Don't hold your breath
by ALORIE GILBERT
CNET News.com, publication date: 06 October 2005
"Not surprisingly, the panelists expressed little sympathy for the music industry and its plight with illegal file sharing. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a high-definition TV venture, said lawsuits against consumers are mainly a way for the recording industry to distract people from the fact that their business is in decline. 'They need a boogeyman,' he said.

Fellow panelist Michael Powell, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, put it another way: 'Hiring lawyers is easier than innovating.'"

It's a case of who owns the words

It's a case of who owns the words
by Alex Beam
Boston Globe, publication date: 04 October 2005
"...The New Yorker can publish the DVDs because of a Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision in March involving National Geographic, which put out a digital version of the ''Complete National Geographic" in 1997. ''They were sued," Klaris says, ''and the Second Circuit held that an image-based compilation in context, like theirs, was protected" by the Copyright Act. ''As long as you maintain the integrity of your collected work, you can publish it in any medium. We have a copyright on that package."

But this situation looks very different over at the National Geographic Society, which had to take CNG off the shelves two years ago and has not put it back on sale since."
via FurdLog

RIAA Takes Shotgun to Traders

RIAA Takes Shotgun to Traders
by BRUCE GAIN
Wired News, publication date: 04 October 2005
"The RIAA began its litigation campaign in September 2003, resulting in more than 14,000 lawsuits. So far, more than 3,300 parties have settled, which the RIAA says proves the overwhelming majority of those summoned are guilty of stealing copyright files.

But attorneys representing many of the accused say that's not true. Estimates of how many people are being wrongly targeted for illegal file sharing vary, from hundreds to many more."

Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies

Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies
Copyright Office, Library of Congress
Federal Register, publication date: 03 October 2005"The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress is preparing to conduct proceedings in accordance with section 1201(a)(1) of the Copyright Act, which was added by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and which provides that the Librarian of Congress may exempt certain classes of works from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works."

WIPO Negotiators Agree On Way Forward For Broadcasting Treaty

WIPO Negotiators Agree On Way Forward For Broadcasting Treaty
Intellectual Property Watch, publication date: 03 October 2005
"The proposal for a diplomatic conference had significant support from developed and developing countries alike, but some countries had resisted pre-approving the negotiation until they could ensure what the text to be negotiated look like. There are a number of concerns about the substance of the treaty, including whether it will ultimately cover webcasting despite objection by most member states."

Politicians want to raise broadcast flag

Politicians want to raise broadcast flag
by DECLAN MCCULLAGH
CNET News.com, publication date: 30 September 2005
"No legislation has advanced in either the House or the Senate, but opponents of the broadcast flag have been warning that the proposal could be attached to spending bills. The bill funding the Federal Communications Commission through 2006, for instance, is still before a conference committee."

Yahoo backs new digital book group

Yahoo backs new digital book group
by ERIC AUCHARD
Reuters, publication date: 03 October 2005
"The organization, known as the Open Content Alliance (OCA), plans to create a unified storehouse of both public domain and copyrighted materials, hosted by the Internet Archive"

Yahoo Works With 2 Academic Libraries and Other Archives on Project to Digitize Collections

Yahoo Works With 2 Academic Libraries and Other Archives on Project to Digitize Collections
by SCOTT CARLSON and JEFFREY R. YOUNG
The Chronicle of Higher Education, publication date: 03 October 2005
"Leaders of the project stressed that no books that are under copyright will be scanned unless the copyright holders give explicit permission."

By Tearing Open That Cardboard Box, Are You Also Signing on the Dotted Line?

By Tearing Open That Cardboard Box, Are You Also Signing on the Dotted Line?warning: subscription required
by J.D. BIERSDORFER
The New York Times, publication date: 03 October 2005
"A recent decision in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reinforced the right of companies, in this case Lexmark International, the printer maker, to legally limit what customers can do with a patented product, given that the company spells out conditions and restrictions on a package label known as a box-top license."

when media becomes culture: rethinking copyright issues

when media becomes culture: rethinking copyright issues
by DANAH BOYD
Apophenia, publication date: 29 September 2005
[listening to Danah speak now at LITA National Forum 2005]
"But with media saturating our culture, how do we express ourselves devoid of references to copyrighted material? Why can't a kid wear a hand-made iPod costume for Halloween? Why can't i tell my story through the songs that i've listened to over the years? Media is the building block of storytelling and it has become so essential to what we do"

Search and Rescue

Search and Rescue
by TIM O'REILLY
The New York Times, publication date: 28 September 2005
"As both an author and publisher, I find the Guild's position to be exactly backward. Google Library promises to be a boon to authors, publishers and readers if Google sticks to its stated goal of creating a tool that helps people discover (and potentially pay for) copyrighted works."

You Are the MPAA: A Broadcast Flag Update

You Are the MPAA: A Broadcast Flag Update
by DANNY O'BRIEN
EFF, publication date: 26 September 2005
"Listen. Suppose our sympatico politicos carve out a bunch of Digital TV provisions that, in fact, do have something to do with government finance? Suppose they stick those provisions in the Senate Commerce Committee's reconciliations bill (due October 26th), where they're practically untouchable?
But some key clauses on which these provisions depend will be omitted.
Consequently, it will it be vitally important that Congress passes another Digital TV bill to fill the gaps.
That Digital TV bill will contain -- oh, look at that! -- the Broadcast Flag language. Oh, and the RIAA's Digital Radio Broadcast Flag, too, just for the sake of completeness."

More rights are wrong for webcasters

More rights are wrong for webcasters
by JAMES BOYLE
Financial Times, publication date: 26 September 2005
"The World Intellectual Property Organisation has now managed to combine all three lamentable tendencies at once. The Broadcasting and Webcasting Treaty, currently being debated in Geneva, is an IP hat trick."

Top 10 worst products

Top 10 worst products
by TOM MERRITT
CNet, publication date: September 2005
"8. Flexplay
This is an idea whose time seems to keep coming up over and over again: self-destructive DVDs. Flexplay is still at it in Japan and hoping the idea will catch fire."

One IP Right to Rule Them All

One IP Right to Rule Them All
by DONNA WENTWORTH
Copyfight, publication date: 19 September 2005
"Copyright may be the 800-pound gorilla of the Internet, but there's a brand-new pseudo copyright in the works capable of swallowing massive chunks of the public domain, bones and all."

Movie Studios Form DRM Lab

Movie Studios Form DRM Lab
by ED FELTEN
Freedom to Tinker, publication date: 20 September 2005
"The only sensible explanation for this move is that Hollywood really believes that there are easily-discovered anti-copying technologies that the technology industry has failed to find.

So Hollywood is still in denial about digital copying."

Google Can Cover Potential Costs Of Copyright Lawsuit

Google Can Cover Potential Costs Of Copyright Lawsuit
by PETER KANG
Forbes, publication date: 22 September 2005
"'While we think the news is cause for concern, we believe that Google possesses more than adequate financial strength to cover potential legal costs,' said S&P Equity Research."

Court orders copyright filter on Kazaa

Court orders copyright filter on Kazaa
by DAVID FICKLING
Guardian Unlimited [UK], publication date: 06 September 2005
"Internet file-swapping was dealt a fresh blow yesterday after the Australian federal court ordered the world's largest file-sharing service to filter out copyrighted material from its network."

Blizzard wins in court over reverse-engineered games

Blizzard wins in court over reverse-engineered games
by AARON McKENNA
The Inquirer, publication date: 02 September 2005
"In October of last year a court ruled that this was copyright infringement under the DMCA, and now the court of appeals has upheld the decision. As well as infringing copyright the court pointed out the End User License Agreement for the games reverse engineered which prohibits reverse engineering."

Courts Unlikely To Stop Google Book Copying

Courts Unlikely To Stop Google Book Copying
by CHRISTOPHER T. HEUN
Internet Week, publication date: 02 September 2005
“The principle that Google should have to ask [for permission] is proving untenable,” says Jessica Litman, a professor at Wayne State University Law School who has published a book on protecting intellectual property on the Internet, “Digital Copyright.” “The opt-out mechanism is pretty reasonable.”

The benefits of mutual distrust

The benefits of mutual distrust
by DAVID SOHN
CNet News.com, publication date: 25 August 2005
"The court threaded the needle by saying the song-swapping services could be liable if they actively encouraged their users to violate copyright laws--but not simply for making the technology. In effect, the court sent the message that the law should be used to punish bad behavior, not to single out technology."

Europe vs. Google

Europe vs. Google
by HILMAR SCHMUNDT
Salon, publication date: 25 August 2005
"The work in the University of Göttingen library's digitization center is moving along at a steady clip. The project's nine full-time employees have already digitized more than 4 million pages from periodicals and thousands of volumes of books and transferred the data to the center's server, from which it can be downloaded in a matter of seconds through any computer connected to the system.

But while it may at first sound like a lot, library director Elmar Mittler is far from satisfied. 'It's enough to drive you to despair,' he says, speaking so quietly that one has to lean forward to understand him. But then he slaps his hand against the table and adds: 'It's hard to believe how Germany has wasted its opportunities with digitization. Others are moving ahead, while we write reports.'"

W3C objects to U.S. Copyright Office's browser plan

W3C objects to U.S. Copyright Office's browser plan
by LINDA ROSENCRANCE and PAUL KRILL
ComputerWorld, publication date: 24 August 2005
"'From a practical perspective, the single-vendor restriction will deny preregistration benefits entirely to broad classes of creators of covered copyrighted works,' the W3C officials said.
The W3C also stressed that the Web 'was born and achieved widespread use only because of a commitment to open, vendor-neutral standards.'"

Toshiba's Nishida Sees Sony DVD Talks At Impasse

Toshiba's Nishida Sees Sony DVD Talks At Impasse
by CHRIS NOON
Forbes, publication date: 24 August 2005
"Certainly not good for the businesses--should each decide to pursue their own disks, disk players and separate content, the costs could run to billions. As for the consumer, one analyst reckoned baffled shoppers most likely stick to 'normal' DVDs until a single format is established. "

How label-backed P2P was born

How label-backed P2P was born
by JOHN BORLAND
CNet News.com, publication date:22 August 2005
"Their relationship led to the creation of Mashboxx, a new kind of peer-to-peer company that's expected to go live in mid-September. Mashboxx is one of several avowedly law-abiding, peer-to-peer companies trying to thrive in the wake of June's landmark Supreme Court decision that found Grokster potentially liable for copyright infringement."

Sun launches open-source digital rights plan

Sun launches open-source digital rights plan
by STEPHEN SHANKLAND
CNet News.com, publication date: 21 August 2005
Dream's components include software for letting different DRM systems interoperate based on credentials held by individuals, not by particular devices; server software for delivering streaming video; and Java software for managing video streams.

Dave Matthews Band v. DRM?

Dave Matthews Band v. DRM?
by DONNA WENTWORTH
Copyfight, publication date: 16 August 2005

Copyright reform lends itself to libraries

Copyright reform lends itself to libraries
ZDNet UK Comment, publication date: 15 August 2005
"Copyright is not an absolute right; it is a triangular deal between state, commerce and individual."

Orphan Works

Orphan Workswarning: this is a direct link to a PDF file
by WALT CRAWFORD
Cites & Insights, Vol 5, No 10, September 2005
"I say “distinct” because 18 comments (if I count right) are identical to an astonishing 126-page illustrators’ screed, http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/comments/OW0660-Holland-Turner.pdf, which in its first four pages denounces Creative Commons, asserts that the whole “orphaned works” concept is part of a movement to “subvert existing copyright protection for other work,” and claims that commercial stockhouses would declare huge quantities of materials “orphan” simply to save money. "

Britney to Rent, Lease or Buy

Britney to Rent, Lease or Buy
by DAVID POGUE
New York Times, publication date: 07 August 2005
"One intriguing alternative is the subscription plan allowing unlimited downloads that is currently offered by Napster, Yahoo and Rhapsody.
...
Unfortunately, there's enough fine print to fill a phone book. The biggest footnote is that if you ever stop paying the fee, you're left with nothing but memories; all the music self-destructs. You're not buying songs under this plan - you're just renting them. (A famous Napster ad claims that filling an iPod, at $1 a song, would cost you $10,000. But you could just as truthfully say that, under Napster's plan, listening to one favorite song for 20 years would cost you $3,600.)"

US Copyright Office Considering MSIE-only Service

US Copyright Office Considering MSIE-only Service
Technocrat.net posting, publication date: 09 August 2005
"The US Copyright Office is considering requiring MSIE for pre-registration to the exclusion of other browsers. It has posted a notice asking as to whether persons filing the electronic-only preregistration form will experience difficulties if it is necessary to use MSIE in order to pre-register a work. "

Irish pioneer pilloried for file-swap software

Irish pioneer pilloried for file-swap software
by ADRIAN RUSSELL
The Sunday Times, publication date: 07 August 2005
"AN Irish software designer has been attacked by security experts for developing a programme that will allow internet users to share files anonymously."

Camcording Warez Dealer Bagged by Feds

Camcording Warez Dealer Bagged by Feds
by ROY MARK
Internet News, publication date: 04 August 2005
"Curtis Salisbury, 19, of St. Charles, Mo., was charged in a five-count indictment claiming he used a camcorder in movie theaters to copy recent theatrical releases. He then uploaded the copies to a computer network for distribution"

Back from vacation.

Finally back, physcially and mentally, from vacation.

Don't own your textbooks, rent them!

Don't own your textbooks, rent them!
by JESSAMYN WEST
Librarian.net, publication date: 07 August 2005
'Princeton University is experimenting with textbooks that have Digital Rights Management embedded in them. They have a lot of nerve calling a textbook that expires in five months "universal". '

In Canada: Cache a page, go to jail?

In Canada: Cache a page, go to jail?
by ELINOR MILLS
CNet News, publication date: 19 July 2005
"But according to Howard Knopf, a copyright attorney at the Ottawa firm of Macera & Jarzyna, a brief passage in the bill could mean trouble for search engines and other companies that archive or cache Web content.

'The way it reads, arguably what they're saying is that the very act of making a reproduction by way of caching is illegal,' Knopf said."

Sino-US Cooperation on Film Copyright

Sino-US Cooperation on Film Copyright

CRI [China Radio International] Online, publication date: 13 July 2005"Every three months the Motion Picture Association of America will submit to the Chinese government the specific information of the films produced by its member companies, and the Chinese government will launch a special campaign against their pirating."

Copyright Registration Isn’t Mandatory, So Why Register Your Claim?

Copyright Registration Isn’t Mandatory, So Why Register Your Claim?
by A. José Cortina
Local Tech Wire.com, publication date: 13 July 2005
"Federal law provides that a copyright holder cannot sue someone for copyright infringement in a U.S. court unless and until the copyright is registered. Thus, even though the work is copyrighted from the moment of creation, the copyright cannot be enforced until the owner of the work obtains registration of the copyright from the U.S. Copyright Office."

Copyright: infringement proceedings against France, Finland, Spain and the Czech Republic for non-implementation of 2001 Copyright Directive

Copyright: infringement proceedings against France, Finland, Spain and the Czech Republic for non-implementation of 2001 Copyright Directive
Press Release
European Union, publication date: 13 July 2005
"The European Commission has taken action against three Member States and initiated informal contact with another to ensure that they implement the 2001 Copyright Directive, which all Member States had agreed to do before 22 December 2002. The Commission has decided, under Article 228 of the EC Treaty,
to send France and Finland further 'reasoned opinions' requesting them to comply immediately with the previous judgments of the European Court of Justice on their non-implementation of the 2001 Copyright Directive."

Sony BMG reaches licensing deal with iMesh

Sony BMG reaches licensing deal with iMesh
Reuters
CNet News, publication date: 09 July 2005
"Other peer-to-peer services have been formed to satisfy the entertainment industry's demand to be compensated for songs like Mashboxx, headed by former Grokster President Wayne Rosso, which has also reached a licensing deal with Sony BMG."

EU to propose licencing reform for online music copyright

EU to propose licencing reform for online music copyright
AFX News Limited
Forbes, publication date: 05 July 2005
"An EU official, on condition of anonymity, said the report concludes that the system has to be improved and that cross-border copyright management firms should be set up."

Slingbox could spark new lawsuits

Slingbox could spark new lawsuits
by ANDREW WALLENSTEIN
Hollywood Reporter, publication date: 06 July 2005
"New to the shelves of Best Buy and CompUSA this month is Slingbox, a brick-sized device that enables viewers to route the live television signal coming into their homes to a portable device anywhere on the globe via broadband connection. Slingbox costs $250 and has no subsequent subscription fee; several stores sold out on the first day."

SCO denied motion to change IBM case again

SCO denied motion to change IBM case again
by MATTHEW ASLETT
Computer Business Review Online, publication date: 05 July 2005
"The Lindon, Utah-based Unix vendor first sued IBM in March 2003 claiming IBM breached a contract by contributing Unix code to the Linux open source operating system. It has subsequently changed its case twice, but has been denied the chance to do so a third time.
'To permit the proposed amendment would expand this already sizable and complex litigation and would serve only to delay its resolution,' wrote US District Judge Dale Kimball in his order. 'Furthermore SCO has twice amended its complaint during this litigation, and the deadline for seeking leave to further amend has long-since passed.'"

Man convicted for chipping Xbox

Man convicted for chipping Xbox
BBC News, publication date: 04 July 2005
"In this case, the man was tracked down by an investigator working for the UK games industry trade body, the Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association, (Elspa).

The man, who has not yet been named, was selling modified Xbox consoles, fitted with a 200GB hard drive and 80 pre-installed games, via his website for £380."

Patently absurd

Patently absurd
by RICHARD STALLMAN
SMH.com.au (Sydney Morning Herald), publication date: 05 July 2005
"This month, the European Parliament will vote on the vital
question of whether to allow patents covering software, which would
restrict every computer user and tie software developers up in
knots."

Google & Other Search Engines: The WMDs Of Copyright Infringement

Google & Other Search Engines: The WMDs Of Copyright Infringement
by DANNY SULLIVAN
Search Engine Watch, publication date: 05 July 2005
"Google Video's taping of television content without prior permission is said to have had executives at CBS and Warner Bros. extremely upset. 'We're not just going to give
this away for free,' said a CBS exec, upset also not to have gained the 'proper respect' as a potential partner. "

Copyright literature current awareness

A great new copyright site from Tobe Liebert at the University of Texas at Austin Tarlton Law Library.

Copyright literature current awareness
"The 'Current copyright literature' website is a resource for keeping informed of current articles related to U.S. copyright law. This service is edited by Tobe Liebert, the Assistant Director for Collection Development & Special Projects at the Tarlton Law Library.
Here's the process: I review law journals and law reviews (and a great many other legal periodicals) as they are received in the library. I examine the table of contents of all of these publications and identify any article concerning U.S. copyright law. I then input the basic bibliographic information about each article into this database, and scan the first page of the article. The availability of the first page of the article should better enable readers to know if they are interested in reading the whole article."

DRM-related Effects of the Grokster Ruling

DRM-related Effects of the Grokster Ruling
by GINGER COX
DRM Blog, publication date: 27 June 2005
"On all but the smallest of scales, it is not a feasible method for monitoring illegal activity on a network or software system. Thus, to protect a company from contributory infringement liability, the only remaining approach is to introduce some sort of DRM to limit illegal use."

Correcting Course: Conference Program

Correcting Course: Conference Program
Take a break from Grokster. The webcasts and papers from the May 5-7 conference at Columbia are available online.

BitTorrent Whiz Extolled Piracy?

BitTorrent Whiz Extolled Piracy?
by KATIE DEAN and KEVIN POULSEN
Wired News, publication date: 30 June 2005
"Cohen has never publicly encouraged piracy, and he has consistently maintained that he wrote BitTorrent as a legitimate file-distribution tool. That would seem to make him and his budding company, BitTorrent, safe under the Grokster ruling.


But legal experts worry the newly discovered manifesto extolling 'digital piracy' could put him on less certain legal ground."

Tech firms call for approval of cybercrime treaty

Tech firms call for approval of cybercrime treaty
by DECLAN MCCULLAGH
CNet News.com, publication date: 29 June 2005
"The treaty also includes stiff copyright-related penalties. It says participating nations must enact criminal laws targeting Internet piracy and circumvention devices--a measure akin to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act--when acts 'are committed willfully, on a commercial scale and by means of a computer system.'"

[Editors note] EDUCAUSE loosens DRM

I received a very nice note from someone at EDUCAUSE about their policy of locking PDFs in their library (see earlier post). They've decided to loosen their policy to allow commenting; you can now download copies of documents and mark them up locally. Unfortunately, copy and pasting of text is still not supported, but progress is progress. Thank you EDUCAUSE. Anyone else want to copy and paste? Please drop the nice folks at EDUCAUSE a line.

-Claire

"Ten Years of Chilled Innovation"

"Ten Years of Chilled Innovation"
Q&A with LAWRENCE LESSIG
BusinessWeek, publication date: 29 June 2005
"Q: So the problem with the decision is just that the Supreme Court rendered an opinion at all, rather than letting legislators decide?
A: Right. By making it a process that goes through the courts, you've just increased the legal uncertainty around innovation substantially and created great opportunities to defeat legitimate competition. You've shifted an enormous amount of power to those who oppose new types of competitive technologies"

Spanier comments on Supreme Court decision over copyright issues

Spanier comments on Supreme Court decision over copyright issues
Statement by Graham B. Spanier, President, Penn State University
"'Working with music and motion picture executives, the higher education community has made tremendous progress in addressing piracy on our college campuses. Yet there is considerable work still to be done. '

[Penn State Live] Editor's note: Penn State University became the first university to launch a comprehensive alternative solution to the illegal downloading of music. Since then, more than 40 colleges across the country have followed suit."

Analysis: What the ruling against Grokster really means

Analysis: What the ruling against Grokster really means
by SCOTT FULTON
Tom's Hardware Guide, publication date: 27 June 2005
"This morning's ruling makes multiple references to the 1984 Sony case. But it appears to define new circumstances in which the classic 'Betamax defense' may no longer apply.

'What's scary--and I use that word advisedly--is that we have, by virtue of this ruling, now exchanged the really pretty clear and economic beneficial certainty for innovators and developers of creative devices and software, that we've been living with under the Sony Betamax case for the last 20 years, for a new and clearly fact-intensive and ultimately litigation-intensive set of untried tests," said Adam Eisgrau, Executive Director of P2P United, a peer-to-peer industry trade group."

Grokster ruling could spawn legal file-sharing

Grokster ruling could spawn legal file-sharing
by PHILIPPE NAUGHTON
Times Online, publication date: 28 June 2005
"Mr Taylor, and others, suggested that one result of the ruling might be that companies presently engaged in illegal file-sharing might now try to build up legitimate business using the same peer-to-peer technology to allow users to swap licensed copies of songs."

Business model as evidence of intent

Business model as evidence of intent
by ED FELTEN
Freedom to Tinker, publication date: 27 June 2005

METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIOS INC., et al.,PETITIONERS v. GROKSTER, LTD., et al.

METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIOS INC., et al.,PETITIONERS v. GROKSTER, LTD., et al.
Opinion of the [United States Supreme] Court
from the Cornell Legal Information Institute, publication date: 27 June 2005

Supreme Court clarifies Sony decision, fair use preserved

Supreme Court clarifies Sony decision, fair use preserved
American Library Association press release , publication date: 27 June 2005

Grokster loses

Grokster loses
by Ed Felten
Freedom to Tinker, publication date: 27 June 2005

Grokster coverage from CNet

Grokster coverage from CNet
publication date: 27 June - present, 2005

Copyright-Worried Photo Labs Spurn Jobs

Copyright-Worried Photo Labs Spurn Jobs
Associated Press
Forbes, publication date: 06 June 2005
"When Morgan's mother and a client recently took CDs with some of his shots to a printing lab, the photo technicians spurned them. They said that since the shots seemed to have been taken by a professional, printing the pictures might be a copyright violation."

Register of Copyrights Misunderstands Copyright

Register of Copyrights Misunderstands Copyright
by ED FELTEN
Freedom to Tinker, publication date: 17 May 2005
"Note the subtle rewriting of the Constitutional language. The Constitution does not direct Congress to establish copyright, but merely allows it to do so. Let%u2019s be clear: the implication that the Founders would approve of today%u2019s copyright statute finds no real support in the historical record."

Technology Paradigm Wars

Technology Paradigm Wars
DRM blog, publication date: 17 June 2005
"Released just three days ago by RCA, the new Foo Fighters CD contains DRM that supposedly prevents the CD from being loaded and ripped via iTunes. Customers are already complaining that their legally purchased music isn't worth the money they paid for it because they can only listen to it in CD players."

European economic group recommends P2P to Big Content, Snocap opens its database

European economic group recommends P2P to Big Content, Snocap opens its database
by HANNIBAL
ArsTechnica, publication date: 13 June 2005
"For instance, the report found that there's no clear causal link between the rise of P2P and the fall of offline music sales. The report also recommends that the music industry 're-evaluate' its attitude toward P2P, and possibly by considering ways to operate legitimate P2P networks. In fact, the OECD seems generally up-beat about P2P as a technology, a fact that doesn't sit well with the RIAA."

[Editors note] Even lightweight DRM stinks, thank you EDUCAUSE

I'm sure I am not the first person to complain about this but I am seriously annoyed that EDUCAUSE locks most of the PDFs in its Resource Library. What I actually wanted to do was use the PDF highlighter tool to mark up a local copy; when I couldn't do that, I tried copying and pasting a few key passages to a text file. No go. I complained about this via their web feedback form:

"Why are so many of the PDF documents in the EDUCAUSE library locked? I cannot annotate a local copy of these works, nor can I, in most cases, copy and paste text excertps as I carry out my research. This is a baffling approach to distribution of these important works. Is there a universal password to unlock them?"

and today received the following response from an EDUCAUSE staffer:

"I am sorry that you are having a hard time with your research. The reason many of the PDF works are locked down from text copying is to protect them from being plagiarized and other types of copyright infringement.  If you need to have the work in text for copying purposes, I suggest that you use a PDF text converter. There are free downloads of this software on the web."

So, what she's saying is that they know it's easy for someone to break these silly locks. I don't understand why people think this kind of lightweight or speedbump DRM is a good idea. Someone who intends to plagiarize is surely going to be motivated to get the apparently free and easy-to-find software to rip the content.

The thing I hate most about DRM is that it punishes the law-abiding far more than the lawbreakers.

Grump.

Supremes deflect Lexmark's laser injunction bid

Supremes deflect Lexmark's laser injunction bid
by JOHN OATES
The Register, publication date: 08 June 2005
"Lexmark's cartridges includes a chip which must be authenticated by the printer before it will accept the new cartridge. Static Control Components makes a chip which replicates this 'handshake'. But the DMCA forbids any attempt to decrypt or decode technologies put in place to protect intellectual property."

Copyright Clearance Center and BioOne Partner to Expand Market Reach For Small Science Publishers

Copyright Clearance Center and BioOne Partner to Expand Market Reach For Small Science Publishers
Press Release
Business Wire, publication date: 01 June 2005
"'We believe it is essential for journal publishers to maximize the protection of their intellectual property and to cultivate new sources of income. Further, a proactive effort is needed to reach for the highest possible dissemination of articles for legitimate 'fair use'. However, many society and other nonprofit publishers lack the resources for administering such efforts and might even be unaware of the programs available to them.'"

Google Library Project Hit by Copyright Challenge from University Presses

Google Library Project Hit by Copyright Challenge from University Presses
by BARBARA QUINT
Forbes, publication date: 31 May 2005
"However, one or more of these organizations might view dealing with Google on behalf of a broader universe of authors as a desirable development. They might even be willing to develop a managed royalty collection system, such as the music industry has with ASCAP and BMI. Clearly any group succeeding in this kind of effort would become the leading author representative."

Google's Scan Plan Hits More Bumps

Google's Scan Plan Hits More Bumps
by DAVID WHELAN
Forbes, publication date: 31 May 2005
"Publishers don't know yet how much content from a particular book will be available to Google under fair use. Or even whether Google's digital copies of copyrighted books are permissible in the first place, even if they never get shared.

Google's Tom Turvey responded with a letter to the Web site Publisher's Lunch saying that publishers don't have to participate in its program. 'Publishers remain in complete control of which books are displayed on Google, just as Web publishers are regarding inclusion of their Web sites in the index. For any books scanned at libraries, publishers may simply choose not to display these books within Google's index--no questions asked.' "

Government cracks down on copyright infringement

Government cracks down on copyright infringement
Associated Press
The News Tribune [Tacoma, WA], publication date: 31 May 2005
"Until now, it was prohibited in Sweden to make copyright material available for others to download. But downloading such material was legal.
The new law also makes it illegal to copy an entire book, including textbooks, on a copying machine."

Copyright combat not over yet

Copyright combat not over yet
by ANNA BUCCI
National Post [Canada], publication date: 30 May 2005
"And finally, yes, CPCC uses a fraction of 1% of its revenues for the services of a government relations advisor (singular not plural) to ensure that legislators are aware of the concerns and views of rights holders and to engage communication specialists to correct the misinformation presented to the public about the private copying levy."

Theft Forces Change in Surgeon Testing

Theft Forces Change in Surgeon Testing warning: registration required
Associated Press
The New York Times, publication date: 30 May 2005
"Mr. Amshel, who passed the test in 2003, has had his board certification revoked. The board sued him, accusing him of copyright infringement and civil theft."

Sex Sells

Sex Sells
by SETH LUBOVE
Forbes, publication date: 06 June 2005
"Zadeh's demands are based in part on the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which governs the rights of copyright holders on the Internet and how to protest infringements. Courts have ruled in previous lawsuits that search engines are permitted to display thumbnail images provided they link to the copyright holder's Web site (whether they can link to full-size images is still a matter of debate)."

U.S. sends stern copyright warning to China

U.S. sends stern copyright warning to China
Associated Press
BusinessWeek, publication date: 2 June 2005
"'We can have a dispute about textile but do not believe that IPR rights are negotiable,' said Carlos Gutierrez, who spoke at an American Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Beijing. 'One is a contractual matter and the other is a crime and needs to be treated as such.'"

Tivo-like device for Web Radio creats furore [sic]

Tivo-like device for Web Radio creats furore [sic]
Reuters, publication date: 28 May 2005
"Cooper said that, under the Digital Copyright Millenium Act, users have no right to duplicate copyrighted material from a computer hard drive, only from a digital or analog recording device and then only for personal use and not for redistribution."

Google Print Goes Live

Google Print Goes Live
by SUSAN KUCHINSKAS
InternetNews.com, publication date: 27 May 2005
"One urgent question relates to the pay-per-use system for which Google has applied for a patent. 'What protection do copyright owners have against Google itself deciding to adopt a new business model that involves the direct exploitation of these copies by, for example, offering Google users access through the pay-per-view system for which Google has a patent application pending?'"

This week in copyright infringement

This week in copyright infringement
by STEVEN MUSIL
CNet News.com, publication date: 27 May 2005
"While federal authorities ramp up the attack on domestic piracy, two U.S. senators are urging the Bush administration to increase pressure on Russia and China to respect copyright law, warning that those nations have become havens for movie and software piracy."

Broadcast Flag Rears Its Ugly Head in DTV Transition Hearings

Broadcast Flag Rears Its Ugly Head in DTV Transition Hearings
by ERNEST MILLER
Copyfight, publication date: 27 May 2005
"Subsidies will only matter for a couple of years, the changes the Broadcast Flag will implement will last essentially forever. Doesn't any of these representatives realize what a major change they would be making in our technology/innovation environment?"

Piracy of Intellectual Property hearing

Piracy of Intellectual Property hearing
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
2:30 p.m. Eastern, Wednesday May 25, 2005

Google's books online under fire

Google's books online under fire
by MARK GREGORY
BBC News, publication date: 24 May 2005
"But from the start Google's recent plan met opposition. The letter to Google from the Association of American University Presses, which represents 125 non-profit-making academic publishers, is just the latest in a series of criticisms."

Will the Future Bring Even More Important Copyright Issues Than The Ones Raised by Online File-Swapping?

Will the Future Bring Even More Important Copyright Issues Than The Ones Raised by Online File-Swapping?
by JULIE HILDEN
FindLaw's Writ, publication date: 24 May 2005"Indeed, when I recently attended an industry conference, film and television company leaders shrugged their shoulders when the file-sharing issue came up. Either they haven't found a strategy to confront this issue, or they've decided it's wiser to keep it to themselves. But if disclosure threatens the strategy, it may not be much of a strategy at all: To be hackproof, a strategy ought to continue to be effective even after it's disclosed."

Congratulations to Belinda Stronach on her new cabinet position. | Digital Copyright Canada

Congratulations to Belinda Stronach on her new cabinet position.
by RUSSELL MCORMOND
Digital Copyright Canada [blog], publication date: 17 May 2005

China to implement first administrative regulations on Internet copyright protections

China to implement first administrative regulations on Internet copyright protections
Xinhua online, publication date: 17 May 2005
"According to the new measure, authors who find their copyrights pirated by the websites can inform the ISP in written form with concerning proofs. ISP will take quick reactions to the report after verification.

The State Council has already launched the draft work of 'Policies of Protecting Internet Information Spreading Rights,' which has stronger legal effect, Yan Xiaohong, deputy director of NCA said."

Hip-hop flip-flop

Hip-hop flip-flop
by JOHN BALZ
The Toronto Star, publication date: 16 May 2005
"If these cases are simply small artist attempts to extort money from established stars, the nobodies shouldn't hold their breath. Federal courts have been applying copyright standards and setting some new precedents. The first is that unknown artists should be wary of giving their demos to big names. In March, a court dismissed a lawsuit by Philadelphia songwriter Michael Lowe, who claimed Dr. Dre and Xzibit plagiarized his beats on Xzibit's Relentless album. Lowe said he gave a demo recording to a Dre associate to pass on to Dre, who used the track. While Lowe claimed Dre and Xzibit needed to provide evidence of their copyright of the beat, the court ruled the opposite: It was Lowe who needed to show that he owned the copyright."

Russell McOrmond on DRM Intermediaries

Russell McOrmond on DRM Intermediaries
DRM Blog, publication date: 11 May 2005
"Russell McOrmond, a freelance author and contributing editor to P2Pnet.net, has written an article that describes the perils of relying on media intermediaries such as DRM and device encryption manufacturers to control who accesses legally-protected content"

File-sharing site poised for "revolution"

File-sharing site poised for "revolution"
by JON HEALEY
The Seattle Times, publication date: 09 May 2005
"The Open Media Network's file-sharing technology, which comes from Kontiki of Sunnyvale, Calif., slashes distribution costs by having users download popular files from one another's computers, not the Open Media Network's servers.

Kontiki tries to deter piracy by keeping a tight lid on the material that users can share. This central control makes it difficult to publish copyright audio or video on the Open Media Network without the copyright owner's permission and easy to remove anything that proves to be pirated, Homer said.

The network also can distribute files with electronic locks, enabling copyright owners to restrict copying or demand fees for playback."

Copyright Body To Survey Businesses And Govt.

Copyright Body To Survey Businesses And Govt.
Press Release from Copyright Licensing Ltd [New Zealand]
Scoop independent news, publication date: 09 May 2005
"Over the next
couple of weeks more than 750 organisations in the business
and government sectors will be targeted and encouraged to
complete a multi-choice questionnaire. 'The purpose of the
survey,' explains Carmen Vietri, Business Development
Manager, CLL, 'is to get a snapshot of the usage of
copyright information during day-to-day business activities
and the possible licensing needs of the organisations that
use such information.'"

Crackdown on Piracy Hits Barrier

Crackdown on Piracy Hits Barrier
by Lorenza Muñoz and Jon Healey
Los Angeles Times, publication date: 09 May 2005
"Ashcroft agreed and formed a task force. Israelite spent six months listening to federal prosecutors, heads of movie studios, recording industry officials and software companies.

While Israelite pledged more enforcement from the Justice Department, Hollywood promised to increase its efforts to go after pirates by filing civil suits and launching education efforts. Now, the department has 18 specialized units nationwide that work only on copyright cases.

The department's task force "sent a message to a very large community of enforcers that intellectual property matters, and the behavioral consequences within the organization are enormous," said RIAA Chief Executive Mitch Bainwol."