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."

Whither the Fourth Pillar of Fair Use

Whither the Fourth Pillar of Fair Use
by ERNEST MILLER (pointing to WILLIAM PATRY post)
The Importance Of, publication date 09 May 2005
"A couple of quick points that I would make would be that we should consider the question of substitution, that is, does the allegedly infringing work substitute for the market for the original?"

DRM and music research

DRM and music research
by CORY DOCTOROW
Boing boing, publication date: 05 May 2005
"Developing MP3, for example, surely required a lot of experimentation with popular music to field test and refine the codec. How will the developers of MP3's replacement perform comparable tests on an iTunes track?"

Hilary Rosen Laments Apple's DRM Strategy

Hilary Rosen Laments Apple's DRM Strategy
by ERNEST MILLER
Copyfight, publication date: 09 May 2005
"Hello? This was and is an obvious consequence of your DRM-ed world, Miss Rosen. Apple is simply doing what comes natural. Having insisted on the means for exclusion being legally protected (i.e. DMCA), Apple is using those means to exclude competitors."

A Win for Fair Use, Consumer Rights

A Win for Fair Use, Consumer Rights
by DAN GILLMOR
Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc, publication date: 06 May 2005
"But the broadcast flag sent a message both to customers and innovative technologists: We are in a pay-per-view world of hyper-controlled media, if the copyright decrees it, and you may not do anything to save your fair use or other traditional rights unless we approve."

Court yanks down FCC's broadcast flag

Court yanks down FCC's broadcast flag
by DECLAN MCCULLAGH
CNet News.com, publication date: 06 May 2005
'"The FCC has no authority to regulate consumer electronic devices that can be used for receipt of wire or radio communication when those devices are not engaged in the process of radio or wire transmission."'

Why DRM Sucks (Redux)

Why DRM Sucks (Redux)
by JENNY LEVINE
The Shifted Librarian, publication date: 04 Mary 2005
"But you know that's not the end of the story, right? I downloaded the new version of Rhapsody, which is really nice. It's a Flash app now, which means more functionality. I really like it, but every time I open the app, I get an error message that says my Windows DRM software has been corrupted so Rhapsody can't play the track. Not that I%u2019ve asked it to play a track, mind you. And I can stream music just fine, although I haven't tried burning anything yet. I assume that if I was to try the new "pay as you go" plan to put whatever music I want on my MP3 player, it would fail miserably."

Piracy legislation under the spotlight

Piracy legislation under the spotlight [South Africa]
ITWeb, publication date: 04 May 2005
"With the support of the US Embassy and Microsoft (SA), IPACT is to host a workshop focusing on trademark law, copyright law as well as the procedures under the Counterfeit Goods Act from a prosecution perspective in their drive to ensure the proper enforcement of intellectual property law in SA.
...
Mark Reynolds of Microsoft South Africa believes the successful prosecution and strong sentencing coming from the commercial crimes courts lately is a good indication that the collaboration between government and industry is paying off. He cites two recent prosecutions, that of the sentencing of Craig Marnoch (aka Rebel Software) who received three years in prison for trading in counterfeit Microsoft products and infringing Microsoft's copyright, and Marcus Mocke (aka Future Games) whose plea bargain led to an eight-year imprisonment sentence or a R400 000 fine, of which R375 000 and/or six years was suspended for five years. In each case the courts have handed down severe sentences - even for first time offenders."

Canadian Rejection Of DMCA Rejected By US

Canadian Rejection Of DMCA Rejected By US
by DAVID UTTER
WPN News, publication date: 02 May 2005
"The Canadian government has attempted to balance the rights of copyright holders and of users. Specifically, only circumvention of a copyright with the intent to infringe on that copyright would be illegal."

Pakistan - copyright piracy hub

Pakistan - copyright piracy hub
by AAMER AHMED KHAN
BBC News, publication date: 03 May 2005
"The organisation estimated in 2003 that Pakistani pirates were exporting more than 13 million CDs and DVDs to 46 countries every month. Since then the figure has gone up, it believes.
Global anti-piracy bodies are hoping that the coming into effect of an international agreement called TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) on 1 January this year may force a change in the situation."

New-age copyright

New-age copyright
The Daily News, Jacksonville NC, publication date: 02 Mary 2005
"The trouble is, this is about rapidly evolving technology, and using the law to prevent unauthorized copying is a blunt instrument that is seldom very effective. Furthermore, the MPAA has a terrible track record when it comes to new technologies. For instance, it used political influence to try to strangle both television and VCRs in their cribs.It will take years, perhaps decades, to sort through intellectual property issues in the digital age. Copyright laws were developed about 100 years after the invention of the printing press. Expanding existing law to new technologies, as this law does, is unlikely to be satisfactory."

Piracy in India causes US $500mn loss

Piracy in India causes US $500mn loss
HindustanTimes.com, publication date: 30 April 2005
"In addition, copyright piracy is rampant, and the US copyright industry estimates that lost sales resulting from piracy in India of US motion pictures, sound recordings, musical compositions, computer programmes, and books totalled approximately $500 million in 2004. India is not a party to the WIPO Internet Treaties."

Scouts to help protect copyright goods

Scouts to help protect copyright goods
Health and Community News, news.gov.hk, publication date: 30 April 2005
"The programme, co-organised by the Scout Association, Customs & Excise Department, Motion Picture Association and the Intellectual Property society, aims to provide copyright protection training to various levels of scouts from age seven to 65. There are around 100,000 scouts in Hong Kong."

"Kingdom" Comes to Copyright Spat

"Kingdom" Comes to Copyright Spat
by JOSH GROSSBERG
E! Online News, publication date: 29 April 2005
"'The essence of it is that this is a film that is derived from the first 100 pages of my book,' Reston tells the Associated Press."

DRM and libraries, what is useful to know

DRM and libraries, what is useful to know
by JESSAMYN WEST
Librarian.net, publication date: 29 April 2005