Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Copyright bill: clause for concern

Copyright bill: clause for concern
by STEPHEN BELL WELLINGTON
Computerworld [New Zealand], publication date: 20 December 2006
"Nevertheless, Jackson says that InternetNZ is very concerned about provisions which would levy criminal charges and heavy penalties against those dealing in devices or instructions designed to circumvent technological protection mechanisms (TPMs).

While these features are reminiscent of the much criticised Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) enacted in the US, the local proposed legislation is “not as severe”, he says. "

Copyright Tool Will Scan Web For Violations

Copyright Tool Will Scan Web For Violations
by KEVIN J DELANEY
The Wall Street Journal, publication date: 18 December 2006
"To deal with the mounting copyright issues swirling around video and other content online, a start-up founded by some respected Silicon Valley executives is taking a novel approach: combing the entire Web for unauthorized uses.

Privately held Attributor Corp. of Redwood City, Calif., has begun testing a system to scan the billions of pages on the Web for clients' audio, video, images and text -- potentially making it easier for owners to request that Web sites take content down or provide payment for its use."

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Letter from Society of American Archivists to members of Congress about the Smithsonian/Showtime agreement

Letter from Society of American Archivists to members of Congress about the Smithsonian/Showtime agreement (pdf)
Society of American Archivists, publication date: 28 November 2006
"Using archival material held by a public institution to generate revenue for the institution through non-exclusive commercial alliances is an accepted practice among public archival institutions. But the Smithsonian's attempt to control use and distribution of information found in its archives through an exclusive agreement is virtually unprecedented among public archives. In our opinion, it is a violation of the public trust invested by donors and tax payers in public archives. We urge the Smithsonian to revisit the agreement and to abandon those portions that limit either access to the archives or distribution of a researcher's final results."