In The News

["Jack Boeve" <JBoeve@xxxxxxxx>]

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Companies attack EU copyright on music. By Tobias Buck, Financial Times,
July 11, 2007.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19700331/

Some of Europe's biggest media and telecoms groups have attacked the
European Commission's policy on music copyrights, warning that their
businesses and the continent's "cultural diversity" will suffer if
Brussels refuses to change track.

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Nightclubs to pay extra for play. By Iain Shedden & Susannah Moran, The
Australian, July 11, 2007.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22053197-2,00.html

Nightclubs might charge $20 for entry and $8 for a beer but until now
they have had to pay only 7c for each person to listen to a night's
worth of music. From today, clubs like Q Bar in Sydney and Melbourne's
Revolver will have to pay a lot more for the right to have recorded
music played on their premises, following a court ruling yesterday on
copyright license fees.

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Blog: Copyright Crash Course will be moving and be updated later this
summer. By Georgia Harper, Collectanea Blog, July 10, 2007.
http://chaucer.umuc.edu/blogcip/collectanea/2007/07/copyright_crash_cour
se_will_be.html

If you have ever used the Crash Course and have any suggestions, I would
very much appreciate hearing from you. The update I plan involves a
complete reorganization and a shift in emphasis more towards scholars
and graduate students, including more information about scholarly
publishing and all that's going on in the world of digital networked
communication. The information for librarians will be consolidated and
updated too.

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National Legal and Policy Center releases 'top 50' list of potentially
copyright infringing movies and other programs hosted on Google video.
NLPC, July 10, 2007.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,136505.shtml

On the heels of pirated copies of Michael Moore's Sicko and Universal's
Evan Almighty being hosted on Google Video before or days after their
scheduled releases, the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) today
launched a "Top 50" list
(http://www.nlpc.org/view.asp?action=viewArticle&;aid=2082) of other
full length movies, cable programs and music concerts that are hosted on
Google Video potentially without the copyright owner's knowledge or
permission.

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Swedish ministry proposes tougher file-sharing laws. Reuters, July 9,
2007.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070709/tot-uk-sweden-copyright-b86c26b.h
tml

Sweden's Justice Ministry on Monday proposed legislation that would
allow copyright holders to find out the identity of those illegally
sharing their music and movies over the Internet. If approved, the
legislation will bring Swedish intellectual property laws into line with
a 2004 European Union directive, a ministry spokesman said.

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Giving the Internet a sporting chance. By Michael Geist, Toronto Star,
July 9, 2007.
http://www.thestar.com/Business/Columnist/article/233700

In recent months, a growing number of leagues and sports associations
have sought to assert control over athlete blogging, posting photographs
and video online, and even the use of player statistics.

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Magician Uri Geller accused of bending copyright law. FoxNews,
Associated Press, July 9, 2007.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288665,00.html

Uri Geller became a 1970s superstar and made millions with an act that
included bending spoons, seemingly through the power of his own mind.
Now the online video generation is so bent out of shape over the
self-proclaimed psychic's behavior that he's fast reaching the same
Internet pariah status as the recording and movie industries.

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A bill approved in government: ISPs obliged to offer content filtering.
Israeli Internet Law Updates, July 8, 2007.
http://www.law.co.il/shownews.php?d=e&news=3633

Israeli ISPs will be obligated to offer their customers content
filtering services in order to block access to websites that provide
gambling, violent or pornographic content. Such content is deemed
inappropriate for minors as long as it does not have any artistic,
educational, scientific or other redeeming merit.

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Blog: James Boyle opines that signing on to CCC's new academic license
irresponsibly compromises fair use. By Georgia Harper, Collectanea Blog,
July 7, 2007.
http://chaucer.umuc.edu/blogcip/collectanea/2007/07/james_boyle_opines_t
hat_licens.html

I've read many works by Boyle and always find his analysis to be
thoughtful and thought-provoking. He's a strong defender of the public
domain and I must admit that I generally agree with his opinion that the
balance embodied in the copyright act has tipped too far towards the
interests of copyright owners. As a result, I was stunned to see that he
impliedly labeled as irresponsible large universities like mine that
might consider including among the many sources we use to provide legal
access to educational materials CCC's new academic license.

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Kenya: Chasing the Lost Millions in Music. By Emmanuel Mwendwa, East
African Standard (Nairobi), AllAfrica.com, July 7, 2007.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200707060899.html

In its 2003 annual report, the International Intellectual Property
Alliance's global watch list rated Kenya among nations worst hit by
infringement of copyright legislation. The rising piracy and
non-collection of royalties, the report stated, could stifle music in
East Africa.

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YouTube guitar lessons pulled in copyright spat. By Frank Langfitt, NPR,
July 6, 2007.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11778602

Thousands of guitar students lost a valuable resource last week. The
most popular guitar teacher on YouTube saw his more than 100 videos
yanked from the site. The reason: a music company accused him of
copyright infringement for an instructional video on how to play a
Rolling Stones song.

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Blog: Beta-launch of a copyrighted video detection tool. DailyMotion,
July 6, 2007.
http://blog.dailymotion.com/2007/07/06/beta-launch-of-a-copyrighted-vide
o-detection-tool/

Upon the request of entertainment industry copyright holders, we have
recently beta-launched a tool which allows us to identify copyrighted
content and to prevent its publication on Dailymotion.

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German parliament passes new copyright act. Heise Online, July 6, 2007.
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/92318

On Thursday, a majority of the members of the Bundestag from the
governing grand coalition and the FDP voted in favor of the government's
controversial proposal (PDF file) for a second version of the country's
Copyright Act for the Information Society, which includes the amendments
proposed by the parliament's legal committee. Members of Parliament from
the Greens mostly abstained, while members of the new Left Party voted
against the so-called "second basket" of the revised Copyright Act,
which will now be sent to the Bundesrat for review.

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German parliament reforms copyright law, leaves unfinished work. By
Monika Ermert, Intellectual Property Watch, July 6, 2007.
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=677&res=&res=1024_ff&print=0

After four years of evermore controversial debate the German Parliament
late Thursday passed another reform of the German Copyright Law intended
to make updates for the digital age. But some are already planning for
the next round of changes to the law.

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Blog:  UK copyright extension in exchange for censorship? Slashdot.org,
July 6, 2007.
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/06/1236230

"The UK opposition leader, David Cameron, says in a speech to the
British Phonographic Industry that his party would work to extend the
copyright term to 70 years and crack down on piracy. But in return,
labels would have to agree to bear more 'social responsibility', which
appears to translate into avoiding lyrics that glorify 'an anti-learning
culture, truancy, knifes, violence, guns, misogyny'.

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CSUN declines newest copyright license offer. By Doug Weaver, Daily
Sundial, July 6, 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/yqwewh

California State University Northridge (CSUN) won't be availing itself
of the Copyright Clearance Center's recently announced plan that would
allow colleges to streamline their practice of providing course reserves
to students, at least not yet.

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Court holds Belgian ISP responsible for file sharing. By James Niccolai,
IDG News Service/Macworld, July 5, 2007.
http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/07/05/filesxharing/index.php

A court has ruled that the Belgian ISP Scarlet Extended SA is
responsible for blocking illegal file-sharing on its network, setting a
precedent that could affect other ISPs in Europe, according to a
recording industry group. Belgium's Court of First Instance has given
the Internet service provider six months to install technology to
prevent its customers from sharing pirated music and video files.

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UNESCO National Training on Copyright as a Development Tool for Cultural
Industries Concludes. By Bashar Al Ashhab, ag-IP-news, July 3, 2007.
http://www.ag-ip-news.com/GetArticle.asp?Art_ID=4605&lang=en

"It's not enough that a country adopts copyright law, but it is equally
important to effectively apply the law," Legal Officer In-charge of
Copyright Programs at the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Petya Totchroua told ag-IP-news Agency
during the "UNESCO National Training on Copyright as a Development Tool
for Cultural Industries" held at the Radisson SAS hotel Amman.

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Russian copyright wars to continue despite AllofMP3 shutdown. By Chris
Williams, The Register, July 3, 2007.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/03/allofmp3_gone/

AllofMP3.com, the UK's second most popular source for music downloads
after iTunes, has been shut down after diplomatic pressure was piled on
Russian authorities.


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(C)ollectanea Blog. Collected perspectives on copyright.
http://chaucer.umuc.edu/blogcip/collectanea/
Center for Intellectual Property, UMUC