In The News

["Jack Boeve" <JBoeve@xxxxxxxx>]

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Google Book Search Tips -- Umich. By Georgia Harper, Collectanea Blog,
August 7, 2007.
http://chaucer.umuc.edu/blogcip/collectanea/2007/08/google_book_search_t
ips_umich_1.html

University of Michigan is making a 5 page description of "Google Book
Search Tips available on their website. Pretty amazing on several
levels. ...[T]he document is really helpful as it shows in detail what
features the book search provides, how to use it to best advantage, and
if you're at UMich, how to double-check your results against Michigan's
catalog, Mirlyn. I want to say right now that I think this is a really
good thing. I've heard so many people say things that indicate that
there's a lot of misunderstanding about what Google Book Search does and
how it works. So clearly, this is needed and kudos to UMich for doing
it, but...

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Reverse engineering gets the nod in new Copyright Bill draft.  By
Stephen Bell Wellington, Computer World, August 7, 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/ywgrus

Consumers still have reasons to be fearful of proposed new copyright
legislation, but for inventors and adapters of technology, the outcome
is looking brighter. Consumer champions have protested that Parliament's
Commerce Select Committee, while upholding format-shifting for copyright
works in new legislation, has also allowed copyright-owners to contract
out of the law.

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Baidu may be worst copyright violator, says Wikipedia. By Dan Nystedt,
IDG News Service/Computer World. August 6, 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/yq8pjn

Baidu.com Inc., which operates China's most popular Internet search
engine, may be the worst violator of Wikipedia copyrights, the chair of
the foundation behind popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia said Sunday,
as she asked the company again to give credit where credit is due.

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Copyright Filtering A Technology Doomed To Failure, Some Critics Say.
By Brian Deagon, Investor's Business Daily, August 6, 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/yovx95

AT&T and NBC Universal have both recently advocated the use of Internet
filtering technology to help weed out pirated content - movies, TV
shows, songs, music videos and more - accessed for free by Web surfers
without permission of the copyright owners. Repeated attempts by movie
and music industry representatives to halt the practice aren't working.
They've filed thousands of lawsuits against alleged pirates, to little
avail. Piracy is growing, and the entertainment industry says it's
costing them billions of dollars a year.

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Copyright collective may yet face the music. By Michael Geist, Toronto
Star, August 6, 2007.
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/243450

Canada's private copying levy, which adds 21 cents to the price of every
blank CD to compensate the music industry for personal copying, has long
been a magnet for controversy, yet few would have anticipated that it
would thrust an overhaul of the Canadian copyright collective system on
to the political agenda. In light of last month's Copyright Board
decision that re-opens the door to placing a levy of up to $75 on iPods,
however, that is precisely what could happen.

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More parties join Google copyright lawsuit. Reuters, August 6, 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/3c8nz6

English soccer's Premier League Ltd and music publisher Bourne & Co said
on Monday that eight more parties have joined their lawsuit charging
Google Inc (GOOG.O) and its YouTube online service with deliberately
encouraging copyright infringement. The new parties include the National
Music Publishers' Association, which is the largest U.S. music
publishing trade association, the Rugby Football League, the Finnish
Football League Association and author Daniel Quinn.

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US man sentenced to two years on copyright violations. By Grant Gross,
PC World/Washington Post, August 3, 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/37kyjk

An Illinois man was sentenced to two years in prison for violating
copyright law through the unauthorized sale of video games on his Web
site, the U.S. Department of Justice announced late Thursday.

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Content Makers Are Accused of Exaggerating Copyright. By Jacqueline
Palank, New York Times, August 2, 2007.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/business/media/02copyright.html?ref=bu
siness

An association of computer and communication companies, including
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, on Wednesday accused several professional
sports leagues, book publishers and other media companies of misleading
and threatening consumers with overstated copyright warnings.

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Raids in 16 States Seek to Thwart Video Game Piracy. Associated
Press/New York Times, August 2, 2007.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/business/02raid.html?ref=technology

Federal customs agents raided more than 30 businesses and homes in 16
states Wednesday, looking for devices that allow pirated video games to
play on Wiis, PlayStation 2s and Xboxes.

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CA files $200 million copyright lawsuit against Rocket.  By Grant Gross,
IDG News Service, August 2, 2007.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/08/02/CA-copyright-lawsuit-against-R
ocket_1.html

CA has filed a $200 million copyright lawsuit against rival developer
Rocket Software, alleging that the company hired away developers and
stole source code.

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TorrentSpy lawyer battling 'copyright extremism'.  By Greg Sandoval,
CNET News.com, July 31, 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/3425pv

Ira Rothken is technology's answer to the radical lawyer, Silicon
Valley's version of Johnnie Cochran or William Kunstler.

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National Archives films to be sold on Amazon for $19.99 in non-exclusive
deal. Associated Press/SiliconValley.com, July 31, 2007.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_6508029

The public will be able to purchase copies of thousands of historic
films and videotapes via the Internet under an agreement the National
Archives has reached with Amazon.com Inc. and one of its subsidiaries.

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YouTube responds to copyright suit. Google unit hopes fingerprinting
will prevent violations. By Larry Neumeister, Associated
Press/SiliconValley.com, July 28, 2007.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_6487317?nclick_check=1

Google's YouTube hopes recognition technology will be in place in
September to stop the posting of copyrighted videos on the popular Web
site, a lawyer Friday told a judge presiding over copyright lawsuits.

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Report criticizes Net restrictions in some nations. Associated
Press/SiliconValley.com, July 27, 2007.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_6479491

Kazakhstan and Georgia are among countries imposing excessive
restrictions on how people use the Internet, a new report says, warning
that regulations are having a chilling effect on freedom of expression.

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Musicians' copyright pleas fall on deaf ears.  By Katie Allen, Guardian
Unlimited, July 24, 2007.
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2133762,00.html

The music industry has reacted with outrage to the government's
rejection of pleas to extend the period musicians get royalties from
their tracks beyond the current 50 years.

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Google, Viacom Lawyers Square Off on DMCA. By Nicholas Carlson,
InternetNews.com, July 20, 2007.
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3690166

Viacom and Google go to court July 27 to decide which of the two
companies should bear the cost of keeping Viacom's copyrighted content
off YouTube, Google's video-sharing Web site. Viacom says Google and
seeks $1 billion in damages.

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University of Kansas adopts one-strike policy for copyright
infringement. By Eric Bangeman, Ars Technica, July 20, 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/ypvnmk

In response to the RIAA and MPAA's campaign against file-sharing, the
University of Kansas has announced a stringent policy for students found
sharing copyrighted content on the university network. Students fingered
for file-sharing would be kicked off of the residence hall network,
although they would still be able to use campus computer labs.

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Retailers call iPod levy a 'tax'.  By David George-Cosh, Globe and Mail
Update, July 20, 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/3ac6rx

The fight to tax the iPod is far from over. The Copyright Board of
Canada announced a decision yesterday rebutting a ruling made by the
Federal Court in 2004 that a private copying levy should applied to
iPods and other digital audio recorders, beginning in 2008.

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US Targets Chinese Music Download Rules. By Bradley Klapper, Associated
Press/FoxNews, July 18, 2007.
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul18/0,4670,WTOUSChina,00.html

The United States is seeking consultations with China over rules on
music downloading and cinema rights that appear to discriminate against
foreign sound recordings and films, a U.S. trade official said
Wednesday.

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