In the News

["Jack Boeve" <JBoeve@xxxxxxxx>]

------------------------------------------
Blog: Lessig's entire repertoire is now freely available under CC
licenses. By Georgia Harper, Collectanea. January 16, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/26vs79

Larry Lessig announced today that the fourth of his books, The Future of
Ideas (actually, the second book in order of publishing) has joined the
other three in being licensed for free access under a Creative Commons
license.

--------------------------
Reformed copyright laws shouldn't suppress creativity. By Vancouver Sun,
January 16, 2008. http://tinyurl.com/23nbdv

"To appreciate how out of date Canada's copyright laws are, consider
that taping a TV show on a VCR for later viewing is a copyright
infringement that could potentially lead to lawsuits."

--------------------------
Berman to exit copyright role. By Brooks Boliek, The Hollywood Reporter,
January 15, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/2bcoke

A change in the California delegation will have an impact on the
copyright industry's agenda on Capitol Hill as Rep. Howard Berman will
likely relinquish his role as head of the House copyright subcommittee.

--------------------------
Blog: Development, Copyright, and Disruptive Technologies. By Sherwin
Siy, Public Knowledge, January 15, 2008.
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/1352

"A half-day panel at this year's CES discussed the ways in which
technology can be used to further global development, by providing
education opportunities and creating new solutions to community business
problems. Beyond that, though, these new systems for information and
communications technology (or ICTs) could easily affect IP policy around
the world."

--------------------------
Re-Print: The Promise of a Post-Copyright World. By kfogel, Question
Copyright.org, 2008. http://questioncopyright.org/promise

There is one group of people not shocked by the record industry's policy
of suing randomly chosen file sharers: historians of copyright. They
already know what everyone else is slowly finding out..."

--------------------------
Blog: Israeli vs. Canadian Copyright Law. By DigitalKoans, January 15,
2008.
http://tinyurl.com/yplbg9

"Last December, Ariel Katz, Innovation Chair in Electronic Commerce,
Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, wrote an interesting analysis of
the Israeli law ("What Can Canada Learn from Israel about Copyright
Reform?"), which contrasted it to Canadian copyright law. In summary, he
said:..."

--------------------------
Press Release: Infoflows Corporation Demonstrates Its Fedmark(SM) System
to Congressional Staff. By PRNewswire, January 15, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/ytpr3u

"Infoflows Corporation today announced its participation in the
Technology and Orphan Works: The State of the Art event hosted by the
Copyright Office in Washington, DC."

--------------------------
FCC wants to know: Is degrading P2P traffic 'reasonable'? By Anne
Broache, News.com, January 15, 2008.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9850611-7.html

"As foreshadowed at the Consumer Electronics Show last week, federal
regulators this week took the first formal step into investigating
complaints about how Internet service providers, such as Comcast, manage
peer-to-peer file-sharing traffic on their networks."

----
Save Universities from Dangerous Copyright Policing Requirements. BY
EFF.org.
https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=346

"After being beaten back in the Senate this last summer, mandatory
campus copyright policing is back. The House's latest higher education
bill includes a vague, but troubling requirement for "Campus-Based
Digital Theft Prevention," mandating that schools plan to provide legal
downloading alternatives and that campuses consider policing copyrights
on their networks."

--------------------------
Blog: INTERNET LAW - Where is the love? - A saga in copyright! By Gladys
Mirandah, Internet Business Law Services, January 14, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/244lum

"Malaysia's neighbor, Indonesia, with whom it shares close cultural
links, has accused Malaysia of stealing its cultural heritage."

--------------------------
Striking down the iPod tax. National Post, January 14, 2008.
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=235987

Canadians were suddenly freed last week from the grim prospect of a
whopping $75 "iPod tax" on portable digital music players with 30
gigabytes or more of embedded storage space. The levy, approved by the
Copyright Board of Canada in July, would have kicked in this year,
raising the domestic price on high-end versions of Apple's iPod and its
market rivals by around 30%.

--------------------------
Blog: Can the RIAA Sue for Attempted Copyright Infringement? By Drew
Wilson, ZeroPaid, January 14, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/29d34k

The Atlantic vs Howell has just taken on a new twist. While the case
brought everyone the now-famous claim that 'CD ripping is illegal', now
the RIAA is saying that people can be liable for attempted copyright
infringement.

--------------------------
Blog: Ford: Photos Of Your Car Are Copyright Infringement. By Meg Marco,
The Consumerist, January 14, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/2gxuob

Well, this seems misguided. A group of people who are members of the
"Black Mustang Club" wanted to take some pictures of their cars and make
a calendar using CafePress. Turns out, CafePress refuses to publish
pictures of Ford cars due to claims of copyright infringement.

--------------------------
Blog: Copyright Litigation in Maryland: 2007 Trends. By Brian Wm.
Higgins, Maryland IP Blog, January 12, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/ysa444

"In 2007, the major music recording companies, led by the Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA), filed more copyright lawsuits in
the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland than any other
group or individual. RIAA accounted for 16 of the 30 copyright lawsuits
filed last year (53%)."

--------------------------
Blog: Local Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook Groups Take Off. By
Michael Geist, January 12, 2008.
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2555/125/

"It has only been a few days, but the local Fair Copyright for Canada
Facebook groups have taken off, attracting great press coverage (IT
World, Vancouver Sun) and over a thousand members collectively."

--------------------------
Sony Joins Other Labels on Amazon MP3 Store. By Brad Stone, New York
Times, January 11, 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/technology/11sony.html

Sony BMG, the music company, announced Thursday that it would become the
fourth and final major label to begin selling digital music on
Amazon.com, offering its entire catalog in the MP3 format by the end of
the month.

--------------------------
J.K. Rowling's Dark Mark. Why she should lose her copyright lawsuit
against the Harry Potter Lexicon. By Tim Wu, Slate.com, January 10,
2008.
http://www.slate.com/id/2181776/

Author J.K. Rowling and publisher Warner Brothers have sued the Lexicon
for copyright infringement, exposing the big unanswered question: Are
fan guides actually illegal? As sympathetic as I am to Rowling and her
rights as an author, the answer is no.

--------------------------
Roadblocks en route to free, legal music. By Greg Sandoval, CNET
News.com, January 9, 2008.
http://www.news.com/2100-1027_3-6225388.html

A handful of analysts are calling for the music industry to focus less
on CDs, digital rights management, and subscription services, and more
on giving their product away for free. Whatever gold that is still left
to be mined from the music industry is supposed to be had through
advertising revenue, according to some.

--------------------------
Opinion: UCSC signs up as RIAA copyright cop. P2Pnet News, January 9,
2008.
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/14604

The University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) has become another of
the American schools to openly enlist as a Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi
Universal and Sony BMG corporate copyright cop, acting for the Big 4
against its own students.

--------------------------
Violinist offers recording for free online.  By  Reuters, CNET News.com,
January 8, 2008.
http://www.news.com/2100-1027_3-6225137.html

Acclaimed British violinist Tasmin Little will give her next recording
away for free as a digital download in an attempt to popularize
classical music. The 42-year-old took inspiration from a
headline-grabbing initiative by pop group Radiohead, which last year
allowed fans to choose what they wanted to pay online for its latest
album In Rainbows.

--------------------------
San Martin man charged in pirated DVD bust. By Connie Skipitares,
Mercury News, January 8, 2008.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_7910450?nclick_check=1

A 27-year-old San Martin man has been arrested on felony suspicion of
counterfeiting DVDs after Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies on
Sunday found 50,000 pirated copies of first-run movies in his home on
Sycamore Avenue. The DVDs had a street value of $250,000, according to
sheriff's Sgt. Don Morrissey. The man, who was not immediately
identified, was booked into Santa Clara County Jail.

--------------------------
Copying CDs could be made legal. BBC News, January 8, 2008.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7176538.stm

Copying music from a CD to a home computer could be made legal under new
proposals from the UK government. Millions of people already "rip" discs
to their computers and move the files to MP3 players, although the
process is technically against copyright law. Intellectual property
minister Lord Triesman said the law should be changed so it "keeps up
with the times".

--------------------------
Napster to sell music downloads as unprotected MP3 files. Associated
Press, January 7, 2008.
http://origin.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_7900814?nclick_check=1

Napster Inc. said Sunday it will begin selling music downloads as
unprotected MP3 files in the spring, joining other online retailers. The
file format change will apply only to single tracks and album purchases,
according to a company press release. Tracks downloaded as part of the
company's music subscription service will continue to have copyright
restrictions.

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