In The News

["Jack Boeve" <JBoeve@xxxxxxxx>]

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Blog: Wired follows up the Qtrax press release with a "not so fast". By
Georgia Harper, Collectanea. January 28, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/2guz27

Well, it's more than a bit odd for a company to jump the gun as
seriously at it appears that Qtrax did yesterday (see my post from
yesterday)....

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Blog: Labels finally admit that p2p business model is legit. By Georgia
Harper, Collectanea. January 27, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/2fg4cq

It is more than a bit confusing how the major labels can all have
recognized only recently that DRM failed as a business model in
connection with sales of tracks, and simultaneously have finally
embraced p2p supported by advertising, but with DRM. Why would they
think that DRM would work in this context when it has failed so
thoroughly in the non-p2p context? Just when it seemed that they were
getting it together...

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Court delivers a blow to record companies on internet piracy. By Michael
Herman, The Times. January 30, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/23wqvd

Record labels and film studios cannot demand that telecoms companies
reveal the personal details of people suspected of swapping copyrighted
material on the internet, the European Court of Justice ruled yesterday.


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EU court ruling on file-sharers is not what it seems. By Iain Connor,
OUT-LAW News. January 30, 2008.
http://www.out-law.com/page-8839

OPINION: Any record industry exec would have been weeping into his
cornflakes today as he perused the newspapers. The European Court of
Justice was reported everywhere as having handed victory in a battle to
privacy activists and file-sharers by ruling that ISPs do not have to
hand over subscriber details in file sharing or any other civil cases.
The problem is that these reports have missed the point. What the ECJ
actually said was that national governments can, effectively, do what
they like on the issue.

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EU Backs ISPs Over Release Of File Sharing Names. By K.C. Jones,
InformationWeek. January 30, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/2gxwxp

Europe's highest court has ruled that Internet service providers do not
have to disclose identities of users accused in civil lawsuits of
illegally file sharing. The court said ISPs (PDF) should provide police
with names and addresses for criminal investigations, but said they
don't have to give the information to private investigators or industry
groups. The court, in Luxembourg, also said Tuesday that E.U. member
states can establish their own rules for disclosure of information
related to illegal file sharing.

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Blog: Copyright lobby to IT sector: It's all your fault! In some cases
it is. By Rusell McOrmond, IT World Candada. January 25, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/yrg4wr

While copyright holders already have the legal tools to sue people in
Canada infringing copyright, statements made by a relatively large
number of organizations from the Copyright lobby have named their real
target: the IT sector. They are lobbying to make changes to Canadian law
to make the providers of IT products and services more liable for the
activities of their customers.

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MPAA Admits Stats Inflated As Congress Considers Copyright Protection
Bill. By Wendy Davis, Media Post Publications. January 24, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/yorkbo

The study cost $3 million, took 18 months and encompassed 22 countries.
Its conclusion--that college students account for 44% of movie industry
losses due to piracy--has been the centerpiece of lobbying efforts for
the last two years by the Motion Picture Association of America. There's
just one problem: It's wrong. Now, with Congress poised to consider a
bill forcing colleges to explore filtering copyrighted material from
their networks, the MPAA has re-examined the numbers and determined that
college students account for only 15% of losses.

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Blog: IFPI Publishes Digital Music Report 2008. Imperiumi.net. January
24, 2008.
http://www.imperiumi.net/news_2.php?id=6171

'REVOLUTION, INNOVATION, RESPONSIBILITY.' "2007 was the year ISP
responsibility started to become an accepted principle. 2008 must be the
year it becomes reality." Governments are starting to accept that
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should take a far bigger role in
protecting music on the internet, but urgent action is needed to
translate this into reality, a new report from the international music
industry says today.

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AT&T Looking at Internet Filtering. Associated Press. January 23, 2008.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g0ySrafwZ3OnGSnsi1-fHB7OMhfwD8UBLMK80

AT&T Inc. is still evaluating whether to examine traffic on its Internet
lines to stop illegal sharing of copyright material, its chief executive
said Wednesday.

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Proposed EU ISP filtering and copyright extension shot down. By Jon
Stokes, Ars Technica. January 22, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/yrguub

This past November, EU regulators in the European Parliament's Committee
on Culture and Education began looking in earnest at Europe's cultural
products and heritage as an engine for economic growth.

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The concerns of copyright reform. By Michael Geist, BBC News. January
22, 2008.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7201993.stm

Opponents of the global march toward near continuous copyright and
anti-piracy reforms have long cautioned against the "unintended
consequences" of such efforts.

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Did Slate violate copyright law? By Chris Soghoian, CNET. January 22,
2008.
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13739_1-9854309-46.html

Slate, a popular news site, seems to be openly violating the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act. That law, much hated in cyberrights and
computer security circles, is a thorn in the side to many researchers.
The interesting question that we must ask is: Will Hollywood let Slate's
probable violation slide, or will they lawyer up and go after the site
owned by The Washington Post Co.?

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Debating copyright reform: time for compulsory licenses? By Eric
Bangeman, Ars Technica. January 21, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/2c3jc3

Imagine a world where you could legally acquire and listen to as much
music as you want for a flat fee. How you got the music-iTunes,
Rhapsody, Usenet-and where you listened to it wouldn't matter. Your
monthly license would give you carte blanche to snarf up as much music
as you like. It's an idea that's been bandied about before, and it
recently resurfaced in Las Vegas.

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Canadian artists stump for tougher copyright laws. Canwest News Service,
National Post. January 21, 2008.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=253564

In anticipation of a new federal copyright law, an alliance representing
writers, musicians and actors has released a platform detailing what
they think is best for Canadian artists. The Creators Copyright
Coalition's report, released Monday, calls for artists to be given the
sole right "to produce or reproduce the work or any substantial part
thereof in any material form" and "to transfer the work or any
substantial part thereof to another medium."

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EU caught in copyright wrangle. PC Pro. January 21, 2008.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/158151/eu-caught-in-copyright-wrangle.html

Belgian newspapers have begun moves to sue the European Commission for
copyright violation by linking to stories on their website.

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Copyright reform a threat to privacy. By Michael Geist, The Star.
January 21, 2008.
http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/295831

As Canada's top privacy watchdog, Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Jennifer Stoddart regularly appears before House of Commons committee
hearings to identify the privacy implications of legislation. Late last
week, Stoddart went one step further by warning against the potential
negative privacy impact of a bill that has yet to be tabled.

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Accenture Introduces Copyright and Royalty Administration Services. By
Raju Shanbhag, TMCnet. January 21, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/2zqz65

Helping music, entertainment and other companies active in the
intellectual property industry to manage and protect their intellectual
property rights, Accenture has introduced a new portfolio of services.
These new services are expected to musicians, authors and publishers to
help protect their intellectual property rights in the ever-changing
digital marketplace.

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Blog: Copyright Lobbies Threaten Federal College Funding. Posted by
Zonk, Slashdot.com. January 20, 2008.
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/01/20/2316241.shtml

The EFF is raising the alarm regarding provisions injected into a bill
to renew federal funding for universities. These new provisions call for
institutions of higher learning to filter their internet connections and
twist student's arms over 'approved' digital media distribution
services.

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Colleges to copyright electronic material. By Christina Hernandez,
Newsday.com, January 20, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/yvkug9

Hofstra University and two other colleges, in negotiations with the
Association of American Publishers, agreed to treat electronic
educational materials with the same copyright principles applied to
printed work, according to the association.

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Fair Copyright for Canada principles. By Michael Geist, P2P Net, January
18, 2008.
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/14699

With the continued interest in Canadian copyright reform - the Fair
Copyright for Canada Facebook group has grown to over 38,000 members and
the local chapters across the country are gaining significant momentum -
the most frequently asked question I receive is "what do you think fair
copyright reform looks like?"  In other words, we know that tens of
thousands of Canadians oppose a Canadian DMCA, but what kind of reform
would or should they support?

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Blog: Bits Debate: Mixing It Up Over Remixes and Fair Use. Posted by
Saul Hansell, New York Times. January 16, 2008.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/830/?ref=technology

If the issue behind our debate this week about copyright and piracy in
the digital age is how much control creators should have over what
happens to their works, one of the crucial extensions to that question
is the matter of fair use. Remixing is a key part of today's culture, as
people use commercial music and video as the raw materials for their own
creations.



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