In the News

["Jack Boeve" <JBoeve@xxxxxxxx>]

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Blog: Orphan Works legislation: Round two. By Georgia Harper,
(C)ollectanea, March 30, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/ynulvl

Congress reportedly will try to pass orphan works legislation again this
session, introducing a bill as early as this week. After its March 13
hearing, at which 6 interested parties presented testimony (including
the Register of Copyrights, Marybeth Peters, and representatives of the
2006 bill's most vehement opponents, free-lance photographers), the
stage appears set for another try.

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Blog: Section 108 Study Group Report has been published. By Georgia
Harper, (C)ollectanea, March 30, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/yrtvu9

Lolly Gasaway and Richard Rudick, Co-Chairs of the Section 108 Study
Group, have issued their report after a lengthy period of deliberation
over quite a few really thorny issues....I have had a chance to skim the
report, but not to read it thoroughly, nonetheless, I thought I would
make a few initial comments and encourage everyone interested in the
development of the role libraries play in a digitally networked world to
read this report.

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Section 108 Study Group Issues Report on Copyright Exceptions for
Libraries. By Andrew Albanese, Library Journal, April 2, 2008.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6547028.html

The Section 108 Study Group has delivered its long-awaited report. The
diverse 19-member panel was chartered in 2005 to inform legislative
changes to update the Copyright Act's exception for libraries and
archives for the digital age, but it remains unclear how quickly, or if,
the group's carefully-worded, conditioned recommendations will ever make
it into law.

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Blog: Good Copy Bad Copy Explores Remix Culture and Copyright Law. By
Eliot Van Buskirk, Wired Blog Network, April 2, 2008.
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/04/good-copy-bad-c.html

Good Copy Bad Copy, a Danish documentary about copyright that came out
last year, has thankfully been resurfacing on various blogs to remind us
how good it is. The film features Girl Talk, Dangermouse,
Lawrence Lessig, the MPAA's Jack Glickman and others discussing where
the line of copyright should be drawn on the ever-shifting sands of our
increasingly remix-oriented culture.

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Is sharing a folder copyright infringement? By Andrew Orlowski, The
Register, April 2, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/2xmjxk

A US Judge on Monday upheld the view that sharing copyrighted music is
infringement. It's a defeat for defendant Denise Barker and the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, and a victory for the four record labels
in the case, led by Warner's Elektra.

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Press Release: Study Group Issues Report Recommending Changes in
Copyright Law to Reflect Digital Technologies -- Section 108 Study Group
Looks at Exceptions to Law for Libraries and Archives. By Library of
Congress, March 31, 2008.
http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2008/08-063.html

After nearly three years of intensive work, the independent Section 108
Study Group has issued its report and recommendations on exceptions to
copyright law to address how libraries, archives and museums deal with
copyrighted materials in fulfilling their missions in the digital
environment. The report is available at http://www.section108.gov.

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Blog: Virgin to play copyright cop. By Mathew Ingram, The Globe and
Mail, March 31, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/2apbzt

According to a piece in The Telegraph this morning, Virgin Media -- the
Internet service provider run by Richard Branson's Virgin conglomerate
-- has volunteered to play copyright cop and yank the Internet account
of users who share infringing material. Virgin and the British
Phonographic Industry are apparently working out the details, which will
likely involve the "three strikes and you're out" approach.

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Blog: Sparks fly over copyright at Tech Policy Summit. By Denise Howell,
Zdnet.com, March 31, 2008.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=220

The group of copyright scholars and advocates gathered Wednesday at the
Tech Policy Summit in Hollywood demonstrated that while copyright must
function in a converged world, opinions on how it should function are as
divergent as ever.

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Ruling Gives Heirs a Share of Superman Copyright. By Michael Cieply, New
York Times, March 29, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/yurkf2

Time Warner is no longer the sole proprietor of Superman. Joe Shuster,
left, and Jerry Siegel, right, sold the rights to Superman in 1938 for
$130. A federal judge here on Wednesday ruled that the heirs of Jerome
Siegel - who 70 years ago sold the rights to the action hero he created
with Joseph Shuster to Detective Comics for $130 - were entitled to
claim a share of the United States copyright to the character.

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Google inks Japan copyright pact for YouTube. By Julian Ryall, Hollywood
Reporter, March 28, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/39dmuz

Google and one of Japan's largest copyright organizations are working
together to enable YouTube users to upload video clips of themselves
performing their own versions of Japanese hit songs.  In a country where
karaoke has long been popular, the agreement breaks new ground for
YouTube owner Google, which has been in dispute with Japanese rights
holders for several years over the uploading of music and video clips.

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Copyright bill concerns students, university officials. By Eric Mathews,
Tennessee Journalist, March 28 2008.
http://tnjn.com/2008/mar/28/copyright-bill-concerns-studen/

The Tennessee senate has proposed a new bill that would aim to reduce
copyright infringement on university campuses that receive state
funding. The bill would require officials at universities to monitor all
activity on their networks and to track down and stop infringing
activity.

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Blog: MPAA to broadband providers: Pull the plug on pirates. By Declan
McCullagh, CNET news.com, March 28, 2008.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9905266-7.html

The Motion Picture Association of America is calling on broadband
providers to pull the plug on copyright-infringing users. Jim Williams,
the MPAA's chief technology officer and senior vice president, said on
Thursday that it's in the best interests of Internet providers to sift
through data traveling across their networks and interrupt transmissions
that violate copyright law.

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Congressman: Copyright not made to "pad wallets" of creators. By Nate
Anderson, Ars Technica, March 27, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/ynn69y

Rep. Howard "Hollywood" Berman (D-CA) isn't happy with Marshall, Texas,
seat of the federal Eastern District of Texas. The town now boasts a
luxury hotel and several nice restaurants, owing in part to the huge
influx of patent lawyers. The federal court in Marshall has become one
of the hottest jurisdictions in the country for patent cases because
it's deemed to be plaintiff-friendly and relatively quick to act.

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Blog: After TorrentSpy closure, what's next for MPAA? By Greg Sandoval,
CNET news.com, March 27, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/2gkllf

The movie industry has seen mixed results from suing individuals for
file sharing but continues to clobber BitTorrent search engines.
TorrentSpy, once one of the most popular indexes of BitTorrent files,
shut down on Monday following a two-year copyright battle with the
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). TorrentSpy, accused in a
lawsuit of encouraging copyright infringement, finally crumpled under
the legal costs.

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Innocent man pinched by RIAA asks SCOTUS for attorney's fees. By Eric
Bangeman, Ars Technica, March 25, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/ywrtca

Cliff Thompson, a San Antonio resident sued by the RIAA for copyright
infringement, has asked the Supreme Court to decide whether the record
labels should be forced to pay attorneys' fees in cases where they
voluntarily dismiss copyright infringement cases. Thompson was sued by
the RIAA in 2006 for allegedly using KaZaA to distribute music, but the
labels dismissed their case against him once it became apparent that his
adult daughter was the KaZaA user in question.

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