In the News

["Jack Boeve" <JBoeve@xxxxxxxx>]

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Blog: Another attention getter on the campus infringement front. By
Georgia Harper, (C)ollectanea, April 16, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/3jtggd

Bill Patry draws our attention to a copyright case in the 9th Circuit's
Southern District of California that addresses the liability of
individuals in their individual capacity for infringement of copyright:
The Patry Copyright Blog: State Sovereign Immunity and State Employees.

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Blog: Patry's commentary on Posner's "How Judges Think." By Georgia
Harper, (C)ollectanea, April 8, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/4qmh2p

I often recommend Bill Patry's copyright blog and I sure hope I haven't
worn out my ability to recommend his postings another time, because this
one is really, really worth a read.

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Publishers Sue Georgia State on Digital Reading Matter. By Katie Hafner,
New York Times, April 16, 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/technology/16school.html

Three prominent academic publishers are suing Georgia State University,
contending that the school is violating copyright laws by providing
course reading material to students in digital format without seeking
permission from the publishers or paying licensing fees.
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'Harry Potter' Author J.K. Rowling's Copyright Case: Behind All The
Legal Jargon. By Shawn Adler, MTV, April 15, 2008.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1585635/20080415/id_0.jhtml

It's unofficially a duel between the richest, most successful author in
the world and a 50-year-old librarian, but the case of J.K Rowling v.
RDR Books, now playing out in a federal court in New York, doesn't hinge
on magical knowledge, superior weaponry or even powerful friends, but on
a somewhat-complicated U.S. law known as the doctrine of fair use.

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CBC, Copyright & Canada's cultural revolution. p2pnet.net, April 15,
2008.
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/15621

This is for those who care about the decimation and devastation of
classical and serious music now underway at CBC Radio Two, Canada's once
proud national and entirely subsidized radio network that used to be
devoted to non-commercial and culturally important content.
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Analysis: Is The Website Owner Responsible For User Generated Content?
By David Oxenford, DigitalMediaWire, April 14, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/3zzo5s

Website operators who allow the posting of user-generated content on
their sites enjoy broad immunity from legal liability. This includes
immunity from copyright violations if the site owner registers with the
Copyright Office, does not encourage the copyright violations and takes
down infringing content upon receiving notice from a copyright owner.

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New copyright laws hoped to embrace the digital age. TV3 News, April 14,
2008.
http://tinyurl.com/3mwkjx

Parliament has given New Zealand's outdated copyright laws a reboot to
embrace the digital age. While it has addressed concerns with music
copyright, many say it has failed to grasp the place of video in the
modern online world.

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Stanford Law School's Fair Use Project Defends RDR Books Against
Copyright Lawsuit Brought by J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. BusinessWire,
April 14, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/4wgu2c

A federal court in New York will hear opening arguments today over
whether an independent book publisher has the right to publish the Harry
Potter Lexicon, an unofficial reference guide to the Harry Potter series
of books and movies. In a trial that is expected to last two to three
days, attorneys from the Fair Use Project of Stanford Law School's
Center for Internet and Society, along with co-counsel, will argue that
their client, RDR Books, has the right to publish the Lexicon under the
fair use doctrine.

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iCopyright Named Licensing Agent for Reuse of Associated Press Content
Published Online. Marketwire, April 14, 2008.
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=843168

iCopyright has entered into a digital content copyright protection and
permission agreement with The Associated Press, providing online users
of AP content with a Web-based method to license and share AP stories
and photos for a variety of commercial and educational uses.

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NZ copyright Act may drag ISPs into disputes. The Dominion Post, April
14, 2008.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4479398a28.html

InternetNZ fears Internet service providers will be dragged into dozens
of disputes every day over who owns copyright to material posted on
homepages and websites they host. An amendment to the Copyright Act
passed by Parliament last week means that if ISPs do not delete material
stored or cached on their servers once they have reason to believe it
may breach copyright, then they themselves will be liable.

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NZ music labels unlikely to opt out of 'iPod' change. By Tom
Pullar-Strecker, The Dominion Post, April 14, 2008.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4479390a28.html

The Recording Industry Association says record companies are unlikely to
try to use "opt out" provisions in the amended Copyright Act to prevent
people from copying music from CDs to iPods, MP3 players, telephones and
computers. Parliament last week passed changes to the Copyright Act that
will for the first time make it legal to "format shift" audio files,
which usually involves copying music from CDs to MP3 players.

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International lobby asks US to elevate Lebanon's grade on intellectual
property. By Michael Bluhm, Daily Star Lebanon, April 14, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/4fnhbq

The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has asked the US
Trade Representative (USTR) to upgrade Lebanon from the Priority Watch
List for serious infringements of intellectual property rights and
severe copyright problems to the Watch List, said a report in the latest
edition of Byblos Bank's Lebanon This Week.

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New ideas about new ideas. The Guardian, April 14, 2008.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/14/drm.law

The government will soon have to take tough decisions about copyright in
the digital age now the consultation period of the Gowers review is
over. There has been some public debate already around the music
industry's lobbying to extend the 50-year term for sound recordings to
nearer the 95 years secured in the US. But copyright is about more than
music. The British Library is worried that the right of researchers to
make a digital copy for "fair dealing" without asking permission will be
eroded unless embedded in law.

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Europe Votes Against Online Copyright Law. By Mike Sachoff, WebProNews,
April 11, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/492mp2

The European Parliament shot down the proposal to ban file sharing by
private individuals and dropped the idea to bar copyright abusers from
the Internet. In a close vote, 314 Members of the European Parliament
voted to reject an amendment that would have protected copyright on the
Internet and 297 voted against throwing out the amendment.

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Blog: Music Label's Copyright Argument is Rubbish. By David Kravets,
Wired Blog Network, April 11, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/5ku8wy

Tossing it like a Frisbee is OK. The kids, cat and dog scratching the
hell out of it is just fine.
But throwing away that CD is copyright infringement.

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Big Content in worldwide "whisper campaign" against Fair Use. By Nate
Anderson, Ars Technica, April 7, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/3qxgb8

If you've been following copyright debates for more than, say, 10
minutes, you're probably aware that "some rights good, more rights
better!" might well be the motto of many content owners. Fair use and
fair dealing put limitations on these otherwise exclusive rights, and
they do so on the theory that copyright is not an absolute right to
control and profit from every single use of a particular work. News
reporting, classroom use, commentary, parody; in the US, at least, these
don't require either permission or payment. But content owners aren't
necessarily down with this way of thinking, and copyright expert William
Patry believes that a "counter-reformation" is in the works to crimp
worldwide plans to expand fair use.


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