In The News

["Jack Boeve" <JBoeve@xxxxxxxx>]

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Blog: How to kill an orphan works bill in 2 easy lessons. By Georgia
Harper, (C)ollectanea, April 26, 2008.
http://chaucer.umuc.edu/blogcip/collectanea/2008/04/how_to_kill_an_orpha
n_works_bi_1.html

Public Knowledge (who works tirelessly on behalf of documentary
filmmakers) announced on Thursday that two bills addressing orphan works
had been introduced: Orphan Works 2008: House and Senate Bills
Introduced. As usual, I urge you to read the bills. Public Knowledge has
links to both of them. And read Public Knowledge's assessment. You're
not going to get their type of assessment here.

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Blog: Suing Georgia. By Georgia Harper, (C)ollectanea, April 26, 2008.
http://chaucer.umuc.edu/blogcip/collectanea/2008/04/suing_georgia_1.html

I have taken nearly a week to mull over this case that has been buzzing
around the blogosphere, around email and even in real life, and I'm glad
I did. I think I see it more clearly now than I did a week ago when the
news first hit. I managed with a little time to connect it up with
everything else in my life, well, my copyright life.

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Another struggle over 'Mein Kampf'. By Ofer Aderet, Haaretz.com, April
27, 2008.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/978095.html

Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf," whose publication is prohibited in Germany,
could be released again in Germany. Historians and other academics say
it is essential to publish the notorious book with editorial annotations
and critique before 2015, when it enters the public domain and may be
reprinted freely by neo-Nazis.

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US releases list of copyright infringing nations; India among top 9.
domain-b.com, April 27, 2008.
http://www.domain-b.com/economy/trade/20080426_infringing.html

The United States on Friday named China and Russia as among the worst
protectors of intellectual property rights, flooding global trade with
counterfeit items such as DVDs, designer bags, medicines and software,
although it remarked that notable progress has been made in the recent
past to address these problems. These assertions were made in the
annual ''Special 301'' Report released by the office of the United
States Trade Representative (USTR).

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Reports: Beijing court hands down first jail term for copyright
infringement. By International Herald Tribune/AP, April 26, 2008.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/26/news/China-DVD-Pirate-Imprison
ed.php

A Beijing court has handed down the first jail sentence in the Chinese
capital for copyright infringement, state media reported Saturday.
Beijing is flooded with pirated DVDs and fake designer goods. The United
States and European Union have been pushing China to do more to fight
piracy, saying it costs their companies billions of dollars a year. The
government has been trying to crack down ahead of the Beijing Olympics
in August.

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Even a wizard can't predict outcome of 'Potter' case. By Matthew
Belloni, The Hollywood Reporter, April 25, 2008.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/features/columns/e3i
0f3a7216274d5d82383a3ee65e3b28a6

Three days of trial, two armies of lawyers and the testimony of one
billionaire author doesn't change this bit of Dumbledorian wisdom: When
it comes to fair use law, nobody really knows anything.

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Music industry opens new front on piracy. By Asher Moses, Sydney Morning
Herald, April 25, 2008.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/music-industry-opens-new-front-on-piracy/
2008/04/25/1208743215717.html

Australia's largest internet provider has shrugged off threats of legal
action by the music industry as record labels overseas continue to drag
ISPs through the courts in a desperate battle to stop music piracy.

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Professor Is Accused of Infringing the Copyright of a Man Who Opposed
Copyright. By Andrea Foster, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 25,
2008.
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i33/33a01603.htm

Guy Debord, a Marxist philosopher who died in 1994, was no fan of
private property. But apparently his widow is one. A lawyer representing
the widow, Alice Becker-Ho, has threatened Alexander R. Galloway, an
associate professor of culture and communication at New York University,
with legal action. Mr. Galloway says the lawyer has sent him a letter
demanding that he stop distributing his online war game, which the
lawyer says infringes a copyright held by the Debord estate. The French
philosopher had created a similar board game 30 years ago.

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Press Release: Enhancements to Copyright Clearance Center's Rightsphere
Add Powerful New Rights Management Capabilities. BusinessWire, April 24,
2008.
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&news
Id=20080424006321&newsLang=en

Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) today announced a set of major
enhancements to Rightsphere, the company's award-winning rights advisory
and management tool. Driven by input from leading corporate information
managers and librarians, these changes make it possible to manage
complex rights and licenses with precision and speed.

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Blog: Orphan Works 2008: House and Senate Bills Introduced, By Alex
Curtis, Public Knowledge, April 24, 2008.
http://www.publicknowledge.org/blog

Two orphan works bills were introduced to begin to bring balance back to
copyright law--to help find owners and encourage new and creative uses
of unexploited copyrighted works. Both the U.S. Senate and House of
Representatives have introduced orphan works legislation (S. 2913, the
Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008, H.R. 5889: The Orphan Works Act
of 2008), rooted in the same language based on the previous Smith Bill,
which was based on the Copyright Office's recommendation.

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The industry's battle with downloaders has damaged trust. By Jemima
Kiss, The Guardian, April 21, 2008.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/21/netmusic

Ongoing battles between the entertainment industry and illegal
downloaders are contributing to a damaging fall in consumer trust,
according to new research from the PR agency Edelman. The number of UK
consumers who said they trusted the industry fell from 47% in 2007 to
31% this year, with confidence disturbed by moves by the music industry
to track down and punish illegal music copying, and high-profile
scandals in broadcasting.

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PullMyLink.com Sued For Copyright Infringement. By Wendy Davis, Online
Media Daily, April 21, 2008.
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArti
cleHomePage&art_aid=80984

As part of Hollywood's ongoing campaign against online copyright
infringement, the motion picture industry has filed a lawsuit against
PullMyLink.com, a site that offers links to pirated movies and TV shows.

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Blog: New Zealand and Germany Reform Copyright Laws in 4 Days. Posted by
DrewWilson, ZeroPaid.com, April 21, 2008.
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9422/New+Zealand+and+Germany+Reform+Copyrig
ht+Laws+in+4+Days

Internet Service Providers and the copyright industry weren't the only
ones busy on the copyright front these days. New Zealand reformed their
copyright laws which was followed up by Germany four days later.

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Blog: Court Finds Part of Copyright Act Unconstitutional. Slashdot.com,
April 20, 2008.
http://news.slashdot.org/news/08/04/20/2232220.shtml

"I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property" writes "A US District Court in
the Southern District of California has found the Copyright Remedy
Clarification Act to be unconstitutional.

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Joan Smith: J K Rowling and the quest for fair pay. The Independent,
April 20, 2008.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/joan-smith/joan-smith-
j-k-rowling-and-the-quest-for-fair-pay-812073.html

When J K Rowling appeared in a district court in New York last week,
something strange happened. In normal circumstances, Rowling is regarded
as a thoroughly decent woman whose novels have provided pleasure to
millions and who has, moreover, given a great deal of her wealth to good
causes. Suddenly, the tone changed: why, commentators asked sniffily,
was the wealthy author trying to prevent a small publisher in Michigan
from issuing a 400-page lexicon of the Harry Potter novels?

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Blog: YouTube's filtering issues still not 'moot'.  Posted by Greg
Sandoval, CNET News.com, April 18, 2008.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9921916-7.html?tag=newsmap

A year ago Wednesday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt delighted an audience of
TV and radio broadcasters when he promised to roll out a system that
would mean the end of piracy at YouTube. "We are in the process of
developing tools which are called 'Claim Your Content,'" Schmidt said at
the National Association of Broadcasters 2007 conference. "If people
tell us this is a licensed copy, our computers will automatically detect
that an illegal copy has been uploaded and then automatically delete
it."

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Blog: Patry - British Copyright Industry's New Perverse Copyright
Theory. Posted by DrewWilson, ZeroPaid.com, April 18, 2008.
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9413/Patry+-+British+Copyright+Industry's+N
ew+Perverse+Copyright+Theory

When one makes makes a private copy of a copyrighted work for
non-commercial purposes, many Americans think of fair use and end the
debate. In Britain, the copyright industry is responding to what
Americans would classify as "fair use" as something that should have a
licensing fee.

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Oregon: publishing our laws online is a copyright violation. By Nate
Anderson, Ars Technica, April 16, 2008.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080416-oregon-publishing-our-laws
-online-is-a-copyright-violation.html

The State of Oregon takes exception to Web sites that republish the
state's Revised Statutes in full, claiming that the statutes contain
copyrighted information in the republication causes the state to lose
money it needs to continue putting out the official version of the
statutes. Oregon's Legislative Counsel, Dexter Johnson, has therefore
requested that legal information site Justia remove the information or
(preferably) take out a paid license from the state.


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