In the News

["Jack Boeve" <JBoeve@xxxxxxxx>]

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RECENT ITEM FROM THE CIP COLLECTANEA BLOG:

UT Austin and the CCC's annual subscription license. By Georgia Harper,
Collectanea, September 8, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/5jy8oo

As CCC announces today, the University of Texas at Austin has subscribed
to the CCC's new annual license for the academic year '08-'09. We added
this source of authority to our existing legal (fair use) and
contractual (databases and transactional) permissions after a year-long
exploration of our usage patterns, those existing authorizations, and
the cost of the various options for obtaining permission where we need
it.

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IN OTHER NEWS:

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Copyright Enforcement Bill Being Pushed to Fast Track. By Richard
Esguerra, EFF, September 16, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/6qbm79

Public Knowledge has been getting the word out about S. 3325, the
Enforcement of Intellectual Property Act of 2008. The bill was amended
by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, but it still aims to give
the government the power to bring civil suits against infringers (where
they would normally file a criminal lawsuit), allowing the Department of
Justice to act as an enforcement tool for the entertainment industry,
paid by your tax dollars.

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Piracy Settlement-O-Matic. By Karl Bode, DSL Reports, September 16,
2008.
http://tinyurl.com/69s8ak

Taking their cue from Amazon's one-click ordering system and the RIAA's
settlement-o-matic website, a company named Nexicon is developing a
technology that tracks users who share music and film illegally, and
then demands payment for the downloaded file.

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CRKN releases its plan for OA. By Peter Suber, Open Access News,
September 16, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/6s6n2g

The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) has released a Statement
on Alternative Publishing Models & Open Access.

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Blog: Harry Potter back in the news. By Marjorie Kehe, Christian Science
Monitor, September 14, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/6kqavk

On the heels of a court decision  banning the publication of "The Harry
Potter Lexicon," a reference guide relating to the popular Harry Potter
books..., Steve Vander Ark, the would-be lexicographer is back in the
headlines again. This time, the discussion is about his new book, "In
Search of Harry Potter," a guide to Harry Potter-related sites
throughout the United Kingdom.

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Hari Puttar and the case of the film that sounded too familiar. By Fiona
Gray, Scotland on Sunday, September 14, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/5mnhnn

The release of Hari Puttar, a children's Bollywood film, has been
postponed after Warner Bros complained its name was too similar to Harry
Potter. The Hollywood company filed a lawsuit against Bollywood
film-makers Mirchi Movies because the name of the film was "confusing"
and could infringe their copyright.

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Did 'Spore' copy protections backfire on EA?  By Jennifer Guevin, CNET
News, September 13, 2008.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10041188-52.html

After years of anticipation, the coming-out party for Electronic Arts'
new evolution game Spore seems to be getting rained out....Enraged by
what they call "draconian" copyright protections, thousands of people
flooded Amazon.com to give the game a one-star rating. And now there
seems to be another movement afoot, one that is far more likely to hit
EA where it counts.

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Calgarian Digital Rights Activists Organize to Make Copyright Election
Issue. By Drew Wilson, ZeroPaid, September 13, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/6mwc27

Making copyright an election issue has been largely an underground
movement. That could change in later legs of the Canadian election if
meetings as scheduled in Calgary continue.

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Congressional Hearing Over Public Access Filled With High Drama. By
Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 12, 2008.
http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/09/4589n.htm

A life-and-death battle is going on over public access to federally
financed research-life for taxpayers and many scientists, and death for
publishers. Or so each side claims. That battle, whose outcome will
affect many university researchers, kicked into high gear on Capitol
Hill yesterday, as the combatants debated the merits of a bill that
would curtail the National Institutes of Health's public-access policy.

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RIAA, MPAA resume lobbying push to expand copyright law. By Declan
McCullagh, CNET News, September 11, 2008.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10039238-38.html

It only took a few days after politicians returned from their summer
holidays for Hollywood and the major record labels to resume their
legislative push to rewrite and expand digital copyright law. The
Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture
Association of America are lobbying for a pair of bills that enjoy
bipartisan support. Both are designed to give the federal government
more power to police copyright violations, and both are likely to run
into opposition from political foes of the RIAA and MPAA.

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Press Release: Frank testifies in support of copyright protection for
scientific publishers. American Physiological Society, EurekAlert,
September 11, 2008.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/aps-fti091108.php

Martin Frank, the executive director of The American Physiological
Society and coordinator of the DC Principles Coalition, testified before
a U.S. House subcommittee today in support of HR 6845, the Fair
Copyright in Research Works Act.

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Senate panel approves RIAA-backed copyright bill. By Stephanie Condon,
CNET News,  September 11, 2008.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10039745-38.html

A U.S. Senate panel on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill backed by
the recording industry that would give federal prosecutors the power to
file civil lawsuits against peer-to-peer users who violate copyright
laws. By a 14-4 margin, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted for the
Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act, which would create
stricter IP laws, as well as increase the ability of the White House and
Justice Department to enforce those laws.

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Copyright extension of 45 years to net just $40 for most performers. By
Matt Asay, CNET News,  September 9, 2008.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10036087-16.html

Just when I think the freedom brigade is on a roll, I read nonsense like
this from the European Union, as reported in Ars Technica, suggesting
that the EU is considering extending copyright terms by 45 years in
order to guarantee income for aging artists. US entitlements like
Medicare having nothing on this....


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