In the News

["Jack Boeve" <JBoeve@xxxxxxxx>]

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Copyright Act change shifts software rights: Change to copyright law
will see software developers owning their software by default. By Ulrika
Hedquist, Computerworld, September 29, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/4oslza

A change in New Zealand's copyright law will see software developers
owning their software by default, even when that software is
commissioned, and that has led one industry leader to warn of potential
abuse.

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Who Owns the Law? Arguments May Ensue. By Noam Cohen, New York Times,
September 28, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/3gw5c5

In a time when scientists are trying to patent the very genetic code
that creates life, it may not be too surprising to learn that a variety
of organizations - from trade groups and legal publishers to the
government itself - claim copyright to the basic code that governs our
society.

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Senate passes, names copyright bill in honor of late Hatch aide. By Lee
Davidson, Deseret News, September 27, 2008.
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700262291,00.html

The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 aims at unlocking attics full
of copyrighted works whose copyright owners are unknown or unable to be
found. Such works are often called "orphan works."

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Blog: Stacking Penalties Upon Penalties (PRO-IP Passes Senate). By
Sherwin Siy, Public Knowledge, September 26, 2008.
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/1767

Today, the Senate approved an amended version of its version of IP
enforcement bill (now named the PRO-IP bill to parallel the enforcement
bill in the House). As amended, the bill retained its increased
forfeiture penalties for copyright infringement and media bootlegging,
meaning that any number of multipurpose devices-even those not owned by
the infringer-could get caught up in the net of forfeiture penalties.

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Senate Passes Controversial 'Copyright Czar' Bill. By Mark Hachman, PC
Magazine, September 26, 2008.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2331291,00.asp

On Friday, the U.S. Senate passed the controversial Pro-IP Bill, which
would effectively create a "copyright czar" answering to the President.
On Wednesday, Sen. Ron Wyden asked and was granted a request to remove a
provision that would have required the Department of Justice to enforce
copyright provisions, after the DOJ had objected.

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Blog: Senate Passes Bill Creating 'Copyright Czar'. By David Kravets,
Wired Blog Network, September 26, 2008.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/senate-passes-b.html

U.S. lawmakers approved the creation of a cabinet-level position of
copyright czar as part of sweeping intellectual property enforcement
legislation that sailed through the Senate on Friday. However, a
controversial measure granting the Justice Department the authority to
sue copyright infringers on behalf of Hollywood and the music industry
was removed after the White House lobbied against assuming those new
powers.

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Blog: Re-Computing Your Presidential Choices. By Rob Pegoraro,
Washington Post, September 26, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/3vptju

Back in February, I devoted a post here to comparing the positions of
the major Democratic and Republican presidential candidates on
tech-policy issues that can affect the goods and services available to
you next month, next year and over the next decade. Seven months have
passed, those five candidates have dwindled to two and they're having
their first debate together tonight; it's time I revisited this topic.

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Cabinet approves amendment to the Copyright Law. By Shih Hsiu-Chuan,
Taipei Times, September 26, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/4ub6ca

The Cabinet yesterday approved an amendment to the Copyright Law that
would authorize Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to take down content
on their servers that infringes on the copyright of original creators.
The law was amended in an attempt to crack down on Internet piracy.

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Press Alert: Flexible copyright licensing to launch in Hong Kong. By
Media For Freedom, September 25, 2008.
http://www.mediaforfreedom.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=11333

Next month, Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Centre will host an
event to launch a new set of flexible copyright licenses in Hong Kong.

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Minnesota woman fined $222,000 for music piracy gets new trial: But
ruling in RIAA case unlikely to change outcome, says defense lawyer. By
Jaikumar Vijayan, Computerworld, September 25, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/4kjzby

A federal judge in Minnesota yesterday ordered a new trial in a
copyright-infringement case involving a woman who last fall was told by
a jury to pay $222,000 to various record companies for illegally copying
and distributing 24 songs.

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US government withholds documents on copyright treaty: Electronic
Frontier Foundation sues to get them released. By Iain Thomson, VNUNet,
September 25, 2008.
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2226852/government-withholds-documents

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has sued the Office of the US
Trade Representative (USTR) over information it is withholding on the
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

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Press Release: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia strengthens copyright anti piracy
efforts in the region. DNA Communications, September 24, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/3o7yv7

The Ministry of Culture and Information (MoCI) in the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia (KSA) has started the implementation of a number of major
anti-piracy measures in a move intended to establish the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia as a regional leader in anti-piracy efforts.

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RIAA seeks sanctions against defense lawyer in copyright case. By
Jaikumar Vijayan, Computerworld, September 19, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/3lesv8

In a move likely to further irritate those opposed to the Recording
Industry Association of America's controversial anti-piracy campaign,
the RIAA last week filed a motion seeking legal sanctions against a
lawyer known for vigorously defending alleged copyright violators.

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