In the News

["Amy Mata" <AMata@xxxxxxxx>]

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UK: Top Musicians Unite to Form Copyright Lobby Group.
By Dan Sabbagh, The Times Online, March 10, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/dgwdw8

"They earn millions and the extent of their diva-esque demands is often
mind boggling. But tomorrow, Robbie Williams, KT Tunstall and the
members of Radiohead will join a group of high-profile musicians to
protest at how badly they are treated by record companies and music
streaming websites like YouTube."
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Can You Copyright a Chess Move?
By Mike Masnik, Techdirt, March 10, 2009.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090305/0158524003.shtml

"Stephen S. Power alerts us to an ongoing debate in the chess world over
the question of whether or not you can copyright a chess move."
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Getting Those Creative Copyrights Right.
By Heather Ford, Tech Leader from The Mail & Guardian Online, March 10,
2009.
http://tinyurl.com/bssd6s

"Creative Commons licenses are a set of copyright licenses that enable
copyright holders to mark their creative work with the freedom they want
it to carry."
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UK Academics Warn that Copyright Extension Supporters Not to Fall Back
Into the Evidence Free Zone.
By Mike Masnik, Techdirt, March 10, 2009.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090303/1937513976.shtml

"Imagine a process of reviewing prescription drugs that goes like this:
representatives from the drug company come to the regulators and argue
that their drug works well and should be approved. They have no evidence
of this beyond a few anecdotes about people who want to take it and
perhaps some very simple models of how the drug might affect the human
body. The drug is approved. No trials, no empirical evidence of any
kind, no follow-up. Even the harshest critics of regulation would admit
we generally do better than this. But this is often the way we make
intellectual property policy."
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PRS for Music, Google Still Talking.
By Andre Paine, Billboard.biz, March 11, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/aj7trm

"Representatives from PRS for Music and Google will continue discussions
following Google's decision to block premium music videos for British
users of YouTube. The two sides are in dispute over the rates they are
each seeking to secure a new licensing agreement."
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Associated Press Files Countersuit Over Obama Poster.
By Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times, March 11, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/b7gk4o

"The Associated Press has filed a countersuit against the artist Shepard
Fairey, who created the famous "Hope" poster of Barack Obama, The A.P.
said in a statement."
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New Zealand: InternetNZ: New Copyright Law Impossible Without
TelestraClear.
By Chris Keall, The National Business Review, March 12, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/arruso

"S92 should now be repealed altogether, InternetNZ says. Implementation
of the controversial clause of the delayed copyright law, and the
associated ISP code of practice, without the third-largest internet
service provider on board would 'invite disaster.'"
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New Report from CLIR: Copyright and Related Issues Relevant to Digital
Preservation and Dissemination of Unpublished Pre-1972 Sound Recordings
by Libraries and Archives.
Resource Shelf, March 12, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/cz65pg

"This report addresses the question of what libraries and archives are
legally empowered to do to preserve and make accessible for research
their holdings of unpublished pre-1972 sound recordings."
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'RiP: A Remix Manifesto' Baits Copyright Police with Envelope-Pushing
Mash-up.
The Canadian Press, March 12, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/b5tbwq

"With a film that relies heavily on a mash-up of unlicensed movie and
music clips, director Brett Gaylor admits his new documentary, "RiP: A
Remix Manifesto," practically invites the lawsuits to fly."
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Copyright v Artistic Voice and the Great Kutiman.
By Richard Menta, MP3newswire.net, March 12, 2009.
http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/9002/kutiman.html

"These clips are not a mere mechanical exercise in editing. They are in
themselves a new inspired work culled from the bits and pieces of
others. The work is impressive as is the tremendous effort it must have
taken to create these videos."
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Copyright and Classical Music: The Exact Opposite of the Intended
Purpose.
By Mike Masnick, Techdirt, March 12, 2009.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090308/1022324034.shtml

"Earlier this year, we discussed a recent article about the impact of
copyright on classical music, where it was noted that the music that is
still considered the absolute best of that particular era mostly came
from countries that did not have strong copyright protection."
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Amazon Invokes DMCA against Kindle e-Books From Other Vendors.
By Declan McCullagh, CNET News, March 13, 2009.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10196424-38.html

"This week, an e-book Web site said Amazon.com invoked the 1998 law to
prevent books from some non-Amazon sources from working on its Kindle
reader."
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Terry McBride: Songs Are Not Copyright. Songs Are Emotions.
By Mike Masnick, Techdirt, March 13, 2009.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090311/0432524073.shtml

"Last year we wrote about a fascinating interview with Terry McBride,
the CEO of Nettwerk Music, a Canadian record label that has proven to be
quite innovative with its business models (and quite successful). He's
really focused on helping musicians build up valuable brands, and then
being able to make money off of those brands by being consumer-friendly,
rather than consumer-antagonistic."
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Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets?!?
By Mike Masnick, Techdirt, March 13, 2009.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090313/1456154113.shtml

"Plenty of folks are quite concerned about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Agreement (ACTA) negotiations are being negotiated in secret. This is a
treaty that (from the documents that have leaked so far) is quite
troubling. It likely will effectively require various countries,
including the US, to update copyright laws in a draconian manner."
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Canada: Mash-up Doc Argues that Creativity Begins Where Copyright Ends.
By Guy Dixon, Globe and Mail, March 14, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/cxlr77

"The director of a new documentary about mash-ups, legal bash-ups and
the pile-up of issues surrounding copyright law knew he had to be
careful with footage of Mickey Mouse."
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New Zealand: Hide Takes Aim at Copyright Law.
TVNZ, March 14, 2009.
http://tvnz.co.nz/technology-news/hide-takes-aim-copyright-law-2542697
"Act leader Rodney Hide wants the controversial internet copyright law
repealed and says he will recommend that to the government. 'It should
be repealed...it is fundamentally flawed because it breaches the
principles of natural justice. It makes people guilty without trial and
that is wrong.'"
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United Arab Emirates: ASIP Holds "Copyright and Related Rights Course."
AGIP News, March 15, 2009.
http://www.ag-ip-news.com/GetArticle.asp?Art_ID=6910&lang=en

"The Arab Society for Intellectual Property (ASIP) in cooperation with
the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry is holding a training course
on "Copyrights and Related Rights" April 26-28, 2009 at the Hotel
Novotel, World Trade Center, Dubai."
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New Zealand: Google Opposes New Copyright Law.
By Tom Pullar-Strecker, Business Day, March 16, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/dbrl2x

"Google has voiced its opposition to a controversial law change that
would force internet service providers to cut off 'repeat copyright
infringers, in appropriate circumstances.'"
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Blog: The Copyright Registry is Now Free for American Society of Media
Photographers.
By digitalcamerainfo.com, March 16, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/csmeq4

"The Copyright Registry is now available for free to the members of the
American Society of Media Photographers."
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Nairobi, Kenya: How to Tap Wealth from Intellectual Property.
By Anne Kiunuhe, Business Daily Africa, March 17, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/cl8s5x

"The recent enactment of the Anti-Counterfeit Act whose main purpose is
to prohibit trade in counterfeit goods and to establish the
Anti-Counterfeit Agency is a first step in promoting intellectual
property. The government, however, has not yet brought the Act into
force."
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Amy Mata
Graduate Assistant
Center for Intellectual Property
University of Maryland University College
amata@xxxxxxxx