In the News

["Amy Mata" <AMata@xxxxxxxx>]

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Google: Internet disconnection a "disproportionate" penalty.
By Nate Anderson, Ars Technica, March 17, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/dzvpc7

"Google has waded into the worldwide debate over disconnecting
file-sharers after repeated copyright infringement."
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Vietnam: Task Force on Mission to Open Centre for Protection of
Copyrights.
VietNamNetBridge, March 17, 2009.
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/lifestyle/2009/03/836611/

"An intellectual property rights official has made it her mission to
ensure unauthorized copying of written works, especially rampant in the
academic sphere, is rooted out."
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Sweden: Survey: Swedes Dislike Law against File Sharing.
By Mikael Riknas, PC World, March 17, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/dk3oty

"A new law that will make it easier for copyright holders to go after
file sharers has little support among Swedes, according to a survey by
market research company Sifo."
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Yao Ming joins MPA to stuff piracy.
By Jonathan Landreth, THR.com World, March 18, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/crtako

"NBA star and Chinese national hero Yao Ming is lending a hand in the
fight against piracy with a new poster campaign aimed at movie theaters
and schools across China."
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Kutiman's "Thru-You" Mashes Up Copyright Concepts.
By Rob Pegoraro, The Washington Post, March 18, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/ckzj8d

"It's an ingenious mash-up cooked together by an Israeli musician who
calls himself Kutiman. He spent weeks finding YouTube videos with
sample-worthy bits he could splice together -- and not just as audio
clips, but as video snippets playing alongside each other. It's a
remarkable feat of after-the-fact conductorship."
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EMI Copyright Deal to Protect Martin Luther King Speeches.
By Kiran Randhawa, Evening Standard, March 18, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/cnnspb

"Managers of the civil rights leader's estate have asked EMI to track
and charge when his words appear on websites such as YouTube. They have
also asked the company to promote and sell the speeches, including his
"I have a dream" address of 1963, more effectively on iTunes."
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Nigeria: Can NCC's New Copyright Enforcement Tactics Tame Piracy?
By Prince Osuagwu, The Vanguard, March 18, 2009.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200903180202.html

"For the past twenty years, the Nigerian Copyright Commission, NCC, has
been on the crusade of ridding the economy of the scourge of piracy."
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Court Asked To Declare Copyright Royalty Board Unconstitutional.
Posted by Mike Scarcella, The Blog of Legal Times, March 19, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/exqys

"It's not often that Metallica, Dr. Dre, and Peter, Paul & Mary are
brought up during oral argument, but such was the case today when the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit delved into Internet radio
royalty fees."
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Google: Most Takedown Notices are Illegitimate.
By Greg Sandoval, CNET News, March 19, 2009.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10200279-93.html

"As part of a plea to lawmakers in New Zealand to overturn a new
pro-copyright law, Google claims that most takedown notices are bogus."
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China, U.S. trade barbs over WTO piracy case.
Reuters, March 20, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/c74k38

"China and the United States traded blows over entertainment and
software piracy Friday as the World Trade Organization (WTO) formally
ruled some Chinese practices were illegal but exonerated it of other
complaints."
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SXSW Notebook: Panelists, audience have fun debating fair use.
By David Sarno, LA Times, March 20, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/cgqsqe

"It'd be cool to inhabit the mind of a present-day 16-year-old. Or
terrifying. Either way, you'd probably get a stark sense of what, if
anything, the new generation of media consumers thinks about copyright."
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Register of Copyrights Not Asked by Congress To Weigh in on Google Book
Search?
By Andrew Albanese, Library Journal, March 20, 2009.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6645344.html

"Out of last Friday's all-day Columbia University conference on Google
Book Search came this interesting little tidbit: Register of Copyrights
Mary Beth Peters had recommended against the Library of Congress
participating in Google's initial Library Partners program, because she
wasn't sure that Google's indexing of copyrighted books was a fair use."
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Spiral Frog DRM Music to Play 60 Days, then Vanish.
By Greg Sandoval, CNET News, March 20, 2009.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10201355-93.html

"A source familiar with SpiralFrog's operations said the service's
digital rights management technology, designed to prevent unauthorized
copying, will lock up the music indefinitely after 60 days. The songs
could live again should SpiralFrog's assets be acquired and the new
owner decide to relaunch the service, the source said."
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Digital Model 'all you can eat.'
By Jeannie Naujeck, Nashville Business Journal, March 20, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/cv2as3

"The struggling music industry is looking to new technology solutions
that could help it regain some lost ground and make music consumption
more convenient and affordable for fans."
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New Zealand: ISPs Pressured for Copyright Code.
By Giles Brown, Stuff.co.nz, March 21, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/cjhb56

"The pressure is on to get a code drawn up in time for a new internet
copyright law."
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Experts Advise Citizen Journalists on Copyright Law.
By David Silverberg, Digital Journal, March 22, 2009.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/269368

"The rise of citizen media carries with it questions on what journalists
can borrow and upload from the Web. Lawyers David Ardia and Michael
Geist offer advice to citizen journalists on what's fair use and how
they can protect themselves."
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Obama's "pro-copyright industry" Department of Justice Sides with RIAA's
$150,000-Per-song Penalty.
By Paul Boutin, The Industry Standard, March 23, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/c2qexw

"In a memo sent from the Department of Justice to a U.S. district court
in Massachusetts, the DOJ -- which legally refers to its opinion as "The
United States of America's response" -- has declared that potential
fines of $150,000 per track are not unreasonable in the case of a former
Boston University student who allegedly disributed bootleg copies of
copyrighted songs by RIAA artists."
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Amy Mata
Graduate Assistant
Center for Intellectual Property
University of Maryland University College
amata@xxxxxxxx