In the News

["Amy Mata" <AMata@xxxxxxxx>]

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Obama, Reagan and Tea Party Copyright Infringement.
By Gene Quinn, IP Watchdog, April 17, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/ddpufd

"After the AP brought a counterclaim against Fairey, Fairey is now claiming
that the AP violated his copyright in the poster because they have copied that
in news reports.  Fairey is getting shockingly bad legal advice, and his
attorneys are obviously more interested in grandstanding than in representing
their client.  There is zero percent chance that the AP will be found to
violate Fairey's rights. "
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Swedish File-Sharers Convicted.
By Eric Pfanner, The New York Times, April 18, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/cktgoo

"The music and movie industries celebrated a high-profile victory in their
campaign to curb online piracy on Friday when a Swedish court convicted and
imposed prison sentences to four men linked to the notorious Internet
file-sharing service The Pirate Bay."
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CNN Uses Copyright to Save Image.
By Michael van der Galien, PoliGazette, April 19, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/c8ohck

"I'm sick of people knocking embarrassing videos off YouTube with bogus
copyright violation claims."
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Pirate Bay Gets Political, Could Soon Be Obsolete.
By Pat Pilcher, nzherald.co.nz, April 20, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/cvevhk

"Regardless of the final outcome after the dust has cleared from any remaining
legal wrangles, The Pirate Bay verdict appears to be achieving the opposite to
the outcome intended by the copyright advocates with support for the site and
its political offshoot, the Pirate Party reportedly going from strength to
strength."
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EU Lawmaker Confident of Music Copyright Deal.
By Huw Jones, Reuters, Guardian.co.uk, April 21, 2009.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8466027

"A deal that will win over a blocking minority among European Union member
states and extend copyright for musicians and producers in the EU is close to
being agreed, a senior lawmaker said on Tuesday."
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Copyright? What Copyright?
By Jess Hill, newmatilda.com, April 21, 2009.
http://newmatilda.com/2009/04/21/copyright-what-copyright

"Authors have until 5 May to tell Google to get their money grubbing hands off
their books, writes Jess Hill. After that, they can be scanned and uploaded to
Google's virtual library."
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Pirate Bay Case on Its Way to Court of Appeal.
By Mikael Ricknds, PC World, April 21, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/c53nss

"A lawyer for one of the defendants in the Pirate Bay case has already filed
an appeal against the guilty verdict handed down by a Stockholm court on
Friday, and lawyers for the other three defendants are gearing up to do the
same."
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PRS Copyright 'Investigators' Actually Sales People.
By Mike Manick, Techdirt, April 21, 2009.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090421/0328544592.shtml

"PRS, the UK's music licensing agency, recently reached out to us after a
series of posts we wrote which (to say the least) portrayed their organization
negatively. We had a cheerful email exchange that basically left off with us
disagreeing on just about everything -- but especially over PRS's tactics,
such as demanding a woman running a stable pay for a license because she
played music to her horses, just because a few other employees (who didn't
listen to the music) occasionally stopped in."
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EU States, Lawmakers on Internet Collision Course.
By Huw Jones, Reuters, April 21, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/c7bxbq

"European Union states headed for a collision course with the bloc's
parliament on Tuesday as a spat over how to tackle illegal downloads
threatened a wider telecom reform."
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PK Tells Copyright Office: Technology will enable the blind to access more
information.
By Rashmi Rangnath, Public Knowledge, April 22, 2009.
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/2110

"For the blind and the visually impaired access to information is not easy.
Works have to be converted to special formats to enable access. Because
copyrights are implicated during the process, copyright law provides certain
exceptions enabling the creation of accessible formats."
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British Singer Bragg Blasts EU Copyright Extension.
Associated Press, MSN Money, April 22, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/c39pg2

"British singer Billy Bragg blasted Wednesday a proposed European Union law to
nearly double music copyright to 95 years, saying it would give a huge
windfall to major recording labels."
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Blog: Reuters and Politico Challenge Online Copyright Breaches with New
Consortium.
Posted by Laura Oliver, Journalism.co.uk, April 22, 2009.
http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/534132.php

"News organisations including Reuters and Politico have teamed up with
Attributor to create a new group aimed at protecting publishers' copyright
online."
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Copyright Battle Looms for Docs Who 'Grew Up Google.'
By Brian Blank, ABC News, April 22, 2009.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=7391207&page=1

"Should medical studies be posted free for all to see and learn from?"
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The Pirate Bay case: Not necessarily a victory for Hollywood.
By Tom Sullivan, The Christian Science Monitor, April 22, 2009.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0422/p06s01-woeu.html?page=1

"Last week's conviction of the founders of The Pirate Bay did not shut down
the filesharing website. Instead, it has boosted the ranks of its supporters
and raised awareness of an ideological and legal battle for control of how the
Internet is used."
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Pirate Bay Judge Accused of Conflict of Interest.
By Mats Lewan, CNET News, April 23, 2009.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10226167-93.html

"The judge who ruled against The Pirate Bay defendants on Friday is a member
of two copyright organizations, an alleged conflict of interest that could
require the case to be tried again, Swedish press reported Thursday morning."
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Biden to MPAA: you'll like Obama's pick for copyright czar.
By John Timmer, Ars Technica, April 23, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/djgl77

"The MPAA hosted its latest DC lobbying event, featuring a dinner at which
Vice President Biden promised the group that it will like the person Obama
will eventually pick for the administration's chief copyright policy
position."
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EU Votes for Longer Music Copyright.
By Andrew Orlowski, The Register, April 23, 2009.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/23/europe_music_copyright_term/

"The European Parliament has voted 377 to 178 in favour of extended the
copyright term for new sound recordings from 50 to 70 years. It's only a first
reading, but it's a strong indication of approval for the bill, introduced by
Irish MEP Brian Cowley."
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Copyright Lawsuit Allowed To Proceed Against YouTube.
By Wendy Davis, MediaPost News, April 23, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/cmhqsq

"A federal appellate court has rebuffed a request from Google's YouTube to
dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit on the narrow ground that the
plaintiff in the case, videographer Robert Tur, voluntarily withdrew the
lawsuit in order to join a pending class-action in New York."
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Software That Copies DVDs to Players is on Trial.
By Brad Stone, New York Times, April 24, 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/technology/24dvd.html?_r=1

"The motion picture association's lawyers plan to claim that RealNetworks has
breached its license to use C.S.S. encryption and violated the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act by circumventing the anticopying locks on Hollywood
DVDs."
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Amy Mata
Graduate Assistant
Center for Intellectual Property
University of Maryland University College

amata@xxxxxxxx
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