In the News

["Amy Mata" <AMata@xxxxxxxx>]

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Raw Deal: Pennsylvania Artwork Now Under U.S. Postal Service Copyright.
By Patriot News Editorial Board, Pennlive.com, May 16, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/exqys

"Since 2006, they argued that because the post office owns the buildings
where these murals and sculptures reside, the postal service owns the
art."
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Studios Urge ISP to Admit Piracy, Stop Wasting Court's Time.
Posted on TorrentFreak.com, May 18, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/ole88t

"Several studios are currently engaged in legal action against
Australian ISP iiNet. They accuse iiNet of failing to take steps to stop
its subscribers from sharing files by disconnecting them from the
Internet. Now anti-piracy group AFACT says iiNet should just admit its
customers are pirates, and stop wasting the court's time."
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Taking Sides in the Digital Revolution, Where Copyright is the First
Casualty.
By Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times, May 18, 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/books/19kaku.html?_r=1

"Is it O.K. for fans to download music from the Web free? Should YouTube
post clips from network and cable television shows, when the posts come
from third parties? Do Google and aggregator sites owe newspapers,
magazines and other content creators a fee for linking to their sites?
Should musicians who want to sample and remix other musicians' work
obtain permission from the original artist - or pay for the rights?"
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Saving Hollywood.
By Felix Salmon, Reuters, May 19, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/peg4dg

"Some people, like Columbia law professor Tim Wu, are tempted to think
that even though Pirate Bay is still functioning, the conviction proves
that as a business model, movie piracy is dead in the water."
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(c) 2009? Wishful Thinking, Perhaps, as Backlog Mounts.
By Lyndsey Layton, The Washington Post, May 19, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/opxnma

"The envelopes fill white plastic tubs, stacked on hundreds of shelves
in the basement of the Library of Congress. They're spreading to a
ground-floor space that once housed the gift shop and are clogging
offices on the fourth floor. And each day, the mail trucks bring about a
thousand more."
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A Book Grab by Google.
By Brewster Kahle, The Washington Post, May 19, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/r6m7ax

"A court in the Southern District of New York will soon make a decision
that could determine our digital future. A ruling is expected shortly on
a proposed settlement of lawsuits filed against Google in 2005 by groups
representing authors and publishers claiming that Google's book-scanning
project violated copyright."
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Pressuring other Countries to Enforce Copyright to be part of US Foreign
Policy.
Zeropaid.com, May 20, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/exqys

"One of the major criticisms of the plaintiffs of The Pirate Bay trial
is the heavy involvement of the United States. In Canada, many have said
that the United States is exerting major pressure onto the country (some
go as far as to say it's bully tactics) to reform it's copyright laws.
Now, a new piece of legislation in the United States says that enforcing
intellectual property rights in other countries could become enshrined
in US law."
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Congress to Monitor Canada, Spain for Copyright Violations.
By Grant Gross, IDG News on PCWorld, May 20, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/qwget3

"A group of U.S. lawmakers plan to keep a close eye on five countries,
including Canada and Spain, for what they see as a lack of protections
for copyright."
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An Expose on a Serial Copyright Violator on YouTube.
By Orrin K., DC Film Industry Examiner, Examiner.com, May 20, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/q6l4xv

"What does sweet little Sara do that makes her so popular? She has
posted the entirety of the films House of Sand and Fog, The Air I
Breathe, Uptown Girls, If Only, The Interpreter and When a Man Loves a
Woman onto her account split up into 10 minute parts. As to whether
she's concerned about the moral or legal consequences of this, she said:
'I'm not concerned, because I'm not taking credits or any profits by
posting them'"
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Harvard Prof to RIAA: "P2P is Fair Use."
Zeropaid.com, May 20, 2009.
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86267/harvard-prof-to-riaa-p2p-is-fair-use/

"Lawyer Charles Nesson plans to argue that downloading music without
permission of copyright holder qualifies for "fair use" exemption from
copyright laws, and if an individual file-sharer is not proven to have
caused actual losses than they can't be held liable for damages."
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Judge Reviewing Pirate Bay Trial Bias is Removed for Bias.
By David Kravets, Wired Blog Network, May 21, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/pyy7bb

"The judge assigned to review whether the trial judge in the Pirate Bay
trial was biased has now been removed - for bias, of course."
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At RealDVD Hearing, MPAA Says Copying DVDs Never Legal.
By Greg Sandoval, CNET News, May 21, 2009.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10246638-93.html

"Attorneys for the Motion Picture Association of America attacked fair
use during a hearing in the RealDVD case here on Thursday, claiming it
is not a defense for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. To
prove its point, the MPAA relied on RealNetworks' own testimony in a
prior case."
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Mark Helprin Stole from Techdirt Commenters (Using the Logic of Mark
Helprin).
By Mike Masnick, Techdirt, May 21, 2009.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090521/0313424957.shtml

"I was just reading Larry Lessig's long and thorough takedown of
Helprin's book, and noticed something odd."
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Copyright Education Foundation Launched.
By George Szalai, THR.com, May 21, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/pnp9as

"The Copyright Alliance has launched the Copyright Alliance Education
Foundation, a new non-profit charitable arm that will develop
educational programs aimed at young Americans."
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New French Law on Internet Piracy Meet Skepticism.
By Deborah Seward, The Associated Press, May 21, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/p58quq

"President Nicolas Sarkozy's governing party rejoiced when it muscled
one of his pet projects through the French parliament: an unprecedented
law to cut the Internet connections of people who repeatedly download
music and movies illegally. Sarkozy's victory last week, however, has
not won France leadership in Europe's fight against Internet piracy. The
government controls needed to enforce the law have unnerved other
European nations while legal challenges at home and opposition in the
European Parliament could derail it."
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Amy Mata
Graduate Assistant
Center for Intellectual Property
University of Maryland University College

amata@xxxxxxxx
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