In the News

["Amy Mata" <AMata@xxxxxxxx>]

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Prevent Canada from Becoming a Copyright Police State.
By Mehret Tesfaye, Ethiopian Review, August 17, 2009.
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/articles/24277

"Canada is planning to reform its copyright law and if the entertainment
industries have their way, the rights and privacy of consumers will be
thrown overboard. It's time for all Canadian BitTorrent users to stand
up against the increasing power of the anti-piracy lobby, before it's
too late."
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Lawyer and Author Adds His Objections to Settling the Google Book
Lawsuit.
By Miguel Helft, The New York Times, August 18, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/knphka

"A growing chorus of authors, academics and other book industry figures
is objecting to the settlement of a class-action suit that would allow
Google to profit from digital versions of millions of books it has
scanned from libraries."
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Flickr Censors Political Image Critical of President Obama.
By Thomas Hawk, Thomas Hawk's Digital Collection, August 18, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/ng3yuq

"Flickr had removed the Joker image due to copyright-infringement
concerns, Alkhateeb says the company told him in an e-mail. The photo
recently began turning up in Los Angeles with the word "socialism"
printed underneath it in similar style to the famous Shepard Fairey
Obama HOPE poster and since then has been the subject of considerable
debate and online interest."
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US Software Pirate Fined $210K for Auction Sales.
By John Leyden, The Register, August 18, 2009.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/18/software_pirate_fine/

"A US man has been fined $210,000 for selling illegal copies of software
through internet auction sites."
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China Jails Four for "Tomato Garden" Microsoft Piracy.
By Chris Buckley, Reuters, August 20, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/mhf2b8

"A Chinese court has jailed four people for spreading their bootleg
"Tomato Garden" version of Microsoft's Windows XP program, in what the
Xinhua news agency called the nation's biggest software piracy case."
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Yahoo Wins U.S. Court Ruling Over Webcasting Fees.
By Jonathan Stempel, Reuters, Reuters, August 21, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/lxhvmo

"A federal appeals court in New York ruled that a Yahoo Inc Internet
radio service is not required to pay fees to copyright holders of songs
it plays, a defeat for Sony Corp's BMG Music."
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Could Evidence-Based Copyright Law Ever Be Put in Place?
Mike Masnick, Techdirt, August 21, 2009.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090820/0327475945.shtml

"Recently, we were discussing how copyright law seems to only get worse
and worse, and it got me thinking how likely it is that "better"
copyright laws could ever be put in place. Michael Geist recently put up
a post on how to design copyright law that would last, emphasizing
"balance" as being essential for durability."
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Tourists Warned Over Fake Goods.
BBC News, August 22, 2009.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8215519.stm

"Holidaymakers could be fined thousands of pounds - or even jailed - for
buying fake designer goods when abroad, copyright lawyers are warning."
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Get Creative with 'Sita' Source Files.
By Jenni Miller, Cinematical, August 23, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/nvezl8

"When faced with copyright lemons, Sita Sings the Blues creator Nina
Paley made some delicious lemonade. Since Sita uses songs in the film by
Annette Hanshaw that are copyrighted, and as an indie filmmaker she
can't afford to purchase the rights to them, her hands were tied when it
came to distribution. So she came up with a plan that worked with (and
around) the copyright issues so the movie's admirers could see the
lovely film for themselves."
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U.K. Government Eyes Sanctions for File Sharers.
By David Meyer, CNET News, August 25, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/n8jg27

"The U.K. government has made new proposals that would see Internet
users disconnected if they are suspected of illicit file-sharing. The
proposals (PDF) were announced on Tuesday by Lord Mandelson's Department
of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). They arrive in the middle of
the department's own public consultation on legislation on the misuse of
peer-to-peer (P2P) technology, which is scheduled to end in September."
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Amy Mata
Graduate Assistant
Center for Intellectual Property
University of Maryland University College

amata@xxxxxxxx
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