In the News

["Amy Mata" <AMata@xxxxxxxx>]

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I want my Vevo: Will video site be next-gen MTV?
By Greg Sandoval, CNET News, December 6, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/yf3tav9

"On August 1, 1981, a cultural and entertainment juggernaut flickered
onto TV screens and rocketed out of obscurity with these six words:
"Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll." With that, the iconic cable
network, MTV, was launched and a popular entertainment category--music
videos--was born. Now, 28 years later, MTV has largely abandoned the
genre and the record industry is preparing for the debut of a possible
successor."
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Publishers Lays out Plan to Save Newspaper.
By Eric Pfanner, The New York Times, December 6, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/ylc5vry
"Springer, which publishes the biggest daily in Europe, the tabloid
Bild, as well as other newspapers in Germany and Eastern Europe, says it
wants publishers to get paid for their work on the Internet, at a time
when many people assume that online news should be free."
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You Want Enforcement? Here's Your Enforcement.
By Sherwin Siy, Public Knowledge, December 4, 2009.
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/2801

"This week, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that a 22-year old woman was
arrested on charges of "criminal use of a motion picture exhibition"
when she recorded two segments of the new Twilight movie, totaling four
minutes of footage. The movie theater apparently insisted upon pressing
criminal charges, meaning that Samantha Tumpach, who was apparently
using the camera to record her sister's birthday celebration at the
theater, spend two nights in jail before being released on her own
recognizance."
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Judge Rejects Amazon Bid to Scrap Google Pact.
Reuters, December 4, 2009.
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5B15KY20091202

"A federal judge has rejected Amazon.com Inc's request that he withdraw
preliminary approval of a settlement between Google Inc and groups of
authors and publishers to digitize millions of books. In a Tuesday
ruling, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said he planned to conduct a
"thorough fairness analysis" of the settlement at a February 18, 2010
hearing and Amazon could argue its case then."
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Australia Moves Forward with (Weakened) System to Have Artists Paid
Multiple Times for Same Artwork.
By Mike Masnick, Techdirt, December 3, 2009.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091201/0046067145.shtml

"There are a few countries out there that have "artist resale rights,"
which make little sense and do a lot more to harm artists than help
them."
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Web Giants Unite Against Digital Britain Copyright Plan.
By Jonathan Fildes, BBC, December 2, 2009.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8390623.stm

"Facebook, Google, Yahoo and eBay object to a clause that they say could
give government "unprecedented and sweeping powers" to amend copyright
laws."
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European ISPs Attack Secret ACTA Copyright Talks.
By David Meyer, ZDNet UK, December 2, 2009.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39915624,00.htm

"The European ISP Association (EuroISPA) said in a statement on Monday
that the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta) threatened the
openness of the internet and would not, in any case, be effective in
fighting copyright infringement. The organisation also criticised the
fact that citizens' representatives are not involved in the
negotiations."
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Perfect 10 Comes Out Swinging at Google Again.
By Chris Crum, WebProNews, December 2, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/ylprfq9

"Perfect 10's legal feud with Google began back in 2004. The case dealt
with Google's use of thumbnails from Perfect 10's site. It was
essentially a question of whether or not that was considered fair use.
Google had eventually lost the case, but the ruling against Google had
been tossed out by an appeals panel. That was in 2007. However, it did
not end there."
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Microsoft: 'Piracy no longer poses a threat to us.'
Freakbits Blog, December 2, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/yd97vvx

"In a recent interview, managing director of Microsoft Philippines Inc.,
John Bessey, has claimed that piracy no longer poses a threat to the
software giant."
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Spain Mulls Legislation to Shutdown File-Sharing Sites.
TorrentFreak Blog, December 2, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/ybk29op

"While there is less will to penalize file-sharers in Spain, the same
cannot be said about the sites that facilitate their downloading. Under
current law, file-sharing sites of all types have flourished in recent
years, but new legislation being mulled could close loopholes and allow
them to be disconnected, without the need for a court order."
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How Science is Shackled by Intellectual Property.
By John Sulston, The Guardian, November 26, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/y8jv4hc

"Ownership rights pose a real danger to scientific progress for the
public good"
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Amy Mata
Graduate Assistant
Center For Intellectual Property
University of Maryland University College
Rm. 2293, Largo, 3501 University Boulevard East
Adelphi, MD  20783
(240) 684-2967 office
(240) 684-2961 fax
amata@xxxxxxxx
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