In the News

["Amy Mata" <AMata@xxxxxxxx>]

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See Peggy Hoon's latest post on the CIP's Collectanea Blog!
Library Copyright Alliance Enters the Online Video Discussion.
http://chaucer.umuc.edu/blogcip/collectanea/

"For those of you following the conversation on whether or not the law
permits educational institutions to stream entire movies or videos
within an online course, the Library Copyright Alliance has joined the
discussion with an issue brief."
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Using Popular Songs, YouTube in Political Campaigns an Issue for Some.
By Aman Batheja, The Miami Herald, March 3, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/yh9wbx7

"From the Beatles and Marvin Gaye to Fergie and U2, a who's who of
popular music stars are providing the soundtrack to online campaign
commercials for Texas candidates. But while Gov. Rick Perry, Sen. Kay
Bailey Hutchison and others would normally incur high fees to use these
songs in television ads, they aren't paying a dime to use them in videos
posted on YouTube. In some cases, candidates are freed from copyright
law restrictions if they allow their campaign videos to be used as
commercials for the songs heard in them."
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UPDATE 1-US Top Court Sides with Publishers on $18 mln Deal.
By James Vicini, Reuters, March 2, 2010.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0220175720100302

"The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ruling that threw out an $18
million settlement between publishers and freelance writers in a
copyright case about work included in online databases."
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How Balanced Copyright Gives Us As Many Freaky Alice in Wonderlands as
We Can Handle.
By Michael Weinberg, Public Knowledge, March 2, 2010.
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/2925

"Oftentimes, opponents of Public Knowledge suggest that our calls for a
balanced copyright is really a call for everything to be free. First
off, this is wrong. Balanced copyright is an attempt to find a way to
promote creation without restricting innovation or creativity (or
"balance" the rights of the creators of the past, creators of the
future, and the public), not make everything free."
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Justices Reinstate Settlement with Writers.
By Adam Liptak, The New York Times, March 2, 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/business/media/03bizcourt.html

"The Supreme Court on Tuesday resurrected a possible settlement in a
class-action lawsuit brought by freelance writers who said that
newspapers and magazines had committed copyright infringement by making
their contributions available on electronic databases."
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85-Year-Old Sculptor Prevails in Copyright Case against Government.
By Zach Lowe, Law.com, March 1, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/yk625n4

"Frank Gaylord, now 85, won a government-sponsored contest to sculpt a
memorial to Korean War veterans in Washington, D.C., all the way back in
1990. The memorial he eventually built, which you can see here, drew the
attention of John Alli, a retired U.S. Marine and an amateur
photographer. In 1995, Alli took hundreds of photographs of the memorial
on a snowy day and eventually produced a single, haunting photo. In
2002, the federal government paid Alli $1,500 to use his photo as the
basis for a 37-cent postage stamp."
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Biggest-ever ACTA leak: secret copyright treaty dirty laundry
motherlode.
By Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing, March 1, 2010.
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/01/biggest-ever-acta-le.html

"On the heels of the leak of various country positions on ACTA
transparency, today an even bigger leak has hit the Internet. A new
European Union document prepared several weeks ago canvasses the
Internet and Civil Enforcement chapters, disclosing in complete detail
the proposals from the U.S., the counter-proposals from the EU, Japan,
and other ACTA participants."
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Did David Burdeny copy Sze Tsung Leong's photographs?
By Mark Lamster, The Los Angeles Times, February 28, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/yjh48sx

"Every photograph, even a tourist's snapshot, is protected by copyright
law. But the extent of that protection is itself regulated by the
doctrine of "fair use," which even the United States Copyright Office
says is "unclear and not easily defined." Presumably, some form of
transformation of an original work is required to avoid infringement,
but just what constitutes an acceptable level of transformation is a
matter of interpretation."
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Bill in UK May Disallow Public Wi-Fi.
By Devin Coldewey, The Wachington Post, February 27, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/yautc92

"Good luck sorting this one out, short-sighted lawmakers. An upcoming
piece of major legislation in the UK, called the Digital Economy Bill,
would essentially force all public wi-fi points offline by requiring
impossibly high levels of copyright protection."
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NZ: Copyright Abusers Get Three Warnings Before Termination.
The National Business Review, February 26, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/yjk6ml4

"Internet New Zealand has welcomed a new bill changing copyright laws
but says the penalty of suspending a user's account for breaches won't
work."
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EU Opposes '3-Strikes' on File-sharing in Intl. Copyright Treaty.
By Hefflinger, Digital Media Wire, February 26, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/ydgeryl

"The European Commission has issued a statement indicating that it will
take steps to ensure an international intellectual property treaty
currently being negotiated does not include a "three-strikes" provision
that would sever the Internet connections of copyright infringers on
file-sharing networks, ZDNet reported."
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Copyright Reform Warrior Lessig Beams Down to Denver for 'Wireside
Chat.'
By Joseph Boven, The Colorado Independent, February 26, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/yzx3zrq

"Copyright reform advocates gathered at Denver Open Media Thursday night
to participate in a global "wireside chat" lead in live streaming video
by Harvard law professor and longtime copyright critic Lawrence Lessig.
People tweeted cyberspace questions and comments from simultaneous
meatspace gatherings held in all corners of the world."
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Former Teen Cheerleader Dinged $27,750 for File Sharing 37 Songs.
By David Kravets, Wired News, February 26, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/yce8d3q

"A federal appeals court is ordering a university student to pay the
Recording Industry Association of America $27,750 - $750 a track - for
file sharing 37 songs when she was a high school cheerleader."
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Cryptome's Publication of Microsoft's Compliance Manual is a Fair Use.
By Opsahl, EFF, February 26, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/ydxjp7c

"Yesterday, Microsoft used a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
takedown notice to demand that a copy of the "Microsoft(r) Online
Services Global Criminal Compliance Handbook" (the Compliance Manual) be
removed from Cryptome, a security website. As a result, Network
Solutions felt obliged to takedown the entire Cryptome.org domain, a
repository for thousands of important and controversial documents."
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Australia: Appeal Lodged in iiNet Copyright Case.
News.com.au, February 25, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/yfuwgrk

"A consortium of 34 movie studios will appeal a Federal Court ruling
earlier this month that internet provider iiNet could not be held
responsible for illegal downloads."
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UK: Copyright Laws are You Breaking Them, Do You Know What They are?
By Consumer Focus UK, The Gov Monitor, February 25, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/yhjhxep

"It is practically impossible for consumers to infringe copyright law as
part of their daily lives if they do not use digital technology. Only 29
per cent of British consumers did not engage in any of the copyright
related activities we surveyed."
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Is a Twitter Tweet Protected by Copyright?
By Daniel Nations, Web Trends, Febraury 25, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/ydhp46b

"Copyright and Twitter. How do they mix? Is a tweet protected by
copyright? Or can anyone use your tweets? How about retweets?"
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Is Copyright Getting in the Way of Us Preserving Our History?
By Vistor Keegan, The Guardian, February 25, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/y997prv

"The issue of copyright is a global nightmare for anyone interested in
digital preservation."
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Microsoft Drops Cryptome 'Spy' Document Fight.
By Elinor Mills, CNET News, February 25, 2010.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10460171-245.html

"Microsoft has withdrawn a copyright complaint against the Cryptome site
over its publication of internal Microsoft guidelines for how the
software giant can provide user data to law enforcement."
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US Copyright Lobby: FOSS "Weakens Software Industry."
By Thom Holwerda, OS News, February 24, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/ycesajp

"The US copyright lobby has officially gone totally and utterly nuts.
Get this: they are trying to lobby the US government to equate
encouraging the use of Free and open source software to undermining
intellectual property rights, and to weakening the software industry."
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Microsoft Releases Latest Anti-Piracy Update.
By Stuart J. Johnston, Internetnews.com, February 24, 2010.
http://www.internetnews.com/software/article.php/3867081

"Previously known as Windows Genuine Advantage, Windows Activation
Technologies' update adds detection of 70 activation hacks for Windows
7, aims to cut down on piracy and counterfeiting."
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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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