In the News

["Amy Mata" <AMata@xxxxxxxx>]

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Project Playlist Puts Legal Troubles Behind It.
By Greg Sandoval, CNET News, May 11, 2010.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20004738-261.html

"Two of the largest recording companies have withdrawn a copyright
lawsuit against music service Playlist.com, formerly known as Project
Playlist. The fledgling music service has reached a settlement with
Universal Music Group, the largest of the four top recording companies
after the sides negotiated a business arrangement. Terms of the
agreement were not released. Warner Music Group has also agreed to drop
the lawsuit, but whether Warner will allow the service to offer its
music is unclear."
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Canada: Time to tackle video-game piracy.
By Danielle Labossiere Parr, Financial Post, May 11, 2010.
http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/story.html?id=3011219

"Modernizing Canada's aging copyright regime for the digital age is
critical to the development of a successful market-driven digital
economy. For content creators, the current lack of clarity and certainty
with regard to the protection of intellectual property is tantamount to
operating in the digital Wild West."
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'Hurt Locker' Producer About to Sue an Army of Pirates.
By Eriq Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter, May 11, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/39zw5pk

"The war against movie piracy is getting downright explosive. We've
learned that the producers of the Oscar-winning "The Hurt Locker" are
preparing a massive lawsuit against thousands of individuals who pirated
the film online. The case could be filed as soon as tomorrow."
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Open Book Alliance Tosses Brick at Google; backs Amazon, Microsoft
Corp., AT&T.
By Peter Kelton, The Baltimore Examiner, May 11, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/368gwwf

"The Open Book Alliance (OBA) has tossed another brick at the Google
Books Settlement now pending a supposedly final decision in federal
court. Many believe the decision may shape the future of book
publishing. Most assume the decision will be appealed."
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ASCAP, NBC, Others Back Viacom in Lawsuit against YouTube.
By Wendy Davis, Media Post, May 11, 2010.
http://www.mediapost.com/blogs/raw/?p=2418

"A coalition of content owners and others including the American Society
of Composers, Authors and Publishers, NBC Universal and the Association
of American Publishers weighed in on Viacom's behalf in its copyright
infringement lawsuit against YouTube."
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Why Hollywood Should Be Nervous About Court Pick.
By Eriq Gardner, ABC News, May 10, 2010.
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=10610313

"Hollywood's biggest worry about Kagan might be her philosophy on
intellectual property matters. As dean of Harvard Law School from 2003
to 2009, she was instrumental in beefing up the school's Berkman Center
for Internet & Society by recruiting Lawrence Lessig and others who take
a strongly liberal position on "fair use" in copyright disputes."
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Bollywood Producer Vows to Fight US Copyright Case.
AFP, May 11, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/2bmg94g

"Vipul Shah said he was "truly baffled" at the case against the
distributors of his film "Singh Is Kinng", which was filed by the
American Rights Management Company last week in a New York court."
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Indian Copyright Act: Whose copy is it?
Sindhu Manjesh, The Times of India, May 8, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/23hxpgh

"The Indian Copyright Act 1957 has seen a few amendments in the past -
in the '80s and '90s - but it is widely acknowledged that it is far
outdated and does not reflect the reality of a rapidly evolving and
interconnected global knowledge economy. Our movie and music industries
as well as the digital and internet technology realm are in for an
overhaul if the proposed changes are passed by Parliament."
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Chuy's, BMI Settle Copyright Lawsuit.
By Brian J. Pedersen, Arizona Daily Star, May 8, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/26nkoen

"The owners of six Tucson Chuy's restaurants have agreed to pay $40,000
to settle a federal copyright lawsuit stemming from songs being played
without permission."
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Google Attorney Slams ACTA Copyright Treaty.
By Declan McCullagh, CNET News, May 7, 2010.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20004450-38.html

"An attorney for Google slammed a controversial intellectual property
treaty on Friday, saying it has "metastasized" from a proposal to
address border security and counterfeit goods to an international legal
framework sweeping in copyright and the Internet. The
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, is "something that has
grown in the shadows, Gollum-like," without public scrutiny, Daphne
Keller, a senior policy counsel in Mountain View, Calif., said at a
conference at Stanford University"
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Opinion: Getting the Last Word on Holden Caulfield.
By Jon Healy, The LA Times, May 7, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/3x6xpdy

"I've been so distracted by the Greek debt crisis that I missed a ruling
last week by the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals that has potentially
enormous implications for publishers, movie studios and other copyright
holders. The appeals panel overturned a federal judge's ruling that J.D.
Salinger (and now, his heirs) was entitled to a preliminary injunction
barring the U.S. publication of an unauthorized sequel to "Catcher in
the Rye."
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Harvard Considers Potential Partnership with Google Books.
By Noah S. Raymon, and Elyssa A.L. Spitzer, The Harvard Crimson, May 6,
2010.
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/5/6/google-settlement-books-unive
rsity/

"Harvard is reconsidering its current ban on Google Books from scanning
the University's vast collection of copyrighted material."
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Elsinore's Proposed Album Cover Causes a Copyright Uproar.
By Annie Zaleski, Riverfront Times, May 6, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/2uymul6

"Here's an interesting story developing around Elsinore's forthcoming
release, Yes Yes Yes, which is due August 10 on Parasol Records. The
Champaign, Illinois, indie-pop band used a painting by a friend for its
album cover -- and subsequently received a notice from the estate of pop
artist Roy Lichtenstein, claiming a copyright violation. The catch? The
painting in question and Lichtenstein's piece of art came from the same
source material."
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UK Court Says Sports Schedules Can Be Covered by Copyright.
By Mike Masnick, Techdirt, May 6, 2010.
 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100429/0338489236.shtml

"While in the US you can't copyright facts, elsewhere, it's not always
so direct. Over in Europe, they've long had a database right on the
collections of factual information -- despite the evidence that these do
a lot more harm than good."
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Canada: Pending Copyright Bill to Mimic the US: Geist.
By Omar El Akkad, The Globe and Mail, May 5, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/2d3ftpp

"It seems the Conservatives are taking another shot at making Canadian
copyright law look a lot like U.S. copyright law. University of Ottawa
law professor and copyright expert Michael Geist is reporting that the
Prime Minister is on the verge of introducing a bill that would
essentially be "the most anti-consumer copyright bill in Canadian
history."
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Why is Google Going into Book Selling?
By Chris Thompson, The Big Money, May 5, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/346hbbs

"OK, here's as much as we know about Google's (GOOG) plan to sell
electronic books. It won't be anything like either Amazon's (AMZN) or
Apple's (AAPL) scheme. Those two companies deal in proprietary devices
or software, such as the Kindle or the iPad. Google, however, plans to
sell books that will be stored entirely on the cloud and available with
any platform."
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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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