In the News

["Amy Mata" <AMata@xxxxxxxx>]

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Public Knowledge Weighs in on ASCAP Letter.
Zeropaid.com, June 29, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/2fwho8a

"We've been following the story of the ASCAP letter for a while and
getting reaction from groups mentioned. Today, we've received comments
from Public Knowledge."
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Copyright Ruling Worries Hollywood.
By Ted Johnson, Variety Magazine, June 29, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/2a9gb3p

"The irony is hard to ignore: Just as Hollywood was hailing a White
House plan to fight piracy last week, a federal court was handing down a
ruling that many in entertainment see as an invitation to infringe."
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Canada's Copyright Laws Show Britain's Digital Legislation is No
Exception.
By Cory Doctorow, The Guardian, June 29, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/24sozam

"A few months ago, Britain's archivists, educators, independent artists
and technologists were up in arms over the digital economy bill, a
dreadful piece of legislation that ignored all the independent experts'
views on how to improve Britain's digital economy; instead, it further
rewarded the slow-moving entertainment companies that refused to adapt
to the changing marketplace and diverted even more public enforcement
resources to shoring up their business-models."
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Libraries Have a Novel Idea.
By Geoffrey A. Fowler, The Wall Street Journal, June 28, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/24udzbu

"Libraries are expanding e-book offerings with out-of-print editions,
part of a broader effort to expand borrowing privileges in the Internet
Age that could challenge traditional ideas about copyright."
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RIAA Outraged by YouTube-Viacom Decision
By Chloe Albanesius, PC Magazine, June 28, 2010.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2365795,00.asp

"The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on Monday voiced
its opposition to the recent decision in the YouTube-Viacom copyright
infringement case."
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Farewell, Stevens: the Supreme Court loses its cryptographer.
By Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica, June 28, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/24lpuvr

"In April, the Supreme Court's most senior justice, John Paul Stevens,
announced his retirement. Since then, hundreds of articles have been
written about his career and his legacy. While most articles focus on
"hot button" issues such as flag burning, terrorism, and affirmative
action, Stevens's tech policy record has largely been ignored."
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ASCAP Seeks Donations to Fight EFF, Creative Commons.
By Mark Hefflinger, Digital Media Wire, June 28, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/2dl6wbn

"Performing rights organization ASCAP has urged its members in a
fundraising letter to send donations so ASCAP can battle groups it deems
to be undermining copyright, which ASCAP listed to include the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Public Knowledge and Creative
Commons."
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Friendly Music Service Lets YouTubers Buy Licensed Songs for Use in
Video.
By Jeremy Scott, ReelSEO, June 28, 2010.
http://www.reelseo.com/friendly-music-youtube-licensed/

"One of the most common ways that YouTube users violate copyright laws
is by using unlicensed background music in their video.  Unfortunately,
this act also tends to get videos pulled, after copyright holders are
alerted to the infringement via YouTube's Content ID service.  And to be
fair, a lot of users are just flat-out ignorant of what copyright law
says they can and can't do with someone else's piece of music."
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File Sharer Beats 'Hurt Locker' Makers to the Punch.
By Greg Sandoval, CNET News, June 28, 2010.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20008996-261.html

"The file-sharing community has gone on the offensive in its court fight
with the makers of the Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker." Jeff
Kowalski, 28, filed an "Answer" to the complaint laid against 5,000 as
yet unnamed people who the film's producers allege have shared the movie
illegally via peer-to-peer services..
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On the YouTube vs. Viacom Case, Our antiquated copyright laws.
The San Francisco Chronicle, June 28, 2010.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/27/EDF11E4FUV.D
TL

"A federal judge has sided with Google's YouTube, and the Internet will
live to fight another day."
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Heedlessly Hijacking Content.
By David Carr, The New York Times, June 27, 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/business/media/28carr.html?ref=media

"On Tuesday morning, a PDF of the piece the magazine had lovingly
commissioned, edited, fact-checked, printed and distributed, was posted
in its entirety on not one but two Web sites, for everyone to read
without giving Rolling Stone a dime. It was a clear violation of
copyright and professional practice, and it amounted to taking money out
of a competitor's pocket. What crafty guerrilla site or bottom-feeder
would do such a thing? Turns out it was Time.com and Politico, both
well-financed, reputable news media organizations, that blithely stepped
over the line and took what was not theirs."
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WIPO Member States Discuss Key Copyright Issues.
ag-IP-news, June 27, 2010.
http://www.ag-ip-news.com/GetArticle.asp?Art_ID=8317&lang=en

"The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)'s top copyright
negotiating body discussed better access to copyright-protected works
for the blind, visually impaired (VIP) and other reading-disabled
persons, as well as updating the rights of broadcasting organizations."
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New Law Requiring Publisher Discloser Could Drive Down Textbook Prices.
The Grand Rapids Press, June 27, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/22nbzg4

"Rod Morgan doesn't judge textbooks by their price tag. Instead, the
Grand Valley State University biology professor looks at other factors,
such as new information, when selecting books for his students. "It
really deals with content, as opposed to whether there's going to be new
content," he said. "If there's (just) a sentence or paragraph, it isn't
much of a difference."
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Zimbabwe: Zimura Pays Our Copyright Royalties.
Staff, The Standard, June 26, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/23h97v7

"Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (Zimura) has disbursed more than $200
000 in copyright royalties to musicians across the country. The
association has a membership of more than 1 000 musicians and most of
them have already collected their royalties for music played on air and
in public places in 2009."
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In Documentary, Wall of Sound Meets Wall of Law.
By JohnAnderson, The New York Times, June 25, 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/movies/27spector.html

"Between recording sessions here in 1973, John Lennon called Phil
Spector and told him to come back down to the studio. "Someone's ripped
you off, Phil," Mr. Lennon said. When Mr. Spector arrived, a projector
had been set up, a film began to roll, several familiar drumbeats were
heard and then, the wail of the Ronettes. The song was "Be My Baby," the
movie was "Mean Streets," and no one had told Mr. Spector anything about
it."
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Canada: Copyright Debate Turns Ugly.
By Peter Nowak, CBC News, June 24, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/2vxmrld

"Blayne Haggart doesn't consider himself a "radical extremist," which is
why he's chafing at possibly being labelled as such by Heritage Minister
James Moore. The 37-year-old Ottawa native thinks there are many
positives in Bill C-32, the copyright reform legislation unveiled by
Moore and Industry Minister Tony Clement earlier this month."
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ComScore: YouTube Remains Dominant Video Site.
By Juan Carlos Perez, PC World, June 24, 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/2ebolme

"Google served up a record number of video clips in May to U.S. Internet
users, mostly through YouTube, as for the first time each Google visitor
watched an average of more than 100 clips during the month, according to
comScore. Almost 183 million U.S. residents watched online video during
the month, with a whopping 14.6 billion video clips viewed at Google
sites, primarily YouTube. That's a record for Google, which also nabbed
43.1 percent of all online video clips served up during the month,
comScore said on Thursday."
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Judge Rules against Viacom in in Copyright Suit against Google.
By Alex Pham and Meg James, Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2010.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-viacom-20100623,0,4842580.story

"A federal judge delivered a swift and potentially fatal blow Wednesday
to Viacom Inc.'s $1-billion copyright infringement lawsuit against
Google Inc.'s YouTube online video site."
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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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