Archive for the Category "Copyright Law"
« Older EntriesUK Digital Economy Bill
A recent Out-Law.com tweet caught my eye with the headline YouTube threatened by changes to Digital Economy Bill. The article has some good links and background information, including:
Courts will have the power to block access to entire websites from the UK because of allegations of copyright infringement under an amendment to Government legislation that has [...]
Berkman Podcast Interviews Carl Malamud
The latest Radio Berkman podcast has Dave Weinberger interviewing Carl Malamud about his efforts to make US law more accessible and copyright free.
Posted in Copyright Law, Legislation, Publishing, United States | No Comments »>
Twilight Saga: The Documentary Wars
The war of the Twilight documentary films is on, and producers who shop their film concepts around to distributors may be thinking twice about what more they can do to protect their hatchling ideas. It has been reported that Summit Entertainment LLC has filed a complaint against Topics Entertainment, Inc. in the U.S. District Court [...]
Posted in Contract Law, Copyright Law, Intellectual Property Law, Trademark Law, United States | No Comments »>
Copyright, Melody, and Permutations
I’ve long wondered how song-writers manage it — avoiding tunes that have already been written, that is. The easy answer, of course, is that they don’t, at least not always, as we know most famously from George Harrison’s trouble with “My Sweet Lord” (who turned out both to be and not to be “So Fine”). [...]
Posted in Copyright Law | No Comments »>
World “Fair Use” Day
Yesterday, I abandoned my office for several hours to attend “The First Annual World’s Fair Use Day” at the Newseum in Washington D.C. It was organized by the D.C.-based non-profit consumer advocacy group, Public Knowledge. There is lots of information and coverage on this event at http://worldsfairuseday.org/. I will limit my comments to [...]
Posted in Copyright Law | No Comments »>
Canadian Authors Launch Petititon Against Google Book Settlement
A group of Canadian authors has launched an online petition to protest the proposed settlement intended to put an end to a class action copyright lawsuit by U.S.-based author and publisher groups over Google’s plans to make and sell digital copies of millions of books.
In November 2009, the settlement was amended so that it would [...]
Lucasfilm Loses to Stormtrooper in U.K.
The Court of Appeal for England and Wales has ruled against Lucasfilm in its breach of copyright suit against Andrew Ainsworth, the British designer who produced the Stormtrooper costume for the Star Wars films. (Lucasfilm Limited et al. v. Andrew Ainsworth [2009] EWCA Civ 1328)
Ainsworth had been selling a few Stormtrooper helmets both in [...]
Supporting Creative Commons
Lawrence Lessig has put out a call to make a donation to support Creative Commons. From his request:
About 8 years ago, a bunch of us started thinking about how we might make the current system of copyright work better. We wanted a voluntary system that would give people a simple way to signal the freedom [...]
The Creative Commons Toque
Last week Leslie Ellen Harris correctly pointed out in her Slaw post Using Flickr Photos that we should not assume content available on the web is freely available without copyright. She gave photos on Flickr as the example.
One thing I love about Flickr, however, is that it allows those of us who upload photos to [...]
Using Flickr Photos
One common misunderstanding about copyright is that online content is not protected by copyright. Not true! Even if the content is posted without a copyright notice or other copyright information, that content should be presumed to be protected by copyright.
The same copyright principles apply to photographs posted on Flickr. In a recent situation, Toyota U.S.A. [...]
This Week’s Biotech Highlights
Every week, I travel the world [wide web] in search of interesting new biotech developments. This week, a smattering of stories from Canada, the U.S. and China are worth noting:
In Canada (and presumably elsewhere as well) Merck put out a country-specific press release announcing the closing of its merger with Schering-Plough. Merck calls Canada “an [...]
Psycho-Acoustic Simulation & Beatles Songs for a Quarter
I’ve groused here many — perhaps, too many — times about the inability of the Canadian music industry to get it together so that we can listen to music over the internet like our neighbours to the south. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled on BlueBeat, a website streaming music here, when Pandora et al. [...]
Posted in Copyright Law | 1 Comment »>
Positions for librarians and lawyers
There seems to be an increasing number of positions for librarians in the area of copyright and licensing.
IFLA (located in The Hague) is currently looking for a Copyright Policy Officer. The University of Michigan has an opening for the Head of Electronic Acquisitions and Licensing. The Ontario Colleges Library Service has an opening for [...]
Google Music Search Launches Outside Canada
Google’s new music search, Discover Music, has launched — but not in Canada. Partnering with imeem, lala, iLike, Pandora and Rhapsody, all music providing sites, Google will now determine whether your search has a musical aspect and, if so, throw up a result box that lets you listen to an excerpt of the music and [...]
Posted in Canada, Copyright Law, Google, Information Technology | 1 Comment »>
Shakira: Illegal Downloads a “Democratisation of Music”
It’s not often I end up on Perez Hilton, but thanks to Twitter I was pointed to this story where Shakira Ripoll (aka Shakira) seems to encourage her fans to download her songs illegally,
I like what’s going on because I feel closer to the fans and the people who appreciate the music. It’s the democratisation [...]
« Older Entries
