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Piracy has finally become Mainstream
14 Mar, 2009: India.comWhile the entertainment industries push for harsher copyright laws, public opinion steers in the opposite direction. ...
Watermark Movies Find Positions of Camcorders in Theaters
07 Mar, 2009: TechFragments.comWe all know pirates use camcorders to record new release movies in theaters and recently there hasn't been a universal way to prevent this illegal activity, at least until now. The IEEE has published information about a new watermarking technology that could soon find its way into movies near you! ...
Alarm Escalates Over Delayed Generic Drug Shipments As Action Sought
06 Mar, 2009: IP Watch, Geneva, SwitzerlandHealth advocates on Friday further escalated their alarm over recent seizures by the Dutch government of shipments of legitimate generic pharmaceuticals passing through Europe on their way to developing countries. ...
MPAA Study Calls For Piracy Patriot Act
05 Mar, 2009: WebProNews.comA new study commissioned by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and produced by RAND links the film piracy trade to terrorism, drug cartels, and human trafficking, and calls upon governments to do more about intellectual property protection. ...
The war against internet piracy could force ISPs to spy on their customers
04 Mar, 2009: Daily FinanceRIAA and MPAA are... backing legislation that would require companies that provide an internet connection, such as Time Warner Cable (TWC), to monitor the traffic in and out of its customers computers for pirated content, then discipline the transgressors, and report the violation to the feds. ...
Movie piracy linked to international terrorism?
04 Mar, 2009: Los Angeles Times, California, USAMovie piracy is one of those things that we all agree is bad -- but just how bad? I have friends who see it as little more than a victimless crime while the Motion Picture Assn. of America views it as something akin to the end of Western civilization. But it's never been linked to terrorism -- until now. ...
Campus copyright cops
04 Mar, 2009: The Independent Weekly, Durham, NC, USA...colleges and universities across the country are faced with the mounting financial burden of policing their computer networks and their students' activities in order to protect the music industry's property. Given the financial crunch at public universities, perhaps it's time to rethink that responsibility. ...
MPAA Study Links Piracy to Gangs and Terrorists
04 Mar, 2009: TorrentFreak.comThe MPAA funded report report titled ‘Film Piracy, Organized Crime, and Terrorism’ claims that terrorist groups use film piracy to finance their activities, while organized gangs see it as a significant revenue stream. Selling pirated goods is a ‘low-risk, high-profit enterprise’ which attracts criminals of all sorts according to the report. ...
Technology Rises in New Administration
11 Feb, 2009: New York Law Journal, USAMr. Obama will appoint the first IP Czar who will be responsible for, among other duties, reporting to the Congress and president about the effectiveness of the government's domestic and international IP enforcement policies, chairing a committee to coordinate interagency anti-counterfeiting efforts, and reworking any regulatory weaknesses in IP enforcement. ...
IP-Watch: ISP Liability, Limitations And Exceptions Top Global Copyright Issues In 2009
09 Feb, 2009: IP Watch, Geneva, SwitzerlandCopyright has taken centre stage again this year as the battle over internet service provider (ISP) responsibility for digital piracy intensifies and spreads around the world. ...
UK governments move to legislate on piracy cautiously welcomed
03 Feb, 2009: Screendaily.com, London, EnglandThe introduction of legislation is a harder line than the government had said it hoped to take only last year. The report, which sets out the Government's proposals - Digital Britain - is an interim report with the final report expected by the summer. ...
New EU battle over copyright rules in sight
30 Jan, 2009: EurActiv, Brussels, BelgiumThe European Commission will reopen the 'Pandora's box' of online copyright protection with a new legislative initiative on e-commerce, after attempts to filter Web traffic failed during negotiations over the telecoms package. ...
Latha Jishnu: Policy of encirclement
30 Jan, 2009: Business Standard, IndiaUnsurprisingly, the majority of developing countries have been caught off guard by the move to push SECURE (Standards to be Employed by Customs for Uniform Rights Enforcement) simply because they did not expect WCO to be looking at IP issues. ...
Latha Jishnu: Choking India's generics exports
29 Jan, 2009: Business Standard, IndiaThis might seem like a singular attempt by the EU to show extreme zeal in protecting the rights of pharmaceutical patent holders in the EU. But it has to be viewed against the backdrop a of a host of moves initiated by the developed world to ramp up intellectual property (IP) protection, far in excess of what is required under the TRIPS regime of the World Trade Organization (WTO), under the guise of public health concerns. ...
WHO Executive Board Grapples with IP Issues
28 Jan, 2009: Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, Geneva, SwitzerlandIntellectual property was one of the contentious issues debated at the recent World Health Organisation Executive Board (EB) meeting ...some delegates were apprehensive to use the term ‘counterfeit’ as it can be used to facilitate and expedite the IP enforcement measures under the guise of working to combat the falsification of medical products and other such practices that are a risk to public health. ...
Hope For Consensus On WHO And Counterfeits Moves To May Assembly
27 Jan, 2009: IP Watch, Geneva, SwitzerlandA World Health Organization report and draft resolution on counterfeit medical products drew energetic debate last week, though no compromise has yet been found to bridge disagreements over the consultation process behind the counterfeit report and over the risk of confusing intellectual property violations with potentially dangerous misrepresentation of medicines. ...
Why the U.S. Lost Its WTO IP Complaint Against China. Badly.
27 Jan, 2009: Michael Geist, Ottawa, ON, CanadaThe World Trade Organization yesterday released its much-anticipated decision involving a U.S. complaint against China over its protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. ...
WTO issues panel report on US-China dispute over intellectual property rights
26 Jan, 2009: World Trade Organization, Geneva, SwitzerlandThe WTO, on 26 January 2009, issued the report of a panel that had examined United States’ complaint against “China — Measures affecting the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights” (DS362). ...
Obama picks BSA's antipiracy enforcer for high-level post
23 Jan, 2009: CNET News, USANow, as one of his first official actions as president, Obama has selected the Business Software Alliance's top antipiracy enforcer and general counsel, Neil MacBride, for a senior Justice Department post. Among other duties, MacBride has been responsible for the BSA's program that rewarded people for phoning in tips about suspected software piracy. ...
Patents versus patenting: implications of intellectual property protection for biological research
23 Jan, 2009: Nature Biotechnology, UKA new survey shows scientists consider the proliferation of intellectual property protection to have a strongly negative effect on research. ...
Resolving the tension between counterfeit and grey goods
23 Jan, 2009: Lawyers Weekly, Ontario, CanadaBut within this growing tide of legal response to counterfeit intellectual property lies a thorny issue — that of the tension between legitimate grey goods and their illegitimate counterfeit counterparts. ...
File Sharing Net Positive Impact
17 Jan, 2009: TNO Magazine (translated from original Dutch version)The economic effects of file sharing on the Dutch welfare in short and long term net positive. ...
Ups and Downs: Economic and cultural consequences of online sharing for music, film and games (in Dutch)
12 Jan, 2009: Ministry of Economic Affairs, The NetherlandsEconomische en culturele gevolgen van file sharing voor muziek, film en games ...
Fox News Uses DMCA To Take Down Videos Used In Commentary
08 Jan, 2009: TechdirtThe DMCA has plenty of problems, but one of the more ridiculous is the whole concept of the "notice and takedown" procedure that service providers need to follow. Basically, if a copyright holder feels that its copyright is being infringed, it sends a DMCA notice to the service provider. In order for that service provider to keep its safe harbors that protect it from being liable for the content, the content has to be quickly taken down. ...
Fox News Censors Political Expression
07 Jan, 2009: Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Francisco, USAIn a scenario that has become depressingly familiar, a news organization has again used the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") to censor legitimate political speech. Citizen Media Law Project reports that YouTube cancelled Progress Illinois' YouTube channel after Fox News had sent three notices of copyright infringement demanding the takedown of Progress Illinois' videos. ...
'Tis the Season Part IV: PK and allies to USTR - It's Time for an Office of Innovation
13 Dec, 2008: Public Knowledge, Washington, DC, USALast Friday, Public Knowledge wrapped up a busy week of Presidential transition team meetings. First, as part of the Open Internet Coalition, PK and a number of its industry and public interest allies met with FCC Agency Review team co-chairs Susan Crawford and Kevin Werbach to discuss the Coalition’s priorities ...
Live from CES 2009: A New Bill on the Hill
19 Dec, 2008: The Copyright Alliance Blog, Washington, DC, USALast Congress Rep. Mary Bono Mack introduced a bill that essentially would have had the Federal Trade Commission ensure that distributors of peer-to-peer software receive consent from a computer owner before any installation occurs that could lead to files being shared. ...
Music industry moves to disconnect file sharers in U.S.
19 Dec, 2008: CBC News, CanadaThe U.S. recording industry is shifting away from suing file sharers and toward working out deals with internet service providers that could see downloaders have their access cut off, but the issue in Canada is still muddy because of a lack of clear copyright law. ...
China signs agreement to crack down on piracy
15 Dec, 2008: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAChina signed a memorandum of understanding today with several trade associations in the UK and US, agreeing to crack down on copyright infringement and piracy in the country. ... The four associations involved in the agreement were the Motion Picture Association of America and the Association of American Publishers in the US, and the Business Software Alliance and The Publishers Association in the UK. ...
New Euro Telecom Package Paves the Way for France's '3-Strikes' Law
02 Dec, 2008: ZeroPaid, San Deigo, CA, USADespite European Parliament voting to include amendment that users cannot be disconnected from the Internet "without a prior ruling by the judicial authorities," French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who conveniently holds the European Council Presidency, manages to have the amendment stripped from a final version. ...
Twitter: no outbound SMS for Canada
27 Nov, 2008: p2pnet.net, New ZealandTwitter has just announced that they are killing outbound SMS messaging in Canada due to exorbitant and constant rate hikes from Canadian cell providers (former Industry Minister Jim Prentice vowed to get tough on SMS price gouging, then backpeddled). ...
750,000 lost jobs? The dodgy digits behind the war on piracy
07 Oct, 2008: ars technica, Malden, MA, USATwo statistics have become a staple of calls for stronger IP enforcement: 750,000 jobs lost! $200 billion [to] $250 billion in costs to the U.S. economy! The problem is that both figures have almost no basis in fact. ...
Fiction or Fiction: 750,000 American Jobs Lost to IP Piracy
03 Oct, 2008: Wired.com, USABut the origin of that 750,000 number -- which was included Thursday in a Chamber of Commerce lobbying letter (.pdf) to the president -- is a mystery. ...
Informed P2P User Act
27 Sep, 2008: The House of Representatives, USAA Bill To prohibit the installation on a computer of certain ‘‘peer-to-peer’’ file sharing software without first providing notice and obtaining consent from the owner or authorized user of the computer. ...
DHS docs reveal expanded border search discretion
16 Sep, 2008: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAThe 2007 guidelines, for example, stipulated that customs officers "may glance at documents and papers to see if they appear to be merchandise" [emphasis added], and permitted close reading only if "an officer reasonably suspects that they relate to" one of several classes of restricted materials. Probable cause, or the consent of the owner, was needed to seize or copy documents. Under the revised rules, officers may seize or copy papers or digital files for the purpose of performing a "thorough border search" without any need for individualized suspicion. ...
New bill would tighten rules for DHS border laptop searches
16 Sep, 2008: ars technica, Malden, MA, USACustoms and Border Patrol agents can grab your laptop, BlackBerry, or external hard drive without needing so much as a reason, but a new bill introduced last week to Congress would at least put some limits on how border searches could be done. ...
UN agency investigates curbs on internet anonymity
15 Sep, 2008: ZDNet, London, EnglandLeaked documents suggest a United Nations telecommunications agency is drafting technical standards, proposed by the Chinese government, to define methods of tracing the original source of internet communications and potentially curbing the ability of users to remain anonymous. ...
Downloadable content, with locks on the side
12 Sep, 2008: Los Angeles Times, CA, USAAgainst that backdrop, a group of studios and record labels have joined with a handful of major technology companies, ISPs and retailers in a coalition to develop a new approach to distributing content digitally. Think of it as a standard for media delivered through the Net, in the way that DVD is a standard for packaged movies and CD is a standard for packaged songs. It's also a very ambitious attempt to make DRM palatable to consumers. ...
Border Security Search Accountability Act of 2008
11 Sep, 2008: US House of RepresentativesA BILL To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to issue a rule with respect to border security searches of electronic devices, and for other purposes. ...
Member Nations Balk At World Customs Organization IP Enforcement Push
27 Jun, 2008: IP Watch, Geneva, SwitzerlandConcerns ran high in some developing countries last week that their voices have been largely absent from a draft set of standards for heightened intellectual property enforcement advancing rapidly at the World Customs Organization. ...
Legal, British P2P 'by end of year'
26 Jun, 2008: The Register, London, UKLegal broadband subscription services that permit file sharing may appear on the market by the year's end, according to music industry sources - after government intervention brought both music suppliers and ISPs to the table. ...
Yahoo Music going dark, taking keys with it
24 Jul, 2008: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAYahoo e-mailed its Yahoo! Music Store customers yesterday, telling them it will be closing for good—and the company will take its DRM license key servers offline on September 30, 2008. ...
MPAA Says No Proof Needed in P2P Copyright Infringement Lawsuits
20 Jun, 2008: Wired News, USAThe Motion Picture Association of America said Friday intellectual-property holders should have the right to collect damages, perhaps as much as $150,000 per copyright violation, without having to prove infringement. ...
Guest Post: The Rise and Fall of DRM?
04 Jun, 2008: Spicy IP, IndiaThe better part of the last decade saw the recording industry using Digital Rights Management (DRMs) as a form of copy-protection locking up digital media bought by customers for the prevention of illegal usage. The internet was facilitating piracy in increasingly growing numbers. It was a different matter (for the entertainment companies atleast) that along with the prevention of illegal activities, a good number of perfectly legit activities were being blocked as well. ...
Stuck with analog rights in digital world
27 May, 2008: Toronto Star, ON, CanadaEarlier this month, some fans of the NBC television programs American Gladiators and Medium found themselves unable to digitally record the shows on their personal computers. The reason for the blocked recordings raises important technical and legal questions about the rights of consumers to "time shift" television programs in the digital era. ...
Group pushes to protect intellectual property
26 May, 2008: The Canadian PressTORONTO — The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is spearheading a drive to tighten Canada's protection of intellectual property. The new Canadian Intellectual Property Council is pressing the case that harsher action against violators of copyright and trademark rights is needed to protect innovation and Canadian competitiveness. ... The coalition's members include Cisco Systems, Imperial Tobacco, Louis Vuitton, Pfizer Canada, GE Canada and organizations representing the pharmaceutical, movie and recording industries.
Business coalition stresses need for better protection of intellectual property rights
25 May, 2008: CNW Group, Toronto, ON, CanadaTORONTO, May 25 /CNW Telbec/ - The Canadian Chamber of Commerce will announce on Monday the creation of the Canadian Intellectual Property Council, a coalition of Canadian businesses from a wide range of industry sectors, stressing the need for a review of Canada's current intellectual property regime to better recognize the importance of protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights in today's global economy. ...
IFPI [International Federation of the Phonographic Industry] to Sue Swedish ISP for Facilitating Copyright Infringement
02 May, 2008: Torrentfreak.comIdeally, the IFPI wants every ISP to act as the Internet police, by restricting their customers access to websites they claim are facilitating copyright infringement. So far, the IFPI has had little success with their lobby, that’s probably why they decided to put legal pressure on the ISPs. “We believe that ISPs have a special part to play in this and must help us. ...
Electronic Border Searches: An Open Letter
01 May, 2008: Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Francisco, USAWe are writing to urge the House Committee on Homeland Security to hold hearings on the Department of Homeland Security's practice of searching and seizing Americans' digital information and electronic devices at U.S. borders. We also urge you to consider legislation to prevent abusive search practices by border agents and protect all Americans against suspicionless digital border inspections. ...
German police liked file sharer's computer a little too much
01 May, 2008: P2P Blog, GermanyIt's bad enough when the police raids your house and confiscates your computer just because you shared some MP3s on a file sharing network. But how would you feel if you learned that the police wanted to keep your PC to make up for it's own sorry state of IT equipment? ...
Canadians on Intellectual Property Poll April 4-9, 2008
25 Apr, 2008: Nanos Research, CanadaTo follow are the tabulations from our latest Nanos national random telephone survey of 1,001 Canadians 18 years of age and older, conducted on behalf of the Public Policy Forum. It was completed between April 4th and April 9th, 2008. The results are representative of the Canadians population and may be weighted based on data from Statistics Canada. ...
No Cause Needed to Search Laptops at the Border
23 Apr, 2008: Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Francisco, USAOn April 21st, the Ninth Circuit held in United States v. Arnold that the Fourth Amendment does not require government agents to have reasonable suspicion before searching laptops or other digital devices at the border, including international airports. Customs and Border Patrol are likely to use the opinion to argue that almost every property search at the border is constitutionally acceptable. ...
Laptop searches at the border: No reason? No problem
23 Apr, 2008: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAHere's the scenario: you return from an overseas trip and find yourself facing US Customs officers in an airport. They see your laptop, demand that you turn it on, then take it from you and start rifling through its contents. They have no reason for the search, and they can and do look for anything they like. Is this legal? In a new decision, the Ninth Circuit says yes. ...
Microsoft does 180, will continue to support MSN Music DRM
22 Apr, 2008: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAMicrosoft has reversed its decision to pull the plug on MSN Music's authorization servers, according to an e-mail sent out to customers this afternoon. Customers who bought music from the now-defunct service will now be able to continue listening to their music and transferring it to new machines until at least the end of 2011. ...
DRM sucks redux: Microsoft to nuke MSN Music DRM keys
22 Apr, 2008: ars technica, Malden, MA, USACustomers who have purchased music from Microsoft's now-defunct MSN Music store are now facing a decision they never anticipated making: commit to which computers (and OS) they want to authorize forever, or give up access to the music they paid for. ...
United States v. Arnold
21 Apr, 2008: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitO'Scannlain, Circuit Judge: We must decide whether customs officers at Los Angeles International Airport may examine the electronic contents of a passenger’s laptop computer without reasonable suspicion. ...
New German copyright makes P2P lawsuits cheaper, more confusing
16 Apr, 2008: P2P Blog, GermanyThe German parliament has ratified a new copyright extension aimed at fighting file sharing a few days ago. The law was supposed to make it easier for the entertainment industry to get the identities of file sharers, but it's unclear yet what the real effect on the country's millions of P2P users will be. ...
New Zealand copyright reform law schools US DMCA on fair use
10 Apr, 2008: ars technica, Malden, MA, USANew Zealand got a massive new copyright reform bill this week. ... American consumers have never been able to figure out why they should not be allowed to rip DVDs and put them on an iPod, for instance, or why they weren't allowed to bypass the region coding on a video game that was legally imported from another continent. Now they can look on New Zealand and think about what might have been. ...
Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Bill
Apr, 2008: House of Representatives, New ZealandThe Parliament of New Zealand enacts as follows ...
Monster vaginas cost German tax payers millions
25 Mar, 2008: P2P Blog, GermanyAn ever increasing flood of lawsuits against file sharers that are trading pornographic movies is starting to take its toll on the German justice system, according to a well-respected local law blog. ...
Civil Liberties Groups Sue Homeland Security for Records on Intrusive Questioning and Searches of U.S. Travelers
07 Feb, 2008: Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Francisco, USASan Francisco - The Asian Law Caucus (ALC) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit today against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for denying access to public records on the questioning and searches of travelers at U.S. borders. Filed under the Freedom of Information Act, the suit responds to growing complaints by U.S. citizens and immigrants of excessive or repeated screenings by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. ...
Federal Court of Appeal Kills iPod Levy
10 Jan, 2008: Michael Geist, Ottawa, ON, CanadaHoward Knopf reports that the Federal Court of Appeal took just 24 hours to render its decision in the iPod levy case, quashing the Copyright Board of Canada's decision to certify a tariff on iPods. ...
iPod Levy - Copyright Board decision quashed by Federal Court of Appeal
10 Jan, 2008: Howard Knopf, Ottawan, ON, CanadaThe Federal Court of Appeal ("FCA") has quashed the Copyright Board's July 19, 2007 decision to go ahead with its planned hearing to certify a levy of up to $75 on iPods and other Digital Audio Recorders. ...
Federal Court of Appeal - Reasons for Judgement
10 Jan, 2008: Federal Court of Appeal, CanadaThe Canadian Private Copying Collective (“CCPC”) has filed a statement of a proposed tariff for 2008 and 2009 pursuant to subsection 83(8) of the Copyright Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-42. It seeks the right to collect, among other things, a tariff on digital audio recorders. ...
RIAA: Jammie Thomas has "no basis" to complain about damage award
12 Nov, 2007: ars technica,Malden, MA, USAAfter a three-day trial last month, a Duluth, MN, jury found that Thomas willfully infringed on the record labels' copyrights by downloading and distributing 24 copyrighted recordings. Under the provisions of the Copyright Act, they could have awarded the labels anywhere from $750 to $150,000 for each of the songs. ...
Major League Baseball's DRM change strikes out with fans
07 Nov, 2007: ars technica, Malden, MA, USASome hardcore baseball fans have been left stranded on third base by Major League Baseball after it decided to change DRM systems. As a result, game footage purchased under the old DRM scheme are no longer viewable, leaving fans with unwatchable footage—and no refunds. ...
The Impact of Music Downloads and P2P File-sharing on the Purchase of Music: A Study for Industry Canada
30 Oct, 2007: University of London, Bloomsbury, EnglandThe report, prepared by University of London researchers, Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz, found that music downloads have a positive effect on music purchases among Canadian downloaders but that there is no effect taken over the entire population aged 15 and over. ...
Groups warn of counterfeit dangers
25 Oct, 2007: Globe & Mail, Canada...But some critics warn Ottawa is creating policy based on too broad a definition of counterfeiting, using the “umbrella” term to link disparate issues of labelling, certification, trademark, intellectual property, and public health and safety concerns. ... The standing committee on public safety and national security, which tabled its report in June, concedes Canada has no comprehensive independent study on the impact of counterfeiting and piracy, due in large part to its clandestine nature, the report states. ...
Q&A: Perrin Beatty
10 Oct, 2007: Canadian Business Magazine...we're seeing the border become thicker, costlier and stickier. And we're seeing in the US how the old political reward and punishment system drives politicians to put layer upon layer of security along the 49th parallel. What gets lost in the process is that you play into the hands of the terrorists if you damage yourselves. ...
Four reasons why the RIAA won a jury verdict of $220,000
05 Oct, 2007: CNET News, USABoth the RIAA and the defense submitted proposed jury instructions... Both are pretty similar because of the constraints of 8th Circuit precedent. The key difference is that the RIAA offered two suggestions, which would eventually become Jury Instructions 14 and 15, which the defense left out. Once U.S. District Judge Michael Davis sided with the RIAA on that crucial point, which he did, and adopted its suggestions, the recording industry had a much easier time of it. ...
RIAA v. Jammie Thomas copyright lawsuit documents
05 Oct, 2007: United States District Court For The District Of Minnesota Duluth Division as provided by Declan McCullagh, CNET News, USAStudy: file-sharing leads to "chart churn," helps indie acts
02 Oct, 2007: ars technica, Malden, MA, USATracking if and how P2P file-sharing has altered the music business is a difficult challenge. The advent of the MP3 era has enabled illicit online file-swapping, but it also enabled the portable music players that have changed how music is listened to. Ambiguous study results and hyperbole from opposing camps on the issue haven't helped ...
U.S. Copyright Law (.pdf) or U.S. Copyright Law (.html)
Oct, 2007: United States Copyright OfficeThe Congress shall have Power … To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Tımes to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. ...
Fair Use Economy Represents One-Sixth of U.S. GDP
12 Sep, 2007: Computer & Communications Industry Association, Washington, DC, USAWASHINGTON D.C. - Fair Use exceptions to U.S. copyright laws are responsible for more than $4.5 trillion in annual revenue for the United States, according to the findings of an unprecedented economic study released today. ...
Fair Use in the U.S. Economy: Economoic Contribution of Industries Relying on Fair Use
12 Sep, 2007: Thomas Rogers and Andrew Szamosszegi, economic consultants with Capital Trade, Washington, DC, USAExecutive Summary: While policymakers pay much attention to copyrights, exceptions to copyright protection also promote innovation and are a major catalyst of U.S. economic growth. Specific exceptions to copyright protection under U.S. and international law, generally classified under the broad heading of Fair Use, are vital to many industries and stimulate growth across the economy. ...
Happy Anniversary Pirates: 20,000 Copyright Lawsuits and Counting
12 Aug, 2007: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAFour years ago, the recording industry set off a legal firestorm when it sued 261 music file-swappers, a move that has reshaped the peer-to-peer, file-sharing world and revamped pirating technologies. ... Members of the Recording Industry Association of America have followed with some 20,000 similar lawsuits, legal threats and settlements, according to a report published Wednesday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Google selleth then taketh away, proving the need for DRM circumvention
12 Aug, 2007: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAIt's not often that Google kills off one of its services, especially one which was announced with much fanfare at a big mainstream event like CES 2006. ... See, after Google takes its video store down, its Internet-based DRM system will no longer function. This means that customers who have built video collections with Google Video offerings will find that their purchases no longer work. ...
"Attempted infringement" appears in new House intellectual property bill
30 Jul, 2007: ars technica, Malden, MA, USABack in May, the Justice Department issued some proposed legislation to tighten US intellectual property laws and to criminalize some forms of "attempted infringement." Now, legislation based on the proposals has been introduced in Congress by Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), complete with stiffer jail terms for violators and the controversial "attempted infringement" clause. ...
Reviled Broadcast Treaty dies at WIPO
22 Jun, 2007: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAAfter a long and bloody struggle, the WIPO Broadcast Treaty appears to be dead. ...
Intellectual Property Protection Act to make attemped infringement illegal
15 May, 2007: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAUS Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has proposed tightening the United States' intellectual property laws. Titled the "Intellectual Property Protection Act," the proposed legislation would for the first time criminalize attempted copyright infringement. ...
Worldwide DMCA-style decryption rules still a possibility at WIPO
09 May, 2007: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAA coalition of consumer groups and corporations that includes everyone from IP Justice to AT&T has just issued a statement calling on the US WIPO delegation to oppose WIPO's proposed Broadcast Treaty in its current form. In the letter, the groups worry that the treaty's support for worldwide legal rules regulating any device that can decrypt video signals "would presumably require wholesale regulation of general purpose computers and other devices, and have significant harmful consequences for the technology industry generally.. ...
Statement Concerning the WIPO Broadcast Treaty
09 May, 2007: IP JusticeThe undersigned represent a broad and diverse group, united in common concern that the WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasts and Broadcasting Organizations could harm important economic and public policy interests. ...
Defendant prevails in another RIAA file-sharing case
10 Apr, 2007: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAA federal judge has dismissed Elektra v. Santangelo with prejudice, leaving the door open for defendant Patti Santangelo to recover attorneys' fees from the RIAA. ...
Senators: Not so fast on Broadcast Treaty
07 Mar, 2007: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAFor almost two years, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been hard at work drafting a broadcast treaty. Designed originally to limit signal theft from broadcasts, the scope of the treaty has at times narrowed and widened significantly throughout the process of drafting the treaty. The US Senate ...
Looking into laptops
11 Nov, 2006, Los Angeles Times, CA, USACan federal customs agents read or seize a traveler's computer? A judge says no, but the U.S. is appealing. ...
RIAA defendant argues damages are excessive
10 Nov, 2006: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAA defendant in one of the RIAA's many file-sharing lawsuit will be able to argue that the damages sought by the RIAA are unconstitutionally excessive. The defendant in question, Marie Lindor, was sued by Universal Music Group in early 2006 as part of the RIAA's legal campaign against file sharing. In all of the cases that have made it to court so far, the RIAA has sought statutory damages of $750 per song shared, an amount Lindor believes is excessive. ...
Understanding the WIPO Broadcast Treaty
30 Oct, 2006: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAYour rights are in danger. That's the message that activist groups have been spreading as the World Intellectual Property Organization moves tortoise-like towards the completion of a new broadcasting treaty that could curtail the ways that consumers use media and could create a broad new intellectual property right over electromagnetic transmissions that could last for 50 years. ...
WIPO broadcast treaty abandons rights-based approach
03 Oct, 2006: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAThe new broadcasting treaty being worked on at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) raised major concerns among groups concerned that it would give US broadcasters a new intellectual property right over their signal, separate from the copyright on whatever programming they broadcast (Europe has already had such rights for decades). ...
Watching sausage get made: the WIPO broadcast treaty
13 Sep, 2006: ars technica, Malden, MA, USAThe controversial WIPO broadcast treaty continues to move forward this week as delegates from around the world gather in Geneva. Their goal is to whip the treaty into shape and convene a Diplomatic Conference early next year at which the text can be ratified. ...
Blogging WIPO: Broadcast Treaty Zooming Ahead
12 Sep, 2006: Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Fracisco, CA, USAThe WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights is meeting this week in Geneva to discuss and "finalize" the proposed Broadcasting Treaty. WIPO's goal is to get the 182 Member States to make a recommendation to the upcoming General Assembly that it should convene an early 2007 Diplomatic Conference, where the nuts and bolts of the treaty would be hammered out. Stakes are high. ...
WIPO broadcast treaty
19 Jul, 2006: World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva, SwitzerlandStanding Committee on Copyright and Related Rights. Fifteenth Session. Geneva, September 11 to 13, 2006. Statements from intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. Document prepared by the Secretariat. ...
Internet Service Providers Report
10 Mar, 2006: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, CanadaA survey of Canadian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) was conducted to assess the economic cost of the voluntary “notice and notice” (NN) approach to dealing with copyright infringement notices from rights holders. ... The vast majority of copyright infringement notices are sent either by US studios(representing movies, music, and television content) or software publishers, or by agents operating on their behalf. Less than 2% of notices could be attributed to Canadian copyright holders. ...
Thank The RIAA for Your iPod Playlist
16 Feb, 2006: PC World, San Francisco, CA, USAWithin American law, "fair use" is an exception that, among other things, allows people to make copies within certain circumstances and constraints. So making a copy of a CD for your own personal use is within the scope of fair use. That's the way copyright law has worked for quite some time. ... Except now this filing claims that the right to tote your CD's contents around on your MP3 player were never expressly given, and that, for some reason, fair use doesn't apply. ...
Follwing JetBlue Privacy Breach, ACLU Urges Customers to Find Out If They Are In Government Database
24 Sep, 2003: American Civil Liberties Union, USANEW YORK- The American Civil Liberties Union today unveiled an online form that lets airline passengers automatically issue an official Privacy Act request for any information that the government may hold about them in connection with the recent transfer of passenger data by the airline JetBlue. ...
JetBlue Fesses Up, Quietly
19 Sep, 2003: Wired News, USAJetBlue Airways began sending out apologetic e-mails Thursday to customers who are infuriated that the airline gave 5 million passenger records to a defense contractor investigating national security issues. ...
Passengers sue JetBlue for sharing their data
19 Sep, 2003: USA TodayJetBlue Airways now faces two passenger lawsuits and a privacy group's complaint to the Federal Trade Commission following its admission last week that it handed over customer records for Pentagon research. ...
No Electronic Theft (NET) Act
19 Sep, 2003: Congress of the United States of AmericaOne Hundred Fifth Congress of the United States of America AT THE FIRST SESSION Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday, the seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven An Act To amend the provisions of titles 17 and 18, United States Code, to provide greater copyright protection by amending criminal copyright infringement provisions, and for other purposes. ...
Perspective: The new jailbird jingle
27 Jan, 2003: CNET News, USA... A obscure law called the No Electronic Theft (NET) Act that former U.S. President Bill Clinton signed in 1997 makes peer-to-peer (P2P) pirates liable for $250,000 in fines and subject to prison terms of up to three years. ...
Summary of The Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998 by the U.S. Copyright Office
Dec, 1998: U.S. Copyright OfficeThe Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)1 was signed into law by President Clinton on October 28, 1998. The legislation implements two 1996 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties: the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. The DMCA also addresses a number of other significant copyright-related issues. ...
Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998
Dec, 1998: Library of Congress, USADMCA Wikipedia Page
wikipedia.orgThe Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures (commonly known as Digital Rights Management or DRM) that control access to copyrighted works and it also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself. ...
DMCA Safe Harbor Provisions
Chilling EffectsIn the online world, the potentially infringing activities of individuals are stored and transmitted through the networks of third parties. Web site hosting services, Internet service providers, and search engines that link to materials on the Web are just some of the service providers that transmit materials created by others. ...
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. Wikipedia Page
wikipedia.orgSony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984)[1], also known as the "Betamax case", was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled that the making of individual copies of complete television shows for purposes of time-shifting does not constitute copyright infringement, but is fair use. ...
SONY CORP. v. UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS, INC., 464 U.S. 417 (1984)
17 Jan, 1984: US Supreme CourtPetitioner Sony Corp. manufactures home video tape recorders (VTR's), and markets them through retail establishments, some of which are also petitioners. Respondents own the copyrights on some of the television programs that are broadcast on the public airwaves. Respondents brought an action against petitioners in Federal District Court, alleging that VTR consumers had been recording some of respondents' copy-righted works that had been exhibited on commercially sponsored television and thereby infringed respondents' copyrights, and further that petitioners were liable for such copyright infringement because of their marketing of the VTR's. ...