COPYCENSE

"The Bush administration’s top lawyer and the Christian Coalition threw their weight behind the entertainment industry Monday in a closely watched Supreme Court fight over file swapping.

"Monday was the deadline for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and their supporters to file their arguments with the nation’s top court, in their efforts to reverse previous rulings that imposed only minimal legal restrictions on peer-to-peer software companies.

"The entertainment companies have argued strongly in lower courts that Grokster and other file-swapping software companies should be held liable for the widespread copyright infringement of their users. In a lengthy brief, the U.S. Solicitor General’s office agreed."

John Borland. Conservatives Back Hollywood. News.com. Jan. 24, 2005.

See also:
U.S. Supreme Court. On Writ of Certiorari: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer v. Grokster, Ltd.. (.pdf) Jan. 24, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.

“The leading vendors in consumer electronics have banded together to create a Community Source Program for digital rights management and will license the whole kit and caboodle, the patents, copyrights, compliance logo and source code to anyone that wants it.

“Effectively CE DRM is going open source (to the extent that Community Source is the same as Open Source) in order to flood the market with DRM systems and route the threat offered by Microsoft in consumer electronics.

“The move comes from the leading lights in the October announced Coral Consortium, and the DRMs that can be created with the new development tools will all be compliant with and ready to interoperate through the Coral interoperability standard.”

Faultline. CE Giants Open DRM to the Community. The Register. Jan. 24, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Having lost a recent patent case in Virginia, Research in Motion, maker of the popular BlackBerry device, has turned to a peculiar appeal strategy: We’re not based in the United States, so you can’t touch us.

"More surprisingly, the Canadian government and the Internet service provider EarthLink are now formally supporting that argument.

"R.I.M., which has its headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, has become Canada’s technology success story, with a soaring stock price and two million subscribers, most of them in the United States. But hovering over the company is a patent infringement suit brought in 2002 by NTP, a patent-holding company based in Annandale, Va."

Ian Austen. In Suit, BlackBerry Maker Pleads Canadian. The New York Times. Jan. 24, 2005.

See also:
Associated Press. Canada Steps in on Blackberry Patent Row. MarketWatch. Jan. 25, 2005.

(Editor�s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper�s fee-based Archive.)

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Many educators and librarians ask about the fair use and photocopying provisions of the copyright law. The Copyright Office cannot give legal advice or offer opinions on what is permitted or prohibited.

"However, we have published in this circular basic information on some of the most important legislative provisions and other documents dealing with reproduction by librarians and educators."

U.S. Copyright Office. Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians. (.pdf) April 29, 2004.

Attribution: SNTReport.com first discovered news of this copyright circular through a posting in LISNews edited by Blake Carver.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Several large technology corporations will urge the U.S. Supreme Court today to continue to shield businesses and innovators from legal responsibility if their products or services are used by consumers for illegal acts.

"The companies, including industry giants Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Google, America Online Inc. and Apple Computer Inc., will argue in court filings that the innovations that have helped fuel U.S. economic growth could grind to a halt if protections from liability were stripped away.

"At issue is the continuing popularity of Internet file-sharing services, whose software lets users swap digital music, videos and software regardless of whether they are copyrighted works that should be paid for each time they are sent to another consumer."

Jonathan Krim. Tech Firms to Seek Legal Protection From Pirating. WashingtonPost.com. Jan. 24, 2005.

See also:
U.S. Supreme Court. On Writ of Certiorari: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer v. Grokster, Ltd.. (.pdf) Jan. 24, 2005.

(Editor�s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper�s fee-based Archives.)

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Intellectual property legislation that failed to pass in Congress last year likely will reappear in the new session, but after 2004’s bitter battle, technology and consumer groups are ready to get more aggressive.

"The Consumer Electronics Association, Public Knowledge, NetCoalition and others successfully fought the Hollywood-supported Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act in the Senate, which would have held technology companies liable for encouraging their users to infringe copyright. A scaled-back ‘minibus bill’ that addressed a smattering of copyright issues also failed to pass.

"But while their interests prevailed — for the time being — technology and consumer advocates say that the fierce fight over the Induce Act was a turning point, and should lead to more involvement from tech bigwigs."

Katie Dean. Techies Talk Tough in D.C.. Wired News. Jan. 20, 2005.

See also:
Grant Gross. New Copyright Protection Bills Likely in 2005. The Industry Standard. Jan. 19, 2005.

Elizabeth Millard. Supreme Court Sets Date for P2P Case. NewsFactor.com. Jan. 21, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"A bill introduced in California’s Legislature last week has raised the possibility of jail time for developers of file-swapping software who don’t stop trades of copyrighted movies and songs online.

"The proposal, introduced by Los Angeles Sen. Kevin Murray, takes direct aim at companies that distribute software such as Kazaa, eDonkey or Morpheus. If passed and signed into law, it could expose file-swapping software developers to fines of up to $2,500 per charge, or a year in jail, if they don’t take ‘reasonable care’ in preventing the use of their software to swap copyrighted music or movies–or child pornography.

"Peer-to-peer software companies and their allies immediately criticized the bill as a danger to technological innovation, and as potentially unconstitutional."

John Borland. State Bill Could Cripple P2P. News.com. Jan. 18, 2005.

See also:
No author. California Senator Goes After P2P. Red Herring. Jan. 18, 2005.

Jason Schultz. Induce — California Style. EFF Deep Links. Jan. 18, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.