Archive for November 2005
Supreme Court Nominee’s Copyright Record
“Copyright lawyers should cheer the appointment of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. In 2004, Judge Alito was the author of the en banc opinion in Southco, Inc. v. Kanebridge Corp. [and] also the author of a panel opinion in the same case three years earlier. Both opinions are thoughtful looks at basic questions of originality.”
The Patry Copyright Blog. Judge Alito and Copyright. Oct. 31, 2005.
See also:
Derivative Work. Alito on Copyright, First Amendment, Cyberlaw. Oct. 31, 2005.
Updates:
Declan McCullagh. Nominee’s Past Rulings Give Hint of Tech Views. News.com. Nov. 1, 2005.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Copyright Office Gets New Search System
I missed this somehow, but in mid-October, the U.S. Copyright Office announced that upgrades it is implementing to its LOCIS system will go live in December.
The Office explains:
The new system offers new features including keyword searching and the use of a single database containing records for monographs, serials, and recorded documents.
All of the approximately 20 million records for registrations and recorded documents in the current system will be migrated to the new search method, a similar system used by other parts of the Library of Congress for searching collections.
Unfortunately, the new system will do nothing to improve with which records actually enter the database so they can be searched. The Office warns that even after the new system is in place, it will still take “several months” for records to become searchable in the database. This means that the only alternative for doing a decent copyright record search is through fee-based databases like Lexis.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Novel Ways to Market Music
“Singer-songwriter Fiona Apple‘s new CD (“Extraordinary Machine”) arrives on shelves some time this month. Which is odd because ‘primitive’ versions of 11 of its tracks appeared on music-sharing systems in 2004. Rumors abounded that Epic (her label) wasn’t happy with it because it wasn’t ‘commercial’ enough. But critics and fans responded enthusiastically to the ‘premature’ tracks, and Epic ultimately decided to release a finished version of the album.
“So what?
“Ms. Apple’s experience suggests an approach that music publishers might take to test-marketing: Release a low-quality MP3 version of an album and see whether it gets any traction. If yes, launch the high-quality CD.”
Between the Lines. On Test-Marketing In The Digital Age. Oct. 28, 2005.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
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