Archive for January 2006
USPTO To Reference Open Source on Patent Applications
“The United States Patent and Trademark Office plans to announce today that it will cooperate with open-source software developers on three initiatives that it says will improve the quality of software patents.
“The patent office has come under increasing pressure in recent years from critics who contend that it issues patents without adequate investigation of earlier inventions. As a result, conflicts over published patents have loosed an avalanche of intellectual property litigation.”
John Markoff. U.S. Office Joins an Effort to Improve Software Patents. The New York Times. Jan. 10, 2006.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Universities and Publishers Author Copyright Guide
[Campus Copyright: Rights and Responsibilities] document was developed by representatives of the Association of American Universities, the Association of Research Libraries, the Association of American University Presses, and the Association of American Publishers. These organizations represent sectors which play central roles within higher education in the creation, use, and management of copyrighted works. The principal objective of this project was to bring together these groups, which have differing perspectives and often conflicting views on the appropriate use of copyrighted works, to produce a document that conveys their common understanding regarding the basic
meaning and practical significance of copyright for the higher education community.
It is intended for the following purposes:
- to present a basic explanation of copyright law with an emphasis on its application to colleges and universities;
- to provide a discussion of current copyright issues in the higher education setting that reflects the concerns and points of view of colleges and universities and the publishing community with which these institutions regularly interact and collaborate;
- to encourage colleges and universities to review their institutional policies on the use and management of copyrighted works in light of the continuing evolution of digital technologies and the numerous revisions to copyright and related laws generated in part by that evolution; and
- to provide information to colleges and universities concerning the development of educational materials for their students, faculty, and staff that provide guidance on the creation, use, and management of copyrighted works in this shifting legal and societal landscape.
Association of Research Libraries, et al. Campus Copyright Rights and Responsibilities: A Basic Guide to Policy Considerations. (.pdf, 422 KB) December 2005.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
UMUC Offers DRM Workshop
Digital Rights Management (DRM) is concerned with the documentation of rights, permissions, and policies associated with digital objects and services, and control and management of the use of digital content and services consistent with those rights, permissions, and policies. DRM is a large umbrella encompassing several systems and technologies that define, implement, and enforce policies. Standing beneath that umbrella are various parties disputing what DRM should cover, how large its reach should be, if it is necessary, and even the language and terms (“rights” versus “restrictions”) of the debate over the control and use of digital objects and services.
Goals for the Course:
- Review the background and history of DRM;
- Gain clarity on fact versus fiction in the realm of DRM;
- Consider the perspectives on and understanding of DRM within various communities;
- Explore the complex issues involved in managing copyrights in higher education;
- Discuss ownership, access, and control of copyrighted material in higher education;
- Learn about copyright policy development;
- Discuss DRM’s impact on higher education; and
- Review federal legislation impacting copyright compliance on college campuses.
DRM in Higher Education
Dates: January 23 – February 3, 2006
Moderators: Kimberly Kelley, M.L.S., Ph.D.; Clifford Lynch, Ph.D., Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information.
Register online
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Indie Music Available Digitally
“The Orchard is seeking to make money by purchasing music from small independent and foreign labels, and then distributing it to digital music services. In most music stores, CD’s of, say, Chinese or Kenyan pop music would be consigned to the world-music bin as a good will gesture. But the economics of online stores is changing the financial calculations of the music business, making it profitable to sell a relatively small number of copies of a song, as long as a compact disc is not manufactured and distributed.
“So instead of trying to sell millions of copies of hundreds of albums, the standard music industry strategy, the Orchard hopes to sell hundreds of copies of thousands of albums. In that way, the company is anticipating that sales will follow a pattern known as ‘the long tail,’ in which a large number of only marginally popular items can eventually produce significant revenue.”
Robert Levine. Buying Music From Anywhere and Selling It for Play on the Internet. The New York Times. Jan. 9, 2006.
See also:
Organization: Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IODA) (“IODA is the industry-leading digital distribution company for the global independent music community.”)
Brian Garrity. Digital Music Enjoys a Dream Week. WashingtonPost.com. Jan. 8, 2006. (“There was so much legitimate downloading in the final week of 2005 that it recalled the impossible tallies research firms used in the late 1990s to dazzle venture capitalists and scare the daylights out of major-label executives.”)
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Canadian Research Libraries Hit Digitization Path
A major effort to digitize millions of books and other documents at libraries is beginning across Canada. Canadian research libraries have formed a digitization alliance called Alouette Canada to get their books online.
The process involves scanning the millions of books available in Canadian libraries so they can be read by internet users. Parts of the virtual library should be available beginning next year — and it’ll be free to use.
CBC.ca Canadian Libraries Join Race to Digitize Books. Dec. 29, 2005.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Copyright Limitations Risk Analysis
INTRODUCTION
This is the first piece in a new CopyCense series called CommuniK™. CommuniK.™ will present articles, essays, editorials written by K. Matthew Dames and featured guest writers that deal with the intersection of law, business, and technology. The CommuniK.™ series also will be used to present multimedia work, including streaming broadcasts and podcasts.
In order to take advantage of the unique medium that is the World Wide Web, writings published under the CommuniK.™ label will exclude citations, but will include relevant hyperlinks, graphics, and formatting. Print versions of CommuniK.™ writings will be made available in Adobe Acrobat format some time after the original posting appears, and the print versions will include scholarly citations.
This first installment CommuniK.™ series originally was published in the January/February 2005 edition of Online magazine. It has been updated substantially.
Do you have any copy rights left?
That’s a reasonable question for information professionals to ask, since the legislative, business, and political environments of the last decade have been so severely pro-copyright. Beginning in the 1990s, the scope of copyright has expanded with the growth of digital technologies. Copyright’s expansion has been particularly acute since 1998, when President Clinton signed into law the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
In the current environment, it is easy for information professionals to think that any use of copyrighted works is illegal unless it is explicitly sanctioned by a license, release, or other written agreement. Fortunately, current copyright law says otherwise.
CRS Analyzes Google Book Search Case
“How the court (or courts) that consider this case define the issues presented will ultimately determine whether the suit against Google sets an important precedent in copyright law. Viewed expansively, the court may find that copying to promote online searching and indexing of literary works is a fair use. To many observers, such a holding could be the jurisprudential equivalent of [Sony Corp of America vs. Universal Studio’s] sanctioning of ‘time shifting.’
“If the court adopts a more narrow view of fair use that precludes Google’s digitization project, searchable literary databases are likely to evolve in a less comprehensive manner but with the input and control of rights holders who view them as desirable and participate accordingly.”
Robin Jeweler. The Google Book Search Project: Is Online Indexing a Fair Use Under Copyright Law? (.pdf, 37 KB) Congressional Research Service. Dec. 28, 2005.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
COPYCENSE 