COPYCENSE

Guest editor Kim Hagedorn presents this week’s Copycense Clippings.

Clippings

• David Hewett. Who Owns the Descriptions in Auction Catalogs? Copyright Lawsuit Looms. Maine Antique Digest. March 2007. Two galleries duke it out, with the Dallas gallery charging the California gallery with copyright infringement and unfair competition. The Dallas gallery is alleging that the California gallery stole its printed catalog descriptions. (The descriptions related to coins.) How long before this sort of thing spills out onto eBay? Categories: Bundle of Rights; Cases & Litigation.
• Noam Cohen. In Policy Shift, C-Span Clears Some Clips for Web Use. The New York Times. March 8, 2007. So, it turns out the C-SPAN copyright contretemps turned out to be a bit more than a slight slap on Speaker Pelosi’s wrist. In the end, C-SPAN effectively ends up making “a liberalized copyright policy for Congress- and agency-sponsored events.” Categories: Broadcasting & Journalism; Open Access; Politics & Government.
• Reuters. Yahoo! China Sued for Alleged Copyright Breach. March 7, 2007. Yahoo! China is being sued by 11 companies, including Warner Music Group Corp., for allegedly having links to unlicensed music on their site. The allegations are made by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a trade group that represents the world’s music companies, and which estimates that 85% of all music consumed in China is pirated. Categories: Cases & Litigation; International; Music.
• U.S. Copyright Office. Upcoming Fee Adjustments. March 7, 2007. The U.S. Copyright Office is expanding the scope of its eCO (electronic Copyright Office) initiative to allow applicants to register for a copyright. The Office plans to begin its electronic registration service on or about July 1, 2007, and will offer a reduced e-registration fee of $35 (Print registration will remain $45). Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters announced this plan in a February 21 report on fees. (.pdf) Categories: Registration; U.S. Copyright Office.
• CBS News. Privacy Board Clears U.S. Spy Programs. March 6, 2007. The president’s five-member Privacy Board determines that the administration’s domestic surveillance efforts do not invade the privacy and civil liberties of American citizens. The only area they feel needs improvement is the “terrorist watch lists” since citizens who are mistakenly placed on the list have no means of clearing their name. As ArsTechnica points out, however, it seems the Board’s constituency is open to suspicion, since the its chief (Lanny Davis) is the president’s former fundraising chair. Categories: Politics & Government; Privacy & Security.
• Inside Google Book Search. The Bavarian State Library Becomes Largest Non-English Library Partner. March 6, 2007. The Bavarian State Library has joined the Google Books Library Project, adding more than a million out-of-copyright books. Works by such authors as the Brothers Grimm and Goethe as well as works in French, Spanish, Latin, Italian and English are part of the contribution. Categories: Books; Digitization; International; Libraries & Information Science.
• Saul Hansell. Where Artists and Inventors Plot to Save the World. The New York Times. March 5, 2007. Along with Herb Allen’s Sun Valley confab, the TED Conference is the true players ball. Categories: Events; Web & Online.
• Nat Ives. Hachette Axes Another U.S. Title: ‘Premiere.’ Advertising Age. March 05, 2007. One more publication eschews print for the Web. Pages, pages, they all fall down. Categories: Broadcasting & Journalism; Web & Online.
• Douglas Heingartner. Patent Fights Are a Legacy of MP3’s Tangled Origins. The New York Times. March 5, 2007. Is the brewing battle over the MP3 patent a repeat of last year’s Blackberry-RIM mudslinging litigation? It’s sure shaping up that way. Categories: File Sharing, P2P & Downloads; Patents; Research; Science & Medical.
• U.S. Copyright Office. U.S. Copyright Office Comes to New York 2007. March 5, 2007. The U.S. Copyright Office will be discussing latest developments in copyright law and policy in New York City Tuesday, March 27,2007 at the Benjamin N. Cardoza School of Law, 55 Fifth Ave., Moot Court Room from 8:00am – 6:00pm. The brochure provides a breakdown of the speakers and their scheduled times. Categories: Events; U.S. Copyright Office.
• Harvard Journal of Law & Technology. Symposium: The Outer Limits of Patentable Subject Matter. March 5, 2007. Harvard’s JOLT is hosting a symposium featuring a discussion of patents. Panelists are Dennis Couch, Dana Irwin, and Andrew Schwartz. The symposium will take place Friday, March 16, 2007 at 10:45am in Pound 107, Harvard Law School. Categories: Events; Patents.
• Alan Sipress. Open Call From the Patent Office. WashingtonPost.com. March 5, 2007. The Patent and Trademark Office decided to get with the times and start using the Internet as a means of processing patent applications. The new system will allow such others to review and vote on patent applications making the patent process more democratic. Experts will be separated from fakes by implementing a rating system similar to eBay and Amazon.com. Registered “voters” will vote on all the nominated information and the top 10 items will be passed on to the examiner who will make the final decision. The pilot project will start with volunteer companies in the software industry. Microsoft, IBM, and Intel have already volunteered. Categories: Patents; Registration; U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.
• Gloria Goodale. Sizing Up the Spat Over Red Carpet Copycats. The Christian Science Monitor. March 2, 2007. Fashion designers are happy with the re-issued copyright protection bill Rep. Bob Goodlatte is sponsoring. Similar to the H.R. 5055 bill he introduced during the 109th Congress, the new bill would allow fashion designers to copyright their designs for three years. (As of this writing, the new bill for the current, 110th Congress has not yet been posted to THOMAS.) It will be interesting to see how far this bill goes, especially since it seems to pit copyright law against culture in a very direct way. Category: Fashion & Ornaments; Law, Legislation & Regulation.
• ArsTechnica. Judge Dismisses Claims Against Microsoft in second Alcatel-Lucent Patent Lawsuit. March 5, 2007. A judge has granted Microsoft’s request for summary judgment in the Alcatel-Lucent speech-recognition technology patent infringement case. Alcatel-Lucent plans to appeal because they feel their chances of winning the case are good. Categories: Cases & Litigation; Computers & Technology; Patent.
• The Associated Press. Industry Pressure on Music Piracy. The New York Times. March 1, 2007. The recording industry is giving college students who are suspected of illegally sharing music the opportunity to reach settlements before RIAA sues them for copyright infringement. We read this article the day before high-level officials at Syracuse University (including its chief information officer) distributed an e-mail stating they are one of the thirteen schools that received a letter from RIAA offering discounted settlements to the infringing students. Categories: Cases & Litigation; Education; File Sharing, P2P & Downloads; Infringement; Music.

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