COPYCENSE

“Distributing the budget plan — a total of 8,500 copies of it — is one of the biggest events of the year for the printing office, but it is also becoming something of an anachronism for the 192-year-old organization.

“For most of U.S. history, any government agency that needed to print many copies of a document went to the U.S. Government Printing Office. Now, about half of government documents go straight online, forcing the printing agency to find new ways to make itself relevant in an increasingly paperless world. But questions of security, privacy and authenticity have confronted the GPO leadership as it has sought to get up to date in the digital age.”

Zachary A. Goldfarb. Confronting Digital Age Head-On. WashingtonPost.com. March 13, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“It would be easy to call the venture-backed, San Mateo-based YouTube the Napster of video, an outlaw startup rocketing onto dotcom radar screens on the backs of rights-holders. But that’s a designation that the year-old company desperately wants to avoid. YouTube is far friendlier to copyright owners than the peer-to-peer sharing pioneer, and offers to take any material off its servers when a rights-holder complains (as NBC did earlier this month, asking the company to remove the popular Saturday Night Live “Lazy Sunday” clip from its site.)

“YouTube execs point out that, unlike Napster, they control what’s on their site and can boot users who are breaking the law. Hollywood execs aren’t reaching for the emergency telephones that connect them to their lawyers — at least not yet.”

Brad Stone. Video Napster? Newsweek. March 7, 2006.

See also:

Jim Kerstetter, Greg Sandoval, et al. Does Video Have a Napster Problem? News.com. March 13, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“It would be easy to call the venture-backed, San Mateo-based YouTube the Napster of video, an outlaw startup rocketing onto dotcom radar screens on the backs of rights-holders. But that’s a designation that the year-old company desperately wants to avoid. YouTube is far friendlier to copyright owners than the peer-to-peer sharing pioneer, and offers to take any material off its servers when a rights-holder complains (as NBC did earlier this month, asking the company to remove the popular Saturday Night Live “Lazy Sunday” clip from its site.)

“YouTube execs point out that, unlike Napster, they control what’s on their site and can boot users who are breaking the law. Hollywood execs aren’t reaching for the emergency telephones that connect them to their lawyers — at least not yet.”

Brad Stone. Video Napster? Newsweek. March 7, 2006.

See also:

Jim Kerstetter, Greg Sandoval, et al. Does Video Have a Napster Problem? News.com. March 13, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“Still embroiled in controversy over its plans to digitize several of the world’s largest library collections, Google is inviting U.S. and U.K. publishers to sell online access to their copyright texts through its book search site.

“Right now, Google Book Search users can view free snippets of copyright books catalogued by its service but cannot read entire books online. They have the option of perusing a full version by clicking on links to outside booksellers or library catalogs.

“The new offering would allow people to sign in and purchase immediate, browser-based access to books, Google said on its site. Purchasers would not, however, be allowed to save a copy of the book to their computer or to otherwise copy pages from the book.”

Anne Broache. Google To Broker Online Book Sales. News.com. March 13, 2006.

See also:

Search Engine Watch Blog. Google Partnering With Publishers To Sell Online Books. March 13, 2006.

Maija Palmer. Publishers’ Soul Searching Over Google Plan. FT.com. March 13, 2006.

Alison Bone. Google to Sell Access to Book Content Online. Information World Review. March 13, 2006.

Kimberly Maul. Publishers to Control Paid-Access Books Available Through Google. The Book Standard. March 10, 2006.

Kimberly Maul. Checking Out the Machines Behind Book Digitization. The Book Standard. February 21, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“American Airlines is demanding that Google and video-sharing site YouTube reveal the name of the person who posted a portion of one of the airline’s training videos on their Web sites.

“Someone uploaded part of a video used to train flight attendants on YouTube and Google Video. The airline subpoenaed those companies on Feb. 21 under the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), according to an airline spokesman. Under the provisions of the DMCA, companies have the right to request information in the event that their copyright materials are infringed upon.

“The video in question, titled “Flight Attendant, Upside Down,” is under copyright, the spokesman said.”

Greg Sandoval. American Airlines Subpoenas Google, YouTube. News.com. March 9, 2006.

See also:

EFF Deep Links. DMCA Subpoena Provision Still Endangers Privacy. March 9, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“Amazon.com is in talks with three Hollywood studios about starting a service that would allow consumers to download movies and TV shows for a fee and burn them onto DVD’s, according to three people briefed on the discussions.

“If the advanced negotiations are successfully concluded, Amazon’s service would position itself in the media world alongside rivals like Apple Computer’s iTunes as a place where people go not just to order goods to be sent by mail, but to instantly enjoy digital wares as well.

“So far, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Brothers are engaged in the talks, said one person close to the talks who, like the others, asked not to be identified because the negotiations are continuing.”

Richard Skilos. Amazon Considering Downloads. The New York Times. March 10, 2006.

See also:

Byron Acohido and Laura Petrecca. Amazon Seeks Deal for Movie, TV Downloads. USA Today. March 12, 2006.

Bambi Francisco. Amazon Movie Downloads Are Coming. MarketWatch. March 10, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.