COPYCENSE

"A handful of myths have spawned practices, particularly among bloggers and Website owners, that turn copyright law on its head. These myths are rooted in the assumption that everything is up for use online unless and until proven otherwise. Those myths and that ease have fostered a presumption of entitlement that causes Netizens to treat the Internet (and non-electronic sources as well) as a buffet spread of photos, articles, sounds and multi-media files free for the plucking and posting.

"Despite all the media attention to recent lawsuits cracking down on unauthorized music downloads, these myths are still in surprisingly widespread circulation. In the past six months, otherwise educated people have asserted eight different fallacies to me as if they were law. Every one of them has the potential to lead the ill-informed into the land of copyright infringement, where even a short stay can carry a whopping price tag.

"Note: The discussion below will use the term ‘permission’ to include both explicit permission from the copyright holder and any legally imputed permission, whether due to the work being in the public domain or through fair use, the exercise of the special reproduction right granted to libraries and archives under 17 U.S.C. Section 108, or the limited instructional exemption granted by 17 U.S.C. Section 110.  Also, this discussion addresses only works created in the United States or otherwise subject to U.S. copyright law."

Kathy Biehl. Bloggers Beware: Debunking Eight Copyright Myths of the Online World. LLRX.com. Dec. 16, 2004.

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

"Apple Computer on Thursday said it has now sold more than 200 million songs through its iTunes Music Store–and it has new plans to keep the sales trend continuing upward.

"It took the company 11 months to sell its first 50 million songs and then another four months to get to 100 million songs. Three months later, the company hit 150 million, and it took just two months to get to 200 million.

"Apple has not only kept its sales growing, but it has maintained a commanding share of the online sales market, despite stepped-up competition from stores using Microsoft’s Windows Media file format. The company also faces an uphill battle to convert those still using free file-swapping services such as Kazaa."

Ina Fried. iTunes Hits 200 Million Download Mark. News.com. Dec. 16, 2004.

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

"Google News trumpets its ability to stay abreast of current events ‘solely by computer algorithms without human intervention.’ But the robot approach has come under fire. Rather than representing news, the bots often reflect a bias that exists on the Net.

"Search for, say, John Kerry, and you’ll get fringe sites like s5000.com. We asked Krishna Bharat, chief scientist for Google News, if he should put a few pulses on the payroll for quality control."

Lucas Graves. Google’s Newsbot Isn’t Biased!. Wired. Dec. 2004.

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

"Five prestigious university and public libraries have reached agreement with Google Inc. to digitize millions of volumes in their collections and make portions of the text available for free to computer users online, the search giant plans to announce today.

"The collaboration is likely to rekindle debate about the extent to which books should be available on the Internet. Some publishers worry that such efforts will depress sales. But the libraries say online access can be a boon to researchers and a benefit to people who do not have access to high-quality collections.

"Initially, some of the libraries plan to make available the full text of books that are in the public domain while offering snippets or excepts of books protected by copyright."

David A. Vise. Google to Digitize Some Library Collections. WashingtonPost.com. Dec. 14, 2004.

Cynthia L. Webb. Google — 21st Century Dewey Decimal System. WashingtonPost.com. Dec. 14, 2004.

See also:
Hiawatha Bray. Google to Index Works at Harvard, Other Major Libraries. The Boston Globe. Dec. 14, 2004.

Gary Price. Google Partners with Oxford, Harvard & Others to Digitize Libraries. Search Engine Watch. Dec. 14, 2004.

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

"Apple Computer Inc. on Friday said customers of its iTunes online music store can now use eBay Inc.’s online payment service PayPal to buy songs and audiobooks, becoming the second major online music store to do so.

"Starting Friday, purchases from Cupertino, California-based Apple’s online music store can be funded via PayPal, using a credit card, bank account or a stored account balance.

"Until now, the Apple store accepted credit cards, gift certificates and account balances as forms of payment."

No author. Apple Says ITunes Music Store Now Accepts PayPal. Reuters. Dec. 10, 2004.

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

"The Supreme Court, accepting urgent pleas from the recording and film industries, agreed on Friday to decide whether the online services that enable copyrighted songs and movies to be shared freely over the Internet can be held liable themselves for aiding copyright infringement.

"For the entertainment industry and for everyday consumers, the case is likely to produce the most important copyright decision since the Supreme Court ruled in 1984 that the makers of the videocassette recorder were not liable for violating the copyrights of movies that owners of the devices recorded at home.

"The earlier decision, Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios, ushered in one technological revolution. The new case, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster Ltd., No. 04-480, comes as another is already well under way. More than 85 million copyrighted songs and a smaller but rapidly growing number of movies are downloaded from the Internet every day by people using file-sharing services."

Linda Greenhouse. Justices to Hear Case on Sharing of Music Files. The New York Times. Dec. 11, 2004.

See also:
John Borland. Supreme Court to Hear P2P Case. News.com. Dec. 10, 2004.

Ashlee Vance. The Supremes Prep for P2P Battle Royal. The Register. Dec. 10, 2004.

(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.

"America Online Inc. has confirmed that it mistakenly deactivated a number of AOL Instant Messenger accounts this week as part of its regular cycle of opening unused screen names to new users.

"AOL, whose instant messaging service is among the most widely used worldwide, had begun releasing screen names that had gone unused when it snarled the accounts of some active users in the process, an AOL spokeswoman confirmed to eWEEK.com. The Dulles, Va., company is working to restore the mistakenly turned-off accounts by Monday.

"The mistake surprised AIM users, many of whom took to Weblogs to try to figure out if they were alone in being cut off from IM."

Matt Hicks and Ryan Naraine. AOL Locks Out IM Users. eWeek. Dec. 9, 2004.

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