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.
Digitization Evolving Into Open or Closed Cases
“When it comes to digitizing books, two stories appear to be unfolding: One is about open source, and the other, Google.
“Or so it seemed at a party held by the Internet Archive on Tuesday evening, when the nonprofit foundation and a parade of partners, including the Smithsonian Institution, Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo and Microsoft’s MSN, rallied around a collective open-source initiative to digitize all the world’s books and make them universally available.
“Google was noticeably absent from the cadre of partners, considering that the search behemoth has a high-profile project of its own to scan library books and add them to its searchable index.”
Stefanie Olsen. An Open-Source Rival to Google’s Book Project. News.com. Oct. 26, 2005.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Forgent is a Patent Player
“BlackBerry wireless device maker Research In Motion inked a deal on Thursday to license part of the JPEG file format patent from Forgent Networks, the companies said.
“The one-time perpetual license covers all of Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM’s BlackBerry devices and its BlackBerry Connect messaging service, which allows wireless always-on access to e-mail and corporate data on portable devices. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.”
Michael Singer. RIM Inks Deal for JPEG Patent. News.com. Oct. 27, 2005.
See also:
Robert Lemos. Finding Patent Truth in JPEG Claim. News.com. July 22, 2002.
Updates:
Between the Lines. Is It Time to Boycott the JPEG Graphics File Format? Oct. 28, 2005.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
FBI Extends Wiretap Law to Colleges
“The federal government, vastly extending the reach of an 11-year-old law, is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications.
“The action, which the government says is intended to help catch terrorists and other criminals, has unleashed protests and the threat of lawsuits from universities, which argue that it will cost them at least $7 billion while doing little to apprehend lawbreakers. Because the government would have to win court orders before undertaking surveillance, the universities are not raising civil liberties issues.”
Sam Dillon and Stephen Labaton. Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems. The New York Times. Oct. 23, 2005.
See also:
Federal Communications Commission. Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (47 CFR Part 64). Federal Register. Oct. 13, 2005.
Federal Communications Commission. Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). Sept. 1, 2005.
Electronic Frontier Foundation. Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (FAQ). No date.
(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.)
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Kansas Denied Copyright Permission on Evolution Papers
“Two leading science organizations have denied the Kansas board of education permission to use their copyrighted materials in the state’s proposed new science standards because of the standards’ critical approach to evolution.
“The National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association said the much-disputed new standards ‘will put the students of Kansas at a competitive disadvantage as they take their place in the world.'”
Jodi Wilgoren. 2 Science Groups Say Kansas Can’t Use Their Evolution Papers. The New York Times. Oct. 27, 2005.
Commentary by K. Matthew Dames, executive editor.
What is interesting to me here is not necessarily the denial of permission (to me that’s more politically motivated than tangibly within the realm of a copyright debate), but why the board felt fair use under Section 107 was not available to it as a limitation on the science organizations’ copyright claimed.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
COPYCENSE 