Ford Slaps Mustang Enthusiasts
AdRants. Ford Slaps Brand Enthusiasts, Returns Love With Legal Punch. Jan. 14, 2007. Ford, which desperately needs some love from the public, shoots itself in the foot by threatening legal action over the use of its logo in a calendar sold by a Mustang owners club. Our first reaction was “how dumb can you be?” Upon reconsideration, though, American trademark law may have required Ford to take some level of action because of potential dilution issues. The issue has been resolved now, but one has to think this issue could have been handled in a manner that would not have left Ford looking like a bully. Just because there’s a legal issue doesn’t mean the law needs to be used like a club.
(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 15, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings.)
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Unbundling the Bundle of Rights
The Wired Campus (The Chronicle of Higher Education). Librarian: Ohio State Professors Need Copyright Refresher. Jan. 14, 2008. This very brief post provides insight into the distinction between the creator of a copyrighted work and the owner of a copyrighted work. In today’s world, these parties rarely are the same.
(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 15, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings.)
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Network Neutrality Repositioned as Copyright Issue
Bits (The New York Times). AT&T and Other I.S.P.’s May Be Getting Ready to Filter. Jan. 8, 2008. Apparently not content with the “safe harbor” provisions that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act affords (it and other ISPs) pursuant to Section 512(c) of the Copyright Act, the former Ma Bell floats a filtering trial balloon at the Consumer Electronics Show. Comcast already faces scrutiny concerning its alleged filtering of Bittorrent traffic, so it will be interesting to see how this issue plays among Washington regulators who have jurisdiction over communications and trade.
(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 15, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings.)
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Copycense Clippings (Jan. 8, 2008 to Jan. 14, 2008)
Editor’s note: Copycense writers and editors compiled this version of Clippings during our annual holiday break. It was published in mid-January.
Article of the Week
projectb15ck. UCSC Network Woes. Jan. 9, 2008. According to an e-mail within the body of the post, the information technology department at University of California, Santa Cruz is using Cisco’s Clean Access appliance and software to “help speed up the network for legitimate uses and reduce the risk of ‘accidental’ copyright infringement.” In the e-mail, John Rocchio , a UCSC IT administrator, says Clean Access will be configured to block file sharing services such as Gnutella and Bittorrent. The poster notes UCSC is a public university, therefore it is spending public funds to block Internet access. The unnamed writer asks incisively what difference is there between UCSC’s action’s and Comcast’s reported filtering of P2P traffic. Categories: File Sharing, P2P & Downloads; Education; Music; Networks; Privacy & Security.
Quote of the Week
“2008 has to be the year we get real or the business as we know it goes away.” –Fred Goldring, entertainment attorney.
Elizabeth Montalbano. Digital Music Industry Challenged to Follow Fans’ Lead. PCWorld.com. Jan. 9, 2008. You’re kidding us, right?
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Clippings continue on the next page.
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Do College Students Really Care About Copyright?
Pogue’s Posts (The New York Times). The Generational Divide in Copyright Morality. Dec. 20, 2007. Times technology columnist does a straw poll with college students about the alleged illegality of various copyright scenarios and no one sees anything wrong. Teens’ and college students resistance to any copyright protection or rules is worthy of an extended study. And a real study with real data, not something an entertainment industry lobbying firm cooks up so they can trot the results out to Congress while begging for yet another extension of the already overbroad monopoly.
(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 8, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings.)
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Paper Chasing RIAA
Trevor Maxwell. Maine Law Students Enter Battle on Downloading, Against Record Labels. Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel. Jan. 7, 2008. One could dismiss this as a typical “bringing to a knife to a gun fight” scenario. But after more than 15,000 Canadians organized and (at least temporarily) halted choke hold copyright legislation, we wondered if the copyright issue ever would gain such a level of citizen interest and outrage here in America. The actions of law students suggest a start. Categories: Cases & Litigation; Education; File Sharing, P2P & Downloads; Music.
(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 8, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings.)
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High Fidelity Digital Recordings
Jason Victor Serinus. Reference Recordings Aims At Your Hard Drive. Stereophile. Jan. 5, 2008. In the December 2007 issue of Information Today, there is an article that discusses dissatisfaction with the MP3 format for listening to music. This article continues that thread, discussing a music server offering that streams WMV audio files in high resolution 24-bit audio and the possibility that such files may be made available without copy restriction technology.
(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 8, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings.)
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