COPYCENSE

"Officials at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency want to bar the public from viewing the agency’s aeronautical and navigational data and publications, a decision that has upset many who use that information. Some librarians, commercial mapmakers and public-interest group members say they will launch a campaign to retain access.

"Without seeking public comment, NGA officials announced plans in November 2004 to stop selling and distributing the aeronautical and navigational data because of copyright concerns and worries about terrorist attacks. Last December, however, they said they would seek comments before making a final decision.

"Jim Mohan, an NGA spokesman, said the agency is considering the action partly because an increasing number of foreign source providers are claiming intellectual property rights or warning agency officials that they intend to copyright their source material."

Frank Tiboni. A Publishing Dilemma. FCW. Feb. 7, 2005.

See also:
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. NGA Invites Public Comment on Proposal to Remove Aeronautical Information from Public Sale and Distribution. (.pdf) (Press Release.) Dec. 3, 2004.

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"Movie industry representatives at RSA 2005 in San Francisco today called on the IT industry for help in thwarting illegal file sharing before the problem threatened its revenues. But they were told that they must recognise the limitations of digital rights management in their fight against digital piracy.

"Speaking on the RSA conference panel Hollywood’s Last Chance – Getting it Right on Digital Piracy, Carter Laren, security architect at Cryptographic Research, noted that cryptography is ‘good at some problems, such as transmitting data so it can’t be eavesdropped or even authentication, but it can’t solve the content protection problem. If people have legitimate access to content, then you can’t stop them misusing it.

"’Anyone designing content protection should design for failure and if it fails update it,’ he added."

John Leyden. Cryptographers to Hollywood: Prepare to Fail on DRM. The Register. Feb. 17, 2005.

See also:
Cryptography Research. Cryptography Research Security Experts to Speak at RSA Conference 2005. (Press Release.) Feb. 14, 2005.

Michael A. Einhorn and Bill Rosenblatt. Peer-to-Peer Networking and Digital Rights Management: How Market Tools Can Solve Copyright Problems. (.pdf) Cato Institute. Feb. 17, 2005.

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"A few years ago, Warner Brothers sold the video game rights to its film series ‘The Matrix,’ a heady science-fiction trilogy starring Keanu Reeves, for $10 million, according to industry reports.

"So when it came time for Warner Brothers to sell the game rights to ‘Constantine,’ the new fantasy movie also starring Keanu Reeves, the studio might have expected a similar windfall. Instead, the rights went to a small developer, Bits Studios, for less than a million dollars.

"The difference between the two deals is just one example of how unpredictable – and at times unprofitable – the game publishers’ relationship with Hollywood has become. Five years ago, the studios looked at video game royalties as a growing source of revenue as well as a source of promotion, while game makers saw movies as a way to stand out on store shelves."

Robert Levine. Story Line Is Changing for Game Makers and Their Movie Deals. The New York Times. Feb. 21, 2005.

(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.)

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"Should the Girl Scouts have to fork over a fee to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers every time its young members want to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to one another? Should the organizers of athletic events have to seek permission from the United States Olympic Committee to use the word ‘Olympics’ in the titles of their events?

"Anyone who responds with an emphatic, ‘Well, of course not,’ will find a frustrating sort of pleasure in Brand Name Bullies ($25, 2005, John Wiley & Sons), by activist David Bollier.

"As the title suggests, the book is an intense critique of the U.S. copyright and trademark system and the corporations that use it as a weapon against competitors and anyone else who might threaten them. Bollier argues that the court’s willingness to let corporations get away with such bullying is increasingly eroding our ‘cultural commons’ — the collection of images, stories, sounds and other creative expressions that, due to their significance and prevalence, no longer belong to any single person or company."

Amit Asaravala. Are Bullies After Our Culture?. Wired News. Feb. 16, 2005.

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

"America Online is disabling a feature of its popular music software that had been used to evade copy-prevention features of digital music services, the company said Friday.

"The company’s Winamp software was identified by bloggers this week as part of a process that transformed copy-protected music downloads into songs that could be burned by the thousand to CD.  The tool had potentially affected any subscription service that used Microsoft’s media format, including Napster, Virgin Music and even America Online’s own music subscription plan.

"AOL programmers are taking a series of steps to prevent its software from being used in this way, a representative said."

John Borland. AOL Blocks Music-Copying Feature. News.com. Feb. 17, 2005.

See also:
John Borland. Napster Hack Leads to Free Downloads. News.com. Feb. 15, 2005.

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