COPYCENSE

“The Chinese government is planning a major revamp of laws and regulations that protect intellectual property rights (IPR), according to a plan outlined this week by China’s National IPR Protection Working Group Office.

“Under the government’s plan, 17 laws and regulations governing IPR protection will be drafted or revised during the coming year. These measures will address IPR issues related to trademarks, copyrights, patents, and customs protection, according to the plan.”

Sumner Lemon. China to Draft New Copyright Laws This Year. InfoWorld. March 10, 2006.

See also:

Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China. Information on China’s Action Plan on IPR Protection 2006. (Unofficial English translation) March 9, 2006.

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

“The federal government took a position against eBay Inc. in a patent dispute that threatens to shut down one of the online auction site’s popular shopping features.

“The Office of the Solicitor General said in a brief filed with the Supreme Court that eBay willfully infringed on patents held by Great Falls-based MercExchange LLC and should be enjoined from using its “Buy It Now” feature, which allows users to buy goods at fixed prices rather than compete in auctions. Goods sold using that system account for about a third of eBay’s business.

“EBay has been found guilty of willfully infringing two patents held by MercExchange but has not been barred from using the systems, because of a district court decision to deny an injunction. An appellate court reversed that decision.”

Yuki Noguchi. Government Sides Against EBay in Patent Dispute. WashingtonPost.com. March 11, 2006.

See also:

Patently-O. Ebay v. MercExchange: The Law of Patent Injunctions. March 14, 2006.

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

Issue: Effective today, CopyCense™ will change its RSS feed from the native feed provided by our blog service to a feed offered by FeedBurner. Feedburner is a service that manages RSS subscriptions.

Reason for Change: We had been using the original, native feed (XML) that came with TypePad, our hosted publication platform. While we have been satisfied with TypePad, its metrics and reporting mechanisms are poor. The editorial staff needs better metrics in order to improve CopyCense™ for our audience. FeedBurner gives the editorial staff improved detail about who visits our site, when, and for how long.

FeedBurner does not record any personally identifying information.

What Do I Need to Do (or How Do I Subscribe to the New Feed)? In order to continue to receive CopyCense™ headlines and story summaries in your aggregator or newsreader of choice, you will have to change the CopyCense™ feed address. The new feed address is

http://feeds.feedburner.com/copycense/AdaR

If you click the new RSS feed icon you will be transferred to CopyCense‘s new RSS feed page via FeedBurner. From there, you may subscribe to the new feed in one of two ways:

1. Automatically add the new RSS feed to select Web-based news readers such as Bloglines, Newsgator, or My Yahoo!. (You also may subscribe automatically to the new feed from this page if you have certain desktop news readers, such as NetNewsWire.)
2. Copy the URL that appears in your browser’s address bar, and then paste it in the appropriate location in your aggregator.

When Can I Change to the New CopyCense RSS Feed? You can make the change now. Just go to the right hand navigation column and click the icon for the new RSS feed. Follow the directions listed in the previous question.

How Long Will the Old Feed Remain Active? We will keep the old feed active until April 1, 2006. (The old RSS feed has the symbol next to it.) After April 1, all readers must subscribe to the new RSS feed to continue receiving CopyCense™ headlines and story summaries in their aggregators and newsreaders.

How Does This Affect the CopyCense™ E-Mail Service? It doesn’t. If you already receive CopyCense™ by e-mail (through FeedBlitz), you do not need to make any changes. Our technical staff will handle all the changes, and you should continue receiving your CopyCense™ updates regularly. New subscribers to the CopyCense’s FeedBlitz e-mail service automatically will be subscribed to the new RSS feed.

Questions? If you have any questions about this change, or any other aspect of CopyCense™, please feel free to contact us at copycense at g mail dot com.

K. Matthew Dames

CopyCense

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

“Knight Ridder, the second-largest newspaper company in the United States, agreed last night to sell itself for about $4.5 billion in cash and stock to the McClatchy Company, a publisher half its size, according to people involved in the negotiations.

“The deal, which is expected to be announced today, comes as the newspaper industry is gripped by uncertainty. Readers have begun to drift away from printed newspapers as their Web sites have experienced sharp gains in use.”

Katharine Q. Seelye & Andrew Ross Sorkin. Newspaper Chain Agrees to a Sale for $4.5 Billion. The New York Times. March 13, 2006.

See also:

Geraldine Fabrikant & Floyd Norris. Was Death of Newspapers Greatly Exaggerated, or Is Verdict Still Out? The New York Times. March 14, 2006.

Katharine Q. Seelye. McClatchy to Resell 12 Papers It’s Buying. The New York Times. March 14, 2006.

Jon Fine. McClatchy’s Big Bet on Old Media. BusinessWeek Online. March 14, 2006.

Matt Richtel. Hungry Media Companies Find a Meager Menu of Web Sites to Buy. The New York Times. March 13, 2006.

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

“A pair of apparent Ryan Adams fans ran afoul of a new law making it a crime to publish songs before their release to the general public when they made portions of the singer’s latest album available on a Web site frequented by his fans, federal authorities said Thursday.

“Robert Thomas of Milwaukee and Jared Bowser of Jacksonville, Fla., were indicted under a provision of the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act law that makes it a separate federal crime to pirate music and movies before they are released to the public, said a federal prosecutor and FBI agent.

“The indictments are believed to be the first under the prerelease provision of the 2005 FECA law.”

The Hollywood Reporter. Feds Bust Fans for Pirated Ryan Adams Tunes. News.com. March 10, 2006.

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