Intellectual Property Law

Copyright News: PRO-IP law, RIAA setback, DMCA rulemaking

By Brian Wm. Higgin

Copyright

• On October 13, 2008, President Bush signed into law P.L. 110-403, the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008 (also known as the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act or PRO-IP Act). The law creates a cabinet-level position entitled “Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator”, a.k.a. the Copyright Czar, who will “report directly to the president and Congress regarding domestic international intellectual property enforcement programs.” The Czar will have the responsibility of implementing a nationwide plan to combat piracy (sources: Wired; Counterfeit Chic; GovTracks; Copyright Office)
   
• For more information about the new enforcement law, visit these previous posts:  link1, link2, link3
   
• Minnesota U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis overturned a $222,000 judgment against Jammie Thomas, mother of three, after finding he erroneously instructed jurors prior to deliberations that they could find copyright infringement on the basis that Thomas made copyrighted music recordings available on a popular file sharing network.  Davis’ decision means that the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) copyright infringement litigation campaign, now totaling over 30,000 lawsuits, has never been successful at trial (source: Wired)
   
• The RIAA reportedly labeled a Texas Tech college student "vexatious" after she refused to pay music record labels $7,400 for allegedly infringing 37 songs on a popular file sharing network (source: Wired)
   
• The Copyright Office announced a new rulemaking under the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) concerning the authority of the Librarian of Congress to exempt certain classes of works from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works (17 U.S.C. 1201(a)(1)(c)). The purpose of the rulemaking is to determine whether there are particular classes of works as to which users are, or are likely to be, adversely affected in their ability to make noninfringing uses due to the prohibition on circumvention (source: Copyright Office)

Full post as published by Maryland Intellectual Property Law Blog on October 22, 2008 (boomark / email).