Copyright Law

The (Second) William Patry Interview

Posted on September 02, 2009
Editor?s Note: Copycense executive editor K. Matthew Dames interviews William Patry a second time. (The first interview occurred in late 2006, and was published in 2007, the same year West Publishing released the multi-volume treatise Patry on Copyright...

Is Creative Commons Good for Copyright?

Posted on August 31, 2009
One of the beauties and frustrations of dealing with issues online is the immediate feedback loop and the possibility that such a loop amounts to little more than people talking at each other, rather than with each other. We experienced this last week, when we posted the following thoughts to our Twitter account (@copycense): Empirical question: [...

Copycense: The WIlliam Patry Interview

Posted on August 11, 2009
Editor’s Note: William F. Patry has a new book out entitled Moral Panics & The Copyright Wars (2009, Oxford University Press) [Amazon.com; Barnes & Noble; author’s book blog]. Patry, one of this nation’s foremost authorities on copyright, also is the author of the eight-volume treatise Patry on Copyright and serves as the senior copyright counsel [...

Your Copyright Responsibility As a Citizen

Posted on August 07, 2009
We have been extraordinarily busy lately, and therefore have yet to write on important issues like the Amazon Kindle situation. Yet, we felt compelled to write this entry after two occurrences over the past four days. In the first situation, several of the participants thanked us for leading a recent copyright training session...

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Two Years Later, We Still Cannot ?Free Jammie?

Posted on July 02, 2009
In October 2007, we wrote in these digital pages an article entitled “Should We Still ‘Free Jammie’?” The article’s title referred to a then-existing campaign to elevate Jammie Thomas-Rasset (then Jammie Thomas) to political prisoner status because she lost at trial after being sued by several record companies for copyright infringement...

Copyright for the Boulevard & the Bourgeoisie

Posted on June 22, 2009
Here at Copycense, we have been investigating our editorial and business models in light of several changes in the way we provide information about copyright, content, media, and information policy to our audience, as well as several changes in the way copyright information is made available online...

Why the Frame of ?Piracy? Matters

Posted on June 17, 2009
“Since the U.S. Navy rescued Capt. Richard Phillips in April, many news outlets have been writing about piracy. Interestingly, some news outlets have raised an important question about ?piracy? as a term: In light of the ongoing (and newly newsworthy) threat of violence on the high seas, should ?piracy? continue to be used to mean [...

Foreign Affairs As The New Copyright Law, Part 3 of 3

Posted on June 09, 2009
[Editor’s Note: This is final part of a three-part series on the intersection of trade agreements, foreign affairs, and U.S. copyright law. Part 1 was published in Copycense on May 27; Part 2 was published on June 2.] In this article, I focus on proposed legislation in Congress that would make copyright (and other intellectual property [...

Foreign Affairs As The New Copyright Law, Part 2 of 3

Posted on June 02, 2009
[Editor’s Note: This is the second of a three-part series on the intersection of trade agreements, foreign affairs, and U.S. copyright law. Part 1 was published on May 28; Part 3 will be published on Tuesday, June 9. Portions of this work are included in a continuing study about the framing of “piracy” and its [...

Foreign Affairs As The New Copyright Law, Part 1 of 3

Posted on May 28, 2009
[Editor’s Note: This is the first of a three-part series on the intersection of trade agreements, foreign affairs, and U.S. copyright law. Portions of this part were published previously as Dames, K. Matthew (2007). Trade Agreements as the New Copyright Law, Online, 31(2), 16-21...

Refuting Mark Helprin?s Views on Copyright

Posted on May 12, 2009
Normally, this post would be something best left to someone like William Patry, whose credentials on copyright are above reproach. Lawrence Lessig has responded to Helprin in a contemporary and ingenious way, but Lessig’s main focus now has moved from intellectual property matters to what he has called “corruption” (and what Harvard Law School, his [...

When All See The Same Picture

Posted on April 28, 2009
Earlier this week, The New York Times has published an extensive feature article on Secretary of the Treasury Timothy F. Geithner. The crux of the article essentially questions Geithner’s judgment and decisions in light of his cozy relationship with the financial industry during his tenure as president of the Federal Bank of New York...

Copycense in The New York Times

Posted on April 23, 2009
Copycense and its executive editor, K. Matthew Dames, have been noted by The New York Times’ Freakonomics blog for our two-year coverage of the misuse of the term “piracy” in connection with intellectual property. The Freakonomics blog also cites Dames’ working paper of the history of the term piracy, both in the English language and [...

The Etymology of Piracy

Posted on April 21, 2009
In light of the U.S. Navy’s rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips on Easter, many news outlets understandably are interested in writing about piracy. Interestingly, some news outlets have raised an important question about “piracy” as a term: in light of the ongoing (and newly news-worthy) threat of violence at high sea, should “piracy” continue to [...

An Important Tweet?

Posted on April 20, 2009
We presume Twitter is devoid of any seriousness, but we realized we unintentionally opened a can of thorny theoretical and doctrinal questions last week when we posted the following rhetorical question (or, rather, something quite similar) to our account: Is copyright an exception to the public domain, or is the public domain is an exception to [...

Copycense on Twitter

Posted on April 17, 2009
Yes, we’re even more shocked than you are that we’ve (a) set up a Twitter account; and (b) are actually using said account. In truth, however, we have been mulling the editorial direction of Copycense for some time. (i.e. Do we still do news, since so many others do it? Do we continue with pithy short [...

Girl Talk As Fair Use Martyr

Posted on March 12, 2009
We saw today on the Creative Generalist blog a post about a film entitled Rip! A Remix Manifesto. The film, according to the Open Source Cinema Web site, is “an open source documentary about copyright and remix culture. Created over a period of six years, the film features the collaborative remix work of hundreds of [...

The Associated Press? Copyright Issue with Bloggers

Posted on June 17, 2008
Last week, the Associated Press issued several DMCA takedown notices on a Web site called Workbench, claiming the site had infringed its copyright when it posted ledes and titles from a handful of AP stories. The Associated Press, which is a cooperative owned by more than 1,000 newspapers, which contribute content to the collective and use content from it...

Alleged Copyright Infringer Left in Solitary Confinement

Posted on April 21, 2008
A woman who was arrested on allegations she sold illegal music compact discs was jailed last month and left by law enforcement authorities in solitary confinement for more than four days. The woman, Adriana Torres-Flores, 38, of Springdale, Arkansas, was left without food, toilet facilities, or sleeping facilities...

The Downside of Downloads

Posted on April 08, 2008
The news cycle has been abuzz about digital music and iTunes' ascendance to a position as the country's leading music retailer. Likewise, the mainstream press has continued to feed its desire for an iTunes-Amazon.com octagon-style retail death match, and steadily has been promoting Amazon...

Frosty Freeze

Posted on April 04, 2008
Wayne Frost, known in the hip hop world as Frosty Freeze, died April 3 in New York City. He was 44 years years old. For decades, Frost had been a member of the seminal break dance troupe Rock Steady Crew, which formed in the Bronx in 1977. People unfamiliar with hip hop instead may remember him as one of the break dancers whose routine became part of the penultimate performance for Jennifer Beals' character in the 1983 film Flashdance...

On Its Birthday, Superman Returns to Papa

Posted on March 31, 2008
Right before the Man of Steel celebrates its 70th birthday, a federal court judge has ruled (.pdf) that the heirs of Superman co-creator Jerome Siegel could claim an ownership share of the character's domestic copyright. The ruling vests in Siegel's heirs ownership in the first Superman comic, Detective Comics' Action Comics No...

Pause for the Cause

Posted on March 06, 2008
Due to an unusually heavy February, we have been unable to post in the manner to which you (and we) have become accustomed. We promise to return to regular coverage as soon as possible. Copycense?: Incisive IP.?

America?s Lagging Broadband Access

Posted on February 08, 2008
Educause. A Blueprint for Big Broadband. (.pdf) January 2008. America’s standing in global broadband access and speed continues to plummet, and American consumers continue to pay more per capita for slower and less available broadband. (See data from the Organisation for Economic Co?operation and Development for more information...

Site Check 2.04

Posted on February 07, 2008
Primer on Copyright Liability and Fair Use. A quick and dirty guide on copyright provided by the Citizen Media Law Project. Categories: Bundle of Rights; Fair Use & Other Exceptions. Music Download Warning List. The Center for Democracy & Technology publishes a list of Web sites that promise lots of music, but deliver much less because [...

Sweden?s Action Against Pirate Bay

Posted on February 07, 2008
Anna Ringstrom. Sweden to Charge Pirate Bay in Copyright Case. Yahoo! News. Jan. 28, 2008. Sweden’s involvement in enforcement efforts on the entertainment industry’s behalf is related directly to the Special 301 process and Sweden’s fear of being placed on a priority list (penalties for which include trade sanctions)...

Yahoo Pulls Its Music Subscription Service

Posted on February 06, 2008
“The [music subscription] services also have to overcome a conceptual hurdle with many consumers. Most music fans want something tangible when they buy songs. Subscription services, however, are like cable TV: They sell access to entertainment, not packaged goods...

Film Industry?s ?Piracy? Error

Posted on February 04, 2008
Yahoo! News (via The Associated Press). MPAA Admits Mistake on Downloading Study. Jan. 23, 2008; Inside Higher Ed. Downloading by Students Overstated. Jan. 23, 2008; Association for Computing Machinery. MPAA?s Data Oops: How Will Congress React? Jan. 23, 2008; News Blog (News...

Canadian Lobbyists Discuss Copyright Reform

Posted on February 04, 2008
On Copyright Reform. (.mp3) The Ottawa Citizen sponsors an hour-long debate on copyright reform in Canada. Lots of shouting and interrupting, but may be worthwhile listening if you want to hear frustrated content industry discuss the state of their nation...

European Union Rejects ISP Filtering

Posted on February 04, 2008
Jon Stokes. Proposed EU ISP Filtering and Copyright Extension Shot Down. ArsTechnica. Jan. 22, 2008. Just as AT&T begins considering filtering on its network for alleged copyright infringement violations, the European Union decides not to allow it for now on ISP networks in member countries...

Press Misreports Another IP Story

Posted on February 01, 2008
Public Knowledge. Don’t Trust the Media to Get Copyright Right: Scrabulous Coverage Scores Few Points. Jan. 22, 2008. Often, we have taken the press to task for its frequently errant and one-sided coverage of intellectual property issues. When IP was a backwater issue, poor (and sometimes inaccurate) coverage was a problem, but was not evident...

Testing the DMCA ?Safe Harbor?

Posted on February 01, 2008
Nate Anderson. Warner Sues “Playable Search Engine,” Tests DMCA Safe Harbor. ArsTechnica. Jan. 25, 2008. Warner Bros. trots out all the goodies in its 57-page complaint (.pdf) that alleges copyright infringement by search engine SeeqPod. One of the ways in which SeeqPod tries to differentiate itself is by providing links to music or video files [...

Compulsory Licensing Discussed at CES

Posted on February 01, 2008
Eric Bangeman. Debating Copyright Reform: Time for Compulsory Licenses? ArsTechnica. Jan. 21, 2008. Ars reports on a copyright panel convened at the Consumer Electronics Show entitled Washington, Intellectual Property and Your Living Room, which was moderated by Ars editor Kenneth Fisher...

Site Check 2.03

Posted on January 31, 2008
The Library of Congress Photos. LoC gets social with a 3,000 image contribution to Flickr … and leaves it to the public to do the classifying. On Copyright Reform. (.mp3) The Ottawa Citizen sponsors an hour-long debate on copyright reform in Canada...

Copyright?s Preemptive Effects

Posted on January 31, 2008
QuestionCopyright.org. Musicians Censoring Themselves. Jan. 21, 2008. We have to agree: when people interested in the performing arts discontinue sharing their craft because of copyright concerns — legitimate or not — it is time for a change...

Why the Wireless Spectrum Auction Matters

Posted on January 31, 2008
Paul Davidson. Google Could Cause a Stir in FCC’s Airwaves Auction. USAToday.com. Jan. 24, 2008. This story, and the coverage at InfoWorld, provide good introductions to the wireless spectrum auction and how it may affect everyday people. The airwaves that the Federal Communication Commission is auctioning are the leftover spectrum that will be made available [...

The Shrinking DVD Reissue Market

Posted on January 31, 2008
Gordon Cairns. Boxed Sets Exhaust Back Catalogue. Sunday Herald (Scotland). Jan. 28, 2008. The Herald is a new addition to Clippings, and its coverage of the UK DVD market suggests the film industry is beginning to feel the decay from which the music industry has suffered...

ICANN Seeks Separation From U.S. Government

Posted on January 31, 2008
BBC News. Net Body Issues Plea for Liberty. Jan. 24, 2008. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN) likely is the most important quasi-government agency about which most Web users know nothing. It is, however, a critically important organization whose core mission — coordinating the Internet’s domain name system — essentially runs the [...

Revamping the Copyright Registration System

Posted on January 30, 2008
Dan Heller’s Photography Business Blog. Proposal for Privatizing the Copyright Registration Process. Jan. 21, 2008. Citing other instances of government outsourcing — including U.S. Postal Service allowing Mail Boxes Etc. and other commercial mail receiving agencies to manage mail delivery and pickup — Heller suggests that the U...

African-Americans & Intellectual Property

Posted on January 30, 2008
“One way to look at plaintiff’s difficulties here is as further evidence of the disproportionate difficulties African-Americans have had in getting the benefits of IP protection.” — Rebecca Tushnet. 43(B)log. Strikeout: Baseball Player’s Claim Against Cards Fails...

DRM Is Not Inherently Evil

Posted on January 30, 2008
Bill Board (BBC News.) Locking Down Open Computing. Jan. 28, 2008. BBC columnist Bill Thompson discusses copyright restriction technologies and digital rights management, and points to examples where both technologies have been implemented fairly. Most importantly, he positions them as benign technologies that only are as fair or onerous as their implementer intends them to [...

Google?s Alternative to Domain Tasting

Posted on January 30, 2008
SiliconValley.com (via The Associated Press). Google Cuts Ad Incentives for Domain Name Tasting. Jan. 26, 2008. Last week, we wrote about the “domain tasting” phenomenon and Network Solutions’ poor policy choice to eliminate that fraudulent practice...

P2P Tracking Companies As Investigators

Posted on January 30, 2008
Jeremy Kirk. Antipiracy Group’s Tactics Violate Swiss Law. InfoWorld. Jan. 25, 2008. This is another novel theory of the privacy issues that are raised when the music industry uses private firms to track file sharing networks for alleged copyright infringement...

Copycense Clippings (Jan. 22, 2008 to Jan. 28, 2008)

Posted on January 29, 2008
Some readers have informed us they appreciate Clippings’ incisive, retrospective commentary about the week in copyright and digital media, but have suggested that we break out some of our longer passages into distinct entries. Doing so, they have argued, will make certain longer entries easier to read, and will ensure that our readers can link [...

Wu on AT&T?s Filtering Proposal

Posted on January 28, 2008
Tim Wu. Has AT&T Lost Its Mind? Slate. Jan. 16, 2008. Columbia law professor Wu rhetorically poses the obvious question in response to news that AT&T is considering proposals to filter content, ostensibly to halt alleged copyright infringement...

Colleges Clarify Electronic Reserve Policies

Posted on January 25, 2008
Christina Hernandez. Colleges to Copyright Electronic Material. Newsday. Jan. 20, 2008. The Newsday editors’ headline reflects a misunderstanding of the issues, and (if he was quoted correctly) AAP representative Adler engages in a rhetorical stretch when he claims all three schools established their guidelines “in conjunction with” AAP...

Software Lobby ?Settlement?

Posted on January 25, 2008
Larry Barrett. Publishing Company Settles Software Suit With SIIA. Internetnews.com. Jan. 18, 2008. We find it interesting that while SIIA promotes that it will pay informants up to $1 million to snitch on others for alleged copyright infringement, the lobbying group (which counts among its membership Bloomberg, Dow Jones, Reed Elsevier, and Copyright Clearance Center) [...

Seinfelds Sued for Infringement Over Cookbook

Posted on January 25, 2008
Julie Hilden. Seinfeld Sued: Will “Sneaky Chef” Author Missy Chase Lapine Succeed In Her Suit Against Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld? FindLaw. Jan. 15, 2008. We reported on Jessica Seinfeld’s cookbook back in October. Now the inevitable lawsuit (...

Copyrightable Pyramids?

Posted on January 25, 2008
Steven Stanek. Can Egypt Copyright the Pyramids? National Geographic News. Jan. 15, 2008. We are sympathetic to Egypt’s attempt to preserve some of its greatest artifacts, especially since so many of them have left the country (in many cases under questionable circumstances)...

Site Check 2.02

Posted on January 24, 2008
Editor's Note: Site Check is a special section that shares with our audience noteworthy Web sites or user-generated content. Previously, a part of our weekly Copycense Clippings coverage, Site Check now is a special section that appears on Thursdays...

Copyright as a Human Right

Posted on January 23, 2008
If there’s any single writer that can make copyright humorous, it is William Patry. When describing the push to equate copyright (a relatively minor issue in the broader scheme of world affairs) with human rights (an extraordinarily important issue), Patry comments with typical sarcasm: “I confess to being moved to tears by European human rights [...

UK Youth Think Copyright Regimes Are Unfair

Posted on January 23, 2008
“Surveys reveal that both adults and children (aged 12-15) have very high levels of awareness and understanding of the basic principles of intellectual property. However, young people feel that copyright regimes are unfair and unjust and a big age gap is opening up...

Berman Leaving House Committee

Posted on January 23, 2008
Brooks Boliek. Berman to Exit Çopyright Role. The Hollywood Reporter. Jan. 15, 2008. California Rep. Howard Berman‘s likely departure to chair the House Committee on Foreign Affairs would leave an opening atop the House committee that is responsible for considering intellectual property legislation...