Intellectual Property Law

NSA Snooped on Innocent Americans' Private Calls from Iraq, Former Operators ChargeWired: Threat Level

Posted on October 09, 2008
The National Security Agency routinely listened in on the intimate and innocent phone calls of Americans in Iraq, including government personnel, journalists and aid workers, as they called back into the United States, according to two former NSA operators who spoke to ABC News...

Anonymity and the InternetZDNet Blogs

Posted on October 09, 2008
A case winding its way through a court in Pennsylvania attempts to pierce the veil of anonymity that protects web forum participants' ability to say whatever they want about public figures. Though I don't agree with the conclusions of the judge, I am not fan of anonymity of the Internet, as it tends to turn civil discourse into a "flame war...

Esbin?s Early History of the Net Neutrality Debate in U.S.The Technology Liberation Front

Posted on October 08, 2008
My colleague Barbara Esbin, a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Communications and Competition Policy at The Progress & Freedom Foundation, was asked to pen a short history of the net neutrality wars in the U.S. for a French publication, La Lettre de l?Autorité...

The PRO-IP Act and Movies and MusicLaw of the Game

Posted on October 08, 2008
This week's Law of the Game on Joystiq (link) covers the new PRO-IP Act as it applies to video games. As a sidenote to that column, I wanted to discuss my thoughts on the PRO-IP Act as it applies to movies and music, where I also think the Act is as much a detriment to producers as it is to consumers...

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10 Years Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act - Success or Failure?The Technology Liberation Front

Posted on October 08, 2008
It?s nearing Halloween, so it must mean the anniversary of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is just around the corner. In fact, it was 10 years ago, on Sunday, that Congress passed the DMCA, on October 12, 1998. The law was signed by President Clinton on October 28, 1998...

Esbin???s Early History of the Net Neutrality Debate in U.S.The Technology Liberation Front

Posted on October 08, 2008
My colleague Barbara Esbin, a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Communications and Competition Policy at The Progress & Freedom Foundation, was asked to pen a short history of the net neutrality wars in the U.S. for a French publication, La Lettre de l???Autorit??...

Michael Moore Intended to Flout Slacker Uprising?s International RightsMashable!

Posted on October 06, 2008
I don?t agree with Michael Moore over much, but for all his many jarring viewpoints, I find his approach to copyright and digital media surprisingly modern and refreshing. As Stan noted last month, Michael Moore decided to release the somewhat stale movie Slacker Uprising for free via download on the Internet: ?This is being done entirely as a gift to my fans,? Moore said...

Dozier Internet Law: The Internet?s loose legal cannonLIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®

Posted on October 06, 2008
They?re back: A Virginia lawyer used intimidation and bullying tactics, including spurious trademark infringement and defamation claims, to shut down a Web site that criticized him, Public Citizen argues in lawsuit filed against the lawyer and his firm...

Michael Moore Intended to Flout Slacker Uprising???s International RightsMashable!

Posted on October 06, 2008
I don???t agree with Michael Moore over much, but for all his many jarring viewpoints, I find his approach to copyright and digital media surprisingly modern and refreshing. As Stan noted last month, Michael Moore decided to release the somewhat stale movie Slacker Uprising??for free via download on the Internet: ???This is being done entirely as a gift to my fans,??? Moore said...

Dozier Internet Law: The Internet???s loose legal cannonLIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION??

Posted on October 06, 2008
They???re back: A Virginia lawyer used intimidation and bullying tactics, including spurious trademark infringement and defamation claims, to shut down a Web site that criticized him, Public Citizen argues in lawsuit filed against the lawyer and his firm...

???Watchmen??? Shows Messy Side of Super LifeNYT > Movies

Posted on October 06, 2008
Journalists were given an extended look at the movie, about the tawdry life of superheroes who have fallen from grace.

Supremes Mull Whether Bad Databases Make for Illegal SearchesWired: Threat Level

Posted on October 04, 2008
If a false entry in a database leads to a unconstitutional police search that reveals illegal drugs, does the government get to hold it against you? That's the question the Supreme Court will tackle on Tuesday in a case civil liberties groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center argue will have broad implications  in a world where we are constantly being evaluated against databases and watch lists that are riddled with frustratingly persistent errors...

Legal aspects of bloggingLIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®

Posted on October 03, 2008
General practice and other non-bloggy lawyers seeking an introduction to legal aspects of blogging can now get one, along with continuing legal education credit in California, Illinois and New York, from Lawline, the web-based CLE provider. The online introductory presentation, which in fact is called ?Legal Aspects of Blogging,? is given by the MBA?s [...

An Open Source Legal BreakthroughSlashdot: Your Rights Online

Posted on October 03, 2008
jammag writes "Open source advocate Bruce Perens writes in Datamation about a major court victory for open source: 'An appeals court has erased most of the doubt around Open Source licensing, permanently, in a decision that was extremely favorable toward projects like GNU, Creative Commons, Wikipedia, and Linux...

Pandora Music Box Remains OpenG4 TV - TheFeed

Posted on October 03, 2008
If anyone ever denied the existence of TEH internets god, this is all the proof you need. After almost facing an end to their excellent service, uber-leet internet radio site Pandora will now live longer for our listening pleasures, after Congress passed the Webcaster Settlement Act last night...

Fiction or Fiction: 750,000 American Jobs Lost to IP PiracyWired: Threat Level

Posted on October 03, 2008
Declaring that 750,000 Americans are out of work because of intellectual property piracy, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is urging President Bush to sign legislation creating a cabinet-level copyright czar to oversee expanded IP enforcement efforts...

Legal aspects of bloggingLIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION??

Posted on October 03, 2008
General practice and other non-bloggy lawyers seeking an introduction to legal aspects of blogging can now get one, along with continuing legal education credit in California, Illinois and New York, from Lawline, the web-based CLE provider. The online introductory presentation, which in fact is called ???Legal Aspects of Blogging,??? is given by the MBA???s [...

?Watchmen? Shows Messy Side of Super LifeNYT > Movies

Posted on October 02, 2008
Journalists were given an extended look at the movie, about the tawdry life of superheroes who have fallen from grace.

"Screw you guys, I'm going home"IPcentral Weblog

Posted on October 02, 2008
The Copyright Royalty Board is expected to set new compensation rates today for CDs and digital downloads - resulting in news that is a bit hard to take seriously. Various news outlets are reporting that Apple is threatening to shut down its iTunes store if faced with a royalty hike...

Right to Copy DVDs to PCs at Center of Copyright SpatWSJ.com: Law Blog - WSJ.com

Posted on October 01, 2008
DMCA junkies, start your engines. Once again, the movie industry is going after a new technology it believes violates copyright laws. The majors ? including Walt Disney, Warners, News Corp.?s Fox, Universal, Paramount and Sony ? are ganging up to sue RealNetworks Inc...

RIAA Lawsuit Campaign Losing CredibilityEFF.org Updates

Posted on October 01, 2008
San Francisco - Five years after the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) began its massive litigation campaign against music fans suspected of sharing copyrighted music files over the Internet, the campaign has failed to get artists paid or reduce peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing...

Links for 2008-09-09 [Digg]

Posted on September 30, 2008
Lawyers (and Legal Professionals) to Follow on Twitter A comprehensive list of legal professionals (lawyers, firms, academic, librarians) active on Twitter. Legal tweets galore...

Intellectual Property Laws and Government Security Threaten Science and KnowledgeThe Technology Liberation Front

Posted on September 30, 2008
If you find the title of this post provocative, you?ll be interested in a Cato Institute book forum on Friday, October 10th. In The Crime of Reason, Nobel laureate in physics Robert Laughlin argues that intellectual property laws and government security demands threaten the development of new knowledge...

Blawg Review #179Legal Blog Watch

Posted on September 29, 2008
The IP.Com team celebrates the 70th anniversary of the ballpoint pen by penning Blawg Review #179. Not surprisingly, this issue of Blawg Review focuses heavily on IP and patent-related posts. But if you don't follow those topics closely, you'll still...

IP bill passes Senate, no civil enforcement power for DoJ (Julian Sanchez/Ars Technica)Techmeme

Posted on September 27, 2008
Julian Sanchez / Ars Technica: IP bill passes Senate, no civil enforcement power for DoJ  ?  The PRO-IP Act, which would ramp up enforcement of intellectual property laws and stiffen penalties for infringers, won approval by unanimous consent in the Senate Friday?but only after legislators stripped out a controversial provision ?

Public Knowledge Warns of ?Grave Dangers? of Deep Packet InspectionPublic Knowledge - Blogging, Events, and Action Alerts

Posted on September 25, 2008
For Immediate Release: September 25, 2008 Public Knowledge President and Co-Founder Gigi B. Sohn today warned the Senate Commerce Committee of the privacy intrusion that occurs when Internet Service Providers (ISPs) inspect detailed customer information using a technique called Deep Packet Inspection (DPI)...

Heller?s First Amendment ? and the Extra Protection it Just Might Provide for Dada and SurrealismPrawfsBlawg

Posted on September 23, 2008
?It is often suggested we may be floating in a sea of radio messages from other civilizations, messages which we do not yet know how to decipher.?    (from the book, Godel, Escher, Bach) ?It's like a book elegantly bound, but in a language that you can't read just yet?(from the song, ?I Will Possess Your Heart?) These quotes ? respectively from computer scientist Douglas Hofstadter and the rock band Death Cab for Cutie ? were not, but could have been, about The Codex Seraphinianus...

Free Culture Conference 2008Public Knowledge - Blogging, Events, and Action Alerts

Posted on September 18, 2008
October 11, 2008 - 10:00am US/Pacific to October 12, 2008 - 6:30pm US/Pacific University of California, Berkeley Chevron Auditorium, International House 2299 Piedmont Ave Berkeley, CA Students for Free Culture is holding a conference for, and about, free culture, technology, copyright, remixing, and free software...

Comcast Officially Informs Customers Of The 250 GB Bandwidth Cap [Comcast]Consumerist

Posted on September 18, 2008
Reader Michael forwarded Comcast's official warning about the new 250 GB download cap that they've added (or rather, that they've now admitted to) in their Acceptable Use Policy. The cap has been in place for some time, but Comcast is just now getting around to telling everyone about it...

Copyright's Paradox: brilliantly argued scholarly book tackles free speech vs. copyrightBoing Boing

Posted on September 17, 2008
Among copyfighters, Neil Netanel is rightly hailed as one of the most important writers and thinkers in the field (he's one of the few people whose words are quoted on a photocopied sheet over one of the toilets at the Electronic Frontier Foundation!) and his latest book, Copyright's Paradox, cements that reputation...

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