Opnion: The Stop Online Piracy Act would would adversely affect journalists

If passed in its present form, the Stop Online Piracy Act would subject articles to censorship in blocking articles from appearing on sites accused of piracy, writes Jessica Ray for 10,000 Words. Even if one site contained content deemed illegal, the entire site could be blocked. Internet innovation and creativity would also take a hit. [...]

U.S. Supreme Court urged to protect free speech in case over copyright law

The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the U.S Supreme Court to rescind a law passed by Congress in 1994 that granted copyright protection to books, movies and music previously in the public domain. The ACLU has filed a brief arguing that the First Amendment should not permit Congress to end the public’s right to [...]

Righthaven may have filed its last copyright infringement suit

The controversial copyright  troll, Righthaven, has not filed a lawsuit in two months after punishing court rulings against the company. The firm began over a year ago supposedly to buy copyrights from news media and file suits to stop copyright infringements. Although Righthaven is appealing the court decisions that held that it had no legal [...]

First Amendment privacy rights lose in federal appeals court

The recording industry won a round in federal court when the court ruled that the industry had the right to know the identities of alleged peer-to-peer copyright violators. -db Wired April 30,2010 By David Kravets A federal appeals court is blessing the legal process by which the recording industry and other content owners unmask the [...]

Seattle: Photographer falls into legal soup with photo of public art

You would think that a sculpture commissioned with public funds and displayed in a public place could be photographed and the photo published, but Mike Hipple found himself sued by the sculptor who claims the exclusive right to reproduce the work and create derivative work from it. -db Suffolk Media Law Commentary February 17, 2010 By [...]

Tickets may carry additional price tag – your rights to free expression

A senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation says that event planners have used contract law to restrict the rights of their patrons to avoid the limits of trademarks and copyright law. -db Electronic Frontier Foundation Commentary February 5, 2010 By Corynne McSherry As part of our Terms of Ab(use) project, we pay close attention [...]

Stifling criticism: Ralph Lauren concedes on attempted copyright takedown

A blog called Boing Boing won a battle against Ralph Lauren that began when it attacked a Ralph Lauren ad that it felt presented distorted images of women’s bodies, reprinting the ad at issue. Lauren countered with accusations that the blog violated copyright in printing the ad which contained a  photo and sent DMCA a [...]

New laws proposed to save newspaper industry

In the face of the shrinking revenues for print journalism, some are suggesting new laws, including ones that would restrict linking and that would create a federal law enshrining the “hot news” doctrine. -DB MediaShift July 21, 2009 By Jeffrey D. Neuburger As newsroom staffs continue to shrink and newspapers go out of business at [...]