EFF wants protection for anonymous in porn-downloading suit

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is petitioning a federal judge to protect the anonymity of individuals involved in a copyright lawsuit over porn downloading. An adult film company wants to determine the identities of 1495 Internet users. The judge ordered the individuals suing to protect their anonymity to reveal their identities before the suit could proceed. [...]

Opinion: Supreme Court decision on copyright of foreign works a blow to free speech

The U.S. Supreme Court extended copyright protection to foreign works created from 1023 to 1989 and already in the public domain thereby shutting down creative uses of these works to protect profits of the owners of old works. The overall result, argues Ken Paulson of the First Amendment Center, is a loss of free speech. [...]

Justice Department shuts down popular file-sharing site in criminal copyright case

In a criminal copyright case, the Justice Department shut down Megaupload, executed search warrants , arrested some executives and seized $50 worth of assets. The Justice Department claimed that Megaupload violated copyrights of movies, “often before their theatrical release, music, television programs, electronic books, and business and entertainment software on a massive scale.” -db From [...]

Senate majority leader stalls Internet piracy legislation

In a victory for the technology industry, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid postponed a vote on the Protect IP Act, the online piracy bill before the Senate. In effect, Congress is going back to the drawing board to balance intellectual property rights with openness and innovation on the Internet. -db From Wired, January 20, 2012, [...]

Sony/ATV sues karaoke distributor for copyright infringement

In retaliation for being sued by a major karaoke distributor in California federal court for disrupting the karaoke marketplace, Sony/ATV went to Nashville to sue KTS Karaoke for copyright infringement. Sony/ATV wants greater compensation in a complicated system of multiple rights and forms of payments but is now suing for damages, an injunction and a [...]

U.S. Supreme Court backs 1994 law granting copyright protection to foreign works

Rejecting arguments that a 1994 law complying with an international treaty violated U.S. copyright law and free speech rights, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-2 to extend copyright protection to foreign works. Google was among those against the law, but the government said that foreign works should receive the same treatment as domestic works under [...]

Citizen Media Law Project offers resources on online piracy laws

The Citizen Media Law Project is providing access to information on the SOPA and PIPA, the online piracy bills before Congress, and also to links for summaries and commentaries on the laws. -db From the Citizen Media Law Project,  January 18, 2012, by CMLP Staff. Full story

Website blackouts to protest online piracy laws called success

The blackout of websites, including BoingBoing, Reddit and Wikipedia, to protest the online piracy laws before Congress was successful in igniting opposition against the laws writes Ian Paul in PCWorld. Paul says that there were 2.4 million tweets on the topic during the first 16 hours on Wednesday and that the Los Angeles Times reported [...]

Balance sought in fight over bills to stop Internet piracy

With copyright protection established in the U.S. Constitution and free speech in the Bill of Rights, it is vital to honor each in the fight over the new online piracy bills currently before Congress says Ken Paulson of the First Amendment Center. It will be a difficult task to craft a law that intercepts pirated [...]

New journalism licensing group plans moderate aproach to protecting copyrights

Formed by 29 media companies, NewRight plans to act as a clearing house for content produced by major journalism ventures including the Associated Press, Hearst Newspapers, The New York Times Company and The Washington Post Company. NewsRight wants to sign up aggregators to see if they are willing to pay for news. -db From a [...]

Online piracy legislation stalls in Congress

It now appears now that Congressional bills to protect copyright on the Internet will be embroiled in a long, intense struggle even as President Barack Obama declared his opposition to key elements of the bills. The technology industry opposes the bills out of concern that they will stifle free speech and innovation. -db From The [...]

Nevada State Bar checks out Righthaven

The Nevada State Bar is investigating Righthaven’s chief executive and two lawyers who  worked for the company. Righthaven was founded to sue blogs and websites for re-posting newspaper articles without permission. The company initially collected several thousand dollars by threatening to sue but slumped after failing to prevail in any of the cases contested in [...]

News media establish company to protect content

Twenty-nine news companies are forming NewsRight, a for-profit enterprise, to protect copyrighted content and to seek fees in cases of unauthorized use of content. NewsRight intends to avoid the errors of Righthaven, the so-called copyright troll, who suffered devastating defeats in the courts caused by its shoddy practices. -db From MediaPost, January 5, 2012, by [...]

Federal appeals court rules records in Apple case open to public

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that  court documents in case brought by Apple against a maker of Mac computer clones were public. Apple claimed that the documents contained “compelling trade secrets”  about the Mac OS X operating system. -db From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, January 6, 2012, by [...]

Federal judge rules Kodak not have to police for copyright infringement

A federal judge ruled that Photobucket.com, Kodab’s photo-sharing website, does not have to examine some 9 billion images for possible copyright infringement. -db From the Courthouse News Service, January 5, 2012, by Adam Klasfeld. Full story

Opinion: EFF refutes arguments for online piracy legislation

The Electronic Freedom Foundation takes on what it says are distortions of the positions taken by those opposing the online piracy legislation recently introduced in both houses of Congress. While acknowledging that the tech industry recognizes the importance of copyright as it applies to the Internet, writes Trevor Timm for EFF, the Digital Millennium Copyright [...]

Lawmakers propose alternative to entertainment industry-backed online piracy bill

Congressional critics of the entertainment industry-backed online piracy law have introduced a bill that would change existing trade laws to reflect that illegally downloading copyright content from foreign-owned web sites would constitute foreign imports. That would allow the International Trade Commission the power to decide if the imports violated intellectual property rights. The critics say [...]

Exec says to expect some give from entertainment industry on antipiracy legislation

An executive with the Motion Picture Association said that he expects there to be changes in the Stop Online Piracy Act and its senate version in the wake of the clash between the entertainment and technology industries. The executive indicated that the entertainment  industry wanted to address some of the legitimate concerns of the technology [...]

Opinion: Righthaven overstepped but protection for newspapers still vital

Righthaven’s methods in pursuing copyright violations turned out to be bogus and unfair resulting in its bankruptcy, but, says Jeffrey D. Neuburger in MediaShift, it would be too bad if the company did not survive long enough to pursue appeals lest newspapers lose ground in receiving just compensation for their work. -db From a commentary [...]

Federal judge rules critic of international spiritual organization can remain anonymous

A federal district judge in San Jose ruled that a blogger does not have to reveal his identity to the Art of Living Foundation that promotes spirituality lessons of Ravi Shankar. The blogger had published criticisms of the foundation along with one of  their manuals, an act that the foundation said infringed its copyright. The [...]

Sponsor of online piracy bill voices concerns over censorship issues

Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Lamar Smith R-Texas, expressed concerns over the scope of the Stop Online Piracy Act by saying that he was uncertain whether the Justice Department should be allowed to obtain court orders demanding that ISPs prevent users from visiting blacklisted websites, websites accused of infringing on intellectual property. Under [...]

Opinion: Internet community suffers double whammy over exclusion from House online piracy hearing

The webcast of the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA was of such poor quality that the Internet community was effectively shut out until the question and answer period. The community is also concerned that the committee is only asking one representative of the technology sector to testify. -db [...]

If passed Online Piracy Act likely to face court challenges

Legislation backed by the entertainment industry to protect copyrights by stopping online piracy , the Stop Online Piracy Act, has support in Congress. But powerful interests including Google are poised to challenge the law if passed. -db From a commentary for the First Amendment Center, November 17, 2011, by David L. Hudson Jr. Full story [...]

France limits citizen posting of police misconduct

France is shutting down citizen access to a website that allows posting of videos of police misconduct. It is the latest effort to limit online speech. The latest attack on transparency came two years after an Amnesty International report that the country does a poor job of investigating police killings, beatings and racial abuse. -db [...]

Copyright troll Righthaven faces shutdown

A federal court in Nevada has given United States marshals authorization to seize over $63,000. in cash and/or assets from Righthaven. The Las Vegas copyright troll failed to pay a court judgment from August 15. Righthaven tried to make an enterprise out of suing bloggers over copied newspaper articles, but it was revealed in court [...]

Anti-piracy bill pits free speech rights against copyright interests

A bipartisan anti-piracy bill introduced in the House of Representatives has the backing of the entertainment industry who want to expel copyright-infringing web sites from the Internet. Internet companies and digital rights groups say the bill is heavy handed and poses a serious threat to free speech and innovation. -db From CNet News, October 26, [...]

Creditor moves to seize Righthaven assets

A man awarded legal fees for defending himself against a Righthaven copyright lawsuit asked a judge to authorize  U.S. Marshalls to seize Righthaven’s bank accounts, property and other assets. Righthaven missed the deadline to pay the $34,000 in fees. Righthaven CEO Steve Gibson said his firm would be vindicated for suing the man who had [...]

MediaNews, Denver Post drop copyright troll Righthaven

The CEO of MediaNews Group declared it “a dumb idea” to sign up with the copyright troll Righthaven. Righthaven was founded over a year ago to make money by buying copyrights from news outlets then suing for copyright infringement. Courts have recently ruled that the Righthaven agreements with the media did not actually result in [...]

Copyright: IHOP sues church ministry for co-opting IHOP trademark

After dropping a similar suit in California in January, IHOP the restaurant chain is filing a new suit in Kansas City against the International House of Prayer (IHOP). IHOP the restaurant started to use the initials in 1973 and said it must protect its trademark with 45 of its 1500 restaurants in Missouri. From The [...]

Buzzfeed initiating class action suit against Righthaven

Righthaven is stubbornly digging in as Buzzfeed files a counter claim against them for faulty lawsuits. Buzzfeed is arguing that Righthavens suits, filed after news outlets transfer the right to sue to Righthaven to exact monetary damages, are an “abuse of process”. Mike Masnick writes in TechDirt, “After documents were unsealed that show that the [...]

Judge issues devastating critique of Righthaven copyright business

In ruling against Righthaven in their suit against an Oregon nonprofit who posted an immigration article from the Las Vegas Review Journal, a U.S. District Court judge wrote, “[Righthaven's] litigation strategy has a chilling effect on potential fair uses of Righthaven-owned articles, diminishes public access to the facts contained therein, and does nothing to advance [...]

Media lawyer analyzes impact of Righthaven copyright lawsuits

In a thorough analysis of the Righthaven enterprise, Jeffrey D. Neuburger, a lawyer specializing in technology and media business, says it is not likely that Righthaven litigation will significantly curtail the re-posting of online news content with links to the source. But the likelihood is getting sued by Righthaven for copyright violations is real so, [...]

Lady Gaga goes to extreme on photo copyright demands

Pop stars routinely limit photojournalists at concerts imposing rules including allowing only three shots, forbidding flashes, and pushing them far from the stage, but Lady Gaga has gone to the extreme by demanding ownership of the shots. From her Photo Release Form: “Photographer hereby acknowledges and agrees that all right, title and interest (including copyright) [...]

Videogame maker sued for appropriating likeless of college football player

A former college football player filed a lawsuit on the grounds that his likeness in a videogame was misappropriated, that the game-maker Electronic Arts used his image for commercial gain without his permission. In supporting Electronic Arts, the entertainment industry wants to limit celebrities’ intellectual property rights. A  lawyer for Electronic Arts said that films [...]

Righthaven plans to stop suing for excerpts from news articles

Righthaven, the company of lawyers that sues blogs and websites for posting articles from client newspapers, has announced it would no longer sue when the posting constitutes an excerpt. -db Wired November 18, 2010 By David Kravets Copyright troll Righthaven this week promised to narrow its lawsuit campaign in the face of a courtroom defeat, [...]

News service settles suit brought by Dow Jones over copyright violations

The financial news service Briefing.com admitted violating copyright law by copying over 100 stories from Dow Jones and paid an undisclosed substantial penalty. -db The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press November 17, 2010 By Rosemary Lane Financial news service Briefing.com settled a lawsuit with Dow Jones & Co. last week after the website [...]

Copyright ‘troll’ seeks $150,000 from Republican candidate

A copyright enforcement service has filed a lawsuit seeking $150,000 from Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle for posting two newspaper articles without authorization. The Register September 8, 2010 By Dan Goodin A copyright enforcement service has filed a lawsuit seeking $150,000 from Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle for posting two newspaper articles without [...]

Copyright enforcement concern signs up second newspaper chain

Righthaven, a company that sues bloggers who repost news content without prermission, has expanded its operation to a second newspaper chain, the Arkansas-based WEHCO Media. -db Wired August 30, 2010 By David Kravets A Las Vegas company established to sue bloggers who clip news content is expanding its operations to a second newspaper chain. Righthaven [...]

Federal judge not fooled by differing demon Spawn

Coraline and Stardust author Neil Gaiman is owed royalties for three more characters that appeared in artist Todd McFarlane’s classic Spawn comic book series, a federal judge has ruled. News August 3, 2010 By The Associated Press MADISON, Wis. — U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled last week that the demon Dark Ages Spawn and [...]

Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age

At Rhode Island College, a freshman copied and pasted from a Web site’s frequently asked questions page about homelessness — and did not think he needed to credit a source in his assignment because the page did not include author information. The New York Times News August 2, 2010 By Trip Gabriel At DePaul University, [...]

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