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 [...]

Google finds cause in Righthaven appeal

Google has filed an amicus brief in the appeal of a Righthaven case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals arguing for flexibility in applying the fair use doctrine. The case under appeal pitted Righthaven against the Center for Intercultural Organizing over the Center’s posting of a Las Vegas Review-Journal article. -db From the [...]

Recording industry files amicus in Righthaven appeal

The Association of American Publishers and the Recording Industry Association of America are siding with Righthaven in its appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in an attempt to get an adverse ruling on fair use off the books. They claim in an amicus brief that it was an error to consider whether Righthaven [...]

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 [...]

Creator of Tyson face tattoo sues Warner Bros. for copyright violation

The creator of former boxer Mike Tyson’s tribal face tattoo has filed a copyright infringement suit against Warner Bros. who reproduced the tattoo on the face of an actor in the movie,” Hangover 2.” Writing in On Point, Matthew Heller says that although there are recent cases granting copyright protection to distinctive tattoos, this case [...]

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, [...]

Rights groups back Google in suit by company challenging Google’s use of trademarks to trigger AdWords ads

Several public interest groups are lining up for Google in its fight against a lawsuit by Rosetta Stone because they say the suit tries to silence competition and stifle criticism. -db Online Media Daily December 6, 2010 By Wendy Davis First Amendment advocates and digital rights groups have weighed in on Google’s side in a [...]

Copyright law: Poorly defined’ fair use’ argument spawns court action

Lawyers are getting lots of work interpreting ‘fair use” from filmmakers, artists and writers who want to pull something from another person’s work. -db Variety Commentary September 24, 2010 By Ted Johnson Hollywood is united in standing up to the proliferation of piracy, but there’s an area of copyright law that leaves the industry perpetually [...]

Law research center releases paper on news aggregating

The Citizen Media Law Center has released a white paper on hot news misappropriation and copyright infringement to suggest “best practices” for those aggregating the news. -db Citizen Media Law Center Press Release August 30, 2010 By Kimberley Isbell As anyone who has been following the debate regarding the “future of journalism” knows, there have [...]

Blogger sued for copying news article claims license provided for republication

A blogger sued by the Las Vegas Review-Journal for republishing one of its articles has argued that the newspaper gave him “implied license” to republish by encouraging readers to save links to the work and send the links to others. -db Online Media Daily August 18, 2010 By Wendy Davis A blogger sued for allegedly [...]

Free speech: Parodies of Hitler film clip run into copyright restrictions

The movie studio that made a 2004 film showing Adolf Hitler in a rage over the impending defeat of Nazi Germany is struggling to defend its copyright as parodies based on Hitler’s rage sprout on the Internet. db Free speech: Parodies of Hitler film clip run into copyright restrictions San Francisco Chronicle July 23, 2010 [...]

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 [...]

Online Hitler parodies suffer censorship

Constantin Film has used the Content I.D. filter provided by YouTube to remove the Hitler parodies regardless of whether they constitute “fair use.” -db Electronic Frontier Foundation Commentary April 20, 2010 By Corynne McSherry One the most enduring (and consistently entertaining) Internet memes of the past few years has been remixes of the bunker scene [...]

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 [...]

Will it Work?: New German proposal for copyright system to save journalism

Citizen Media Law Project blogger Arthur Bright argues that Germany’s proposal to charge for journalism content using a system similar to that used by the movie and music industries is fraught with difficulty and will only delay the inevitable. To survive, says Bright,  journalism must develop a workable business model. -DB Citizen Media Law Project [...]

Organization for digital rights establishes new website to attack internet censorship

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has established a website “Takedown Hall of Shame” to call attention to internet censorship through what they say are “bogus copyright claims or other legal threats.” -DB Electronic Frontier Foundaton Press Release October 27, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO – Websites like YouTube have ushered in a new era of creativity and free [...]

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 [...]

Associated Press taking hard line on use of its content

A.P. is adding new software to each of its articles to track how the article is used in an aggressive move to gain more profit from its stories. -DB The New York Times July 24, 2009 By Richard Perez-Pena Taking a new hard line that news articles should not turn up on search engines and Web [...]

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 [...]