Creative Librarian » Copyright

Copyright

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Free copyright license upheld Fed Circuit Court of Appeals: Free copyright license upheld Fed Circuit Court of Appeals - Boing Boing
In non-technical terms, the Court has held that free licenses such as the CC licenses set conditions (rather than covenants) on the use of copyrighted work. When you violate the condition, the license disappears, meaning you’re simply a copyright infringer. This is the theory [...]

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Lawyer Exposes RIAA’s Legal Bullying: Recording Industry vs. The People
The Judges’ Journal, the quarterly publication of the Judicial Division of the American Bar Association, invited the author of this blog to write an article for its “Equal Access to Justice” edition.
I of course accepted the invitation, and submitted an article, entitled “Large Recording Companies vs. The Defenseless : Some Common [...]

Friday, July 11, 2008

Neil Gaiman: giving away ebooks sold my print boo: Neil Gaiman: giving away ebooks sold my print books - Boing Boing
Neil Gaiman and his publisher have published the results of their free online release of his novel American Gods earlier this year — the conclusion? Giving away ebooks for free sold books:

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Simply Audiobooks webstore to carry DRM-free Random House Audio downloads: Simply Audiobooks webstore to carry DRM-free Random House Audio downloads - Boing Boing
Simply Audiobooks — an excellent audiobook retailer in Toronto — has launched an online store selling all of Random House’s DRM-free downloadable titles. Random House is one of the many audiobook publishers that wants to give up on DRM, but they’ve been thrwarted [...]

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Audiobook downloads with no DRM or watermarks from Naxos: Audiobook downloads with no DRM or watermarks from Naxos - Boing Boing
Naxos produces fantastic, professionally read audiobooks of contemporary and classic lit — and they distribute them on CD and as DRM-free, watermark-free MP3s. Basically, this is a company that assumes you’re a valued customer, not a dirty thief. They’re pioneers in the growing field [...]

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Blackstone Audio phases out audiobook DRM: Blackstone Audio phases out audiobook DRM - Boing Boing
My literary agent wrote to me this morning to tell me about a letter his agency just received from Blackstone Audio, one of the largest audiobook publishers in the world, announcing that Blackstone was phasing out its use of DRM. Blackstone is contacting the rightsholders for all [...]

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Media giants start whisper campaign to kill Fair Use

Media giants start whisper campaign to kill Fair Use - Boing Boing

William Patry, the Google lawyer who formerly worked for the US Register of Copyrights, has a blog-post in which he outs a global anti-Fair-Use “whisper campaign” orchestrated by the big entertainment companies. The big media companies are trying to convince the world’s governments [...]

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

MPAA admits to lying about college downloading: MPAA admits to lying about college downloading - Boing Boing
But now the MPAA, which represents the U.S. motion picture industry, has told education groups a “human error” in that survey caused it to get the number wrong. It now blames college students for about 15 percent of revenue loss.
As opposed to 44%. That’s a heck [...]

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

How creativity is being strangled by the law

TED | Talks | Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law (video)

From an educational point of view. I wound up having to download it but it was worth it.

Friday, June 22, 2007

North American Broadcasters Association knifes NPR and PBS at the United Nations anti-podcasting treaty negotiation

Boing Boing: North American Broadcasters Association knifes NPR and PBS at the United Nations anti-podcasting treaty negotiation

The North American Broadcasters’ Association has broken its own by-laws and trampled the position of NPR and PBS, endorsing a controversial policy at the United Nations.
This week, the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organization is holding a critical debate on [...]

Monday, April 30, 2007

Economist slams DRM: Boing Boing: Economist slams DRM
The Economist has come out against DRM in a tell-it-like-it-is editorial that explains why anti-copying technology is bad for the entertainment industry.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Best idea ever…: Boing Boing: U of Nebraska to RIAA: here’s a bill for the time you’re wasting
The University of Nebraska is so pissed off with the RIAA’s outrageous requests to help rat out students who file-share that it has sent the RIAA a bill for the time the University has wasted dealing with the RIAA’s demands. Go [...]

Friday, March 16, 2007

New Petition: Internet radio may be driven out of business within weeks by a Copyright Royalty Board decision that gives record companies a royalty rate that exceeds 100% of most webcasters’ total revenues…

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Heartwarming Creative Commons success story from the US Navy: Boing Boing: Heartwarming Creative Commons success story from the US Navy
Last week, I received the most remarkable letter from Jamie, a US Navy seaman stationed on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea. Because my novels are Creative Commons-licensed, he is able to download them and print them out onboard ship, and pass them around to [...]

Monday, August 28, 2006

Universities put Hollywood ahead of students: Boing Boing: Universities put Hollywood ahead of students
Pathetic but predicable.

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

Hilary Rosen rethinks lawsuits and DRM: Boing Boing: Ex-RIAA head Hilary Rosen rethinks lawsuits and DRM
Hilary Rosen, the former head of the RIAA, who oversaw the lawsuits against Napster, Audiogalaxy and MP3.com, has published an editorial questioning the idea of suing music fans as a way of building a sustainable music business. She’s also questioned the usefulness of DRM, noting [...]

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Sale or License

Boing Boing: Sony screwing artists out of iTunes royalties, customers out of first-sale

Sony pays less to its artists for sales than for licensing (Sony artists reportedly earn $0.045 for each $0.99 song sold on iTunes). Naturally, Sony claims that the songs sold on iTunes are sales and not licensing deals.
This is where it gets interesting. [...]

A Barenaked guide to music copyright reform: A Barenaked guide to music copyright reform
Much of their lobbying, however, is not about protecting artists or promoting Canadian culture. It is about propping up business models in the recording industry that are quickly becoming obsolete and unsustainable. It is about preserving foreign-based power structures and further entrenching the labels’ role as industry gatekeepers. [...]

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Consumer Electronics Association ad campaign slams RIAA

Boing Boing: Consumer Electronics Association ad campaign slams RIAA

The Consumer Electronics Association is taking a brave stand against the entertainment companies’ attacks on the public’s right to record from digital radio. This is brilliant — and maybe it signals that the CEA’s members will stop manufacturing technnoloogy that controls their customers instead of empowering them.
You [...]

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Major Canadian artists reject suing fans and crippling CDs

Boing Boing: Major Canadian artists reject suing fans and crippling CDs

Remember when all of those Canadian record labels walked out on CRIA, the Canadian equivalent of the RIAA? Well, a bunch of them just launched a new coalition for Canadian musicians called the “Canadian Music Creators Coaltion,” and their founding principles are pretty rad:

Suing Our [...]

Friday, March 24, 2006

Right-wing think-tank hates DRM: Boing Boing: Right-wing think-tank hates DRM
The role of government is not to ensure that a private business’s pricing strategy succeeds, and consumers, who have not agreed to help enforce the DVD cartel’s segmentation scheme, are under no obligation to respect it.

Monday, March 20, 2006

No breaking DRM, even if it’s killing you (literally!): Boing Boing: MPAA/RIAA/BSA: No breaking DRM, even if it’s killing you (literally!)
The BSA, MPAA and RIAA have officially objected to a proposal to let the public break DRM that “threatens critical infrastructure and endangers lives.” They argue that if it becomes legal to break DRM that could kill you that it might harm their [...]

P2P isn’t bad for business: Boing Boing: Canadian recording industry: P2P isn’t bad for business
The Canadian Record Industry Association (the Canadian version of the RIAA) has released a study in which they conclude that P2P downloaders buy lots of music, and that P2P doesn’t particularly harm their industry:

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Sign of intelligence?: Boing Boing: MPAA exec can’t sell A-hole proposal to tech companies
The final question summed up the problem: “This is a room full of people whose living depends on this working. You’re getting pushback to the point of hostility. If you can’t sell this to us, how are you going to sell it to the [...]

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Big Mistake: Boing Boing: Copyright office head denounces “big mistake” of extending copyright
The head of the US copyright office has accused Congress of making a mistake by extending the length of copyright in America, calling the term “too long,” and saying that Congress made a “big mistake.”
How’s that for ammo?

Thursday, February 16, 2006

RIAA: CD ripping isn’t fair use: Boing Boing: RIAA: CD ripping isn’t fair use
The RIAA has filed comments with a federal agency in which they claim that ripping a CD isn’t fair use.
They really are suicidal, aren’t they.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Only big companies’ PCs will play high-def DVDs: Boing Boing: Only big companies’ PCs will play high-def DVDs
Only big companies’ PCs will play high-def DVDs PCs with expensive video-cards won’t be able to play high-definition DVDs unless they’re built by big companies like Dell and Sony. PCs you build or upgrade yourself with “HDCP”-compatible high-end video cards will be locked out of [...]

Friday, February 10, 2006

The Commons and Commerce in the Pull Economy: The Commons and Commerce in the Pull Economy
It’s not widely appreciated that “Centralized Media” - broadcasting, cable television, films, recorded music - have a serious Achilles’ Heel. They have huge overhead costs. A small number of large companies are able to dominate their respective markets primarily because they control critical “choke points” of product development [...]

Monday, January 30, 2006

History and Senator Stevens’ iPod: It isn’t long but you have to read this. It’s the most encouraging thing I’ve seen in a while.
EFF: DeepLinks
And when Stevens asked whether with the audio flag in place he would be able to record from the radio and put the shows onto his iPod: that’s when the RIAA’s Mitch Bainwol really [...]

Thursday, January 26, 2006

A-Hole bill: Boing Boing: A-Hole bill would make a secret technology into the law of the land
If the controversial Analog Hole bill makes it into law, US technologists will have to obey a law whose most important details are a trade-secret.
… The idea is that any time you attempted to make a digital recording, your device would [...]

Monday, January 23, 2006

Broadcast Flag Redux: Boing Boing: Broadcast Flag is back, this time it covers iPods and PSPs, too
Under the DCPA proposal, digital media technologies would be restricted to using technologies that had been certified by the FCC as being not unduly disruptive to entertainment industry business-models.
Many comments, none of them suitable for publication.

A Reasonable Thought on DRM: Open Access News
DRM should respect the public domain. That means [DRM on copyrighted works] should automatically expire, leaving the content freely accessible, on the date when the work enters the public domain….

DMCA Starts Hitting Consumers

Can video iPod lead to DMCA reform? | Perspectives | CNET News.com

In 1998, politicians bowed to pressure from the entertainment industry and voted overwhelmingly for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Part of that law made it a federal offense to sell or distribute software that can rip DVDs.
In other words, believe it or not, Apple [...]

Non-Librarian’s take on DMCA: James Governor’s MonkChips: What about My Copy Rights? Towards a declaration of digital independence.
By paying an artist or rights holder we must have some rights in turn.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

DRM primer for librarians: Boing Boing: DRM primer for librarians
Mike Godwin has written a great primer on DRM for librarians. Librarians are on the front lines of the DRM wars, since DRM so often interferes with lending, archiving and preserving creative works. Librarians are also a technology-savvy bunch. Accordingly, Mike’s paper is thoroughgoing, smart, and highly recommended.
A good recomendation [...]

Wednesday, December 7, 2005

DRM screws my fans, so it screws me: DRM screws my fans, so it screws me is a musician’s view on DRM (digital rights management software). He hits several excellent points about what’s wrong with the current implementations.
Is it just me or does anyone else think it’s really screwed up that musicians and authors as content creators have so little choice in [...]

Monday, December 5, 2005

DMCA exemption process is completely scr0d: Boing Boing: EFF: DMCA exemption process is completely scr0d
Every three years, the Copyright Office holds hearings to determine whether they should allow some exceptions to this law. But the process is so tortured and the criteria are so absurd that this process practically never grants an exemption:

Friday, September 9, 2005

ongoing · Massachusetts XML: Update- more information.
ongoing · Massachusetts XML
This is a really smart move by Massachusetts… Because this way, they maximize the chances that the data is re-usable by lots of different programs, and not just office suites. Because they are entirely 100% free of legal entanglements. Because they maximize the chances that the data will still be [...]

Tuesday, September 6, 2005

EFF Guide to Music DRM: EFF layperson’s guide to crippling DRM in music services
EFF has just published an amazing, plain-language guide to the ways that online music services take away your rights — this is perfect for giving to your non-geek friends (directors, patrons, Friends, etc.) to explain the dangers of buying DRM-crippled music. Included are Microsoft Plays For [...]

Thursday, August 25, 2005

One to Bookmark: Copyright Expiration Flowchart

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

File-sharers buy more

Boing Boing: File-sharers buy more music than non-swappers

A British research outfit has determined that music file-swappers buy more music than their non-infringing peers

Monday, July 11, 2005

Gibson on remix culture

Boing Boing: Gibson on remix culture

William Gibson comes out in favor of remix culture in a brilliant, pithy essay in this month’s Wired magazine

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

DRM apologist circumvents DRM: Boing Boing: DRM apologist circumvents DRM
Michael Gartenberg has grown so frustrated with the DRM on Microsoft Reader files that it would appear he has violated the DMCA in order to strip the files of DRM. He only wanted to read the files he had legitimately purchased.

Canada’s DMCA dissected

Boing Boing: Canada’s DMCA dissected

On the heels of the introduction of Canada’s Bill C-60, a Made-in-Canada version of the DMCA, Michael Geist has posted several long, thoughtful blog posts about the bill’s effects on different interests: search engines, ISPs, and P2P users…

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Canada’s DMCA introduced

Boing Boing: Canada’s DMCA introduced

The Canadian government has introduced a Made-in-Canada version of the US DMCA, a sweeping copyright law that creates a thicket of new rights for entertainment companies, reserving precious little rights for the public.

Laugh or scream time.

Monday, June 20, 2005

Next problem: Library Web Chic » Blog Archive » E-Reserve Issues
Publishers want to be paid for e-reserves now. Because library’s have so much money, right?
If the current lecture method of teaching doesn’t work very well (And most people I know agree that it doesn’t.), education will most likely be evolving in the next 10-20 years toward [...]

Friday, June 17, 2005

TWAS 503: (Warnings and Promises)

TWAS 503: (Warnings and Promises)

Dearest Industry, I write today in what began, at least, as a conflicted mixture of resignation and alarm. Probably you do not recognize my name, but it’s both embossed and encoded on my credit card, so possibly you should. I have been one of the staunchest defenders of your copyrights ever [...]

Thursday, June 9, 2005

Boing Boing: Jennifer Government’s author on copyright’s excess

Boing Boing: Jennifer Government’s author on copyright’s excess

Copyright extensions, of the kind popping up everywhere lately, have nothing to do with encouraging more creative work, and everything to do with protecting the revenue streams of media companies that, a few generations ago, had an executive smart enough to sniff out a popular hit. It’s a [...]

Thursday, June 2, 2005

So much to do

In an attempt to get my unread list in mt aggregator down to something managable, I present the inevitable link list (annotated because some librarians are born, not made).

ALA | Patriot Act Extension Debated at Closed Congressional Meeting

In a closed-door meeting May 26, the Senate Intelligence Committee failed to agree on a proposal that would [...]

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Hillary Rosen Gets a Clue: Boing Boing: Hillary “RIAA” Rosen: iPod DRM is cruel and unfriendly!
Hilary, Rosen, former head of the RIAA tries to listen to music

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

DRM makes music customers mad

Boing Boing: BBC: DRM makes music customers mad

The BBC reports that the consumer revolt against DRM is underway, with customers for digital music getting caught out by unreasonable restrictions imposed on them by technology.

Monday, April 25, 2005

Why govts make stupid copyrights

Boing Boing: Why govts make stupid copyrights

Donna Wentworth sez, James Boyle has just delivered the piece de resistance in his three-part series on copyright for the Financial Times: ‘Deconstructing Stupidity.’ The stupidity in question is the way that governments typically make intellectual property law and policy — that is, without evidence that it will produce [...]

Sunday, April 17, 2005

India’s amazing statement on IP and international development

Boing Boing: India’s amazing statement on IP and international development

The primary rationale for Intellectual Property protection is, first and foremost, to promote societal development by encouraging technological innovation. The legal monopoly granted to IP owners is an exceptional departure from the general principle of competitive markets as the best guarantee for securing the interest of [...]

Monday, April 11, 2005

Boing Boing: Canadian music industry’s fake stats shredded: Boing Boing: Canadian music industry’s fake stats shredded
Copyfighting Canadian lawyer Michael Geist has a hell of an article up on First Monday where he dissect the funny arithmetic the music industry has used to justify its calls for restrictive new Canadian copyright laws to “save Canadian aritsts.” This kind of incisive analysis cuts straight through [...]

Monday, March 28, 2005

Economist: assault on filesharing by entertainment biz is senseless

Boing Boing: Economist: assault on filesharing by entertainment biz is senseless

This news analysis piece in the Economist says attacking the technology behind file-sharing could stifle innovation without tackling the industry’s long-term problems.
And perhaps the decline in global sales is indicative of a far greater problem for the music industry—consumers simply think that many of its [...]

Thursday, March 24, 2005

RIAA’s story doesn’t add up: Boing Boing: Record sales up, P2P sales up — RIAA’s story doesn’t add up
According to the RIAA, CD sales are increasing. Now, the RIAA also says that P2P destroys music sales, so it follows that if they’re selling more CDs there must be less P2P, right? Uh, no — file-sharing is up, too (so CD [...]

Monday, March 7, 2005

Canada’s copyfight: Boing Boing: Canada’s copyfight explained, demystified
In Canada, the entertainment industry has decided that Canada’s copyright (which has been updated dozens of times since it was first introduced” is outdated and must be updated to look like American copyright law, but even worse. For example, Canada’s rightsholders want to replace “notice-and-takedown” (an ISP has to remove [...]

Thursday, March 3, 2005

Copyright hurts creators: Boing Boing: Musicians don’t earn living from copyright, copyright hurts creators
The excellent free peer-reviewed net-journal First Monday has published an exhaustive survey of the earnings made by British and German musicians. Their conclusion? Copyright doesn’t give creators a living, and in many cases (such as clearing samples) it costs them more than they can afford.

Thursday, February 3, 2005

Boing Boing: Eyes on the Prize rightsholders: teacher may not screen our movie to kids: Boing Boing: Eyes on the Prize rightsholders: teacher may not screen our movie to kids
This is a public screening in an educational, non-commercial, one-time use setting.
This is what we’ve been afraid of since the copyright mess started. It’s never been about preserving the rights of the artists. It’s the profit margins of corporations versus the [...]

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Copyright Can Kill Culture: The Globe and Mail: How copyright could be killing culture
As Americans commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy today, no television channel will be broadcasting the documentary series Eyes on the Prize. Produced in the 1980s and widely considered the most important encapsulation of the American civil-rights movement on video, the documentary series can [...]

Tuesday, January 4, 2005

DRM still sucks: Cory Doctorow has posted a point by point response to the common arguements for digital rights management.

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

manybooks.net

manybooks.net contains more than 10,000 free eBooks formatted for reading on your Palm, PocketPC, Zaurus, Rocketbook, eBookWise-1150, or Symbian cellphone
Peter Scott’s Library Blog

I still love reading on PDA.

Wednesday, December 1, 2004

Rip, Mix, Burn, Sue: “Rip, Mix, Burn, Sue” is a fantastic primer for geeks, lawyers and civilians on the copyfight available under a Creative Commons (non-commercial, share-alike) license.

Thursday, November 4, 2004

MPAA Sues: Following up an this earlier BoingBoing post: The Associated Press and Variety (sub required) report more details on an announcement expected from the MPAA tomorrow regarding lawsuits against hundreds of movie fileswappers. The anticipated move would be significant because movie studios — unlike the recording industry — have not yet taken large-scale legal action against [...]

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Sony ditches DRM: Sony — which recently added MP3 support to its walkman devices — has abandoned publishing music on DRM-laden CDs. They say that it’s because of an “increase in awareness by music consumers,”
…they mean that their customers have grown aware of what abad [sic] deal these DRM discs are and don’t want them anymore. IOW, we [...]

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Copyright Guide: Copyright Clearance Center, a licensing agent for text reproduction rights, has launched a Web-based resource for business professionals called The Guide to Copyright Compliance. The interactive guide is designed to assist companies in implementing corporate best practices for achieving compliance with copyright law and also helps organizations educate employees on how to lawfully use the [...]

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Copyright Chart: Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States is a chart (html and pdf), that spells out length of term for various types of works.

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

DRM talk: Cory Doctorow’s talk on DRM
This talk was originally given to Microsoft’s Research Group and other interested parties from within the company at their Redmond offices on June 17, 2004.
Really well done.

Thursday, June 17, 2004

RIAA Weasles

That means 71.2% of what they sent us is stuff currently sold in remainder bins. Dunno if the terms of the agreement said they couldn’t send cutouts or not, but if I know the record industry, they are following the letter but not the spirit of the settlement….
The Shifted Librarian

Are they really that incapable of [...]

Monday, May 24, 2004

Something for Nothing: Chocolate and Vodka :: Something for Nothing: The Free Culture AudioBook Project is a coherent retelling of what happened when 2 authors published their books online for free at the same time they were published in hardcopy.

Friday, May 14, 2004

RIAA Cooks: Boing Boing: RIAA’s funny bookkeeping turns gains into losses
This very good, short article shows the way that the RIAA cooks its books to create losses due to file-sharing when there’s no indication that file-sharing is costing them money.

Thursday, May 6, 2004

Help Free Old Works: Open Access News (Formerly: FOS News): How libraries would gain from success of Kahle v. Ashcroft
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On behalf of one of the lawyers pursuing the Kahle case, Minow asks librarians and archivists to identify works in their collections dating from 1964 to 1977 which could not be digitized under the current law, but [...]

Monday, May 3, 2004

Musicians & Copyright: Boing Boing: Musicians don’t understand copyright, but they don’t like the RIAA suing their fans
Musicians don’t understand copyright, but they don’t like the RIAA suing their fans
The Pew Internet and American Life project has just concluded a survey of 2,700+ musicians, measuring their attitude to the lawsuits the record labels have brought against their [...]

Friday, April 23, 2004

Creative Commons: Creative Commons is an organization devoted to fair-use copyrights. The have a great deal of information, including a set of prewritten liscences for public use and a model for choosing one.
There is an explanation of their purpose at licenses explained.
Users should remember that once you’ve put something out in the public domain, it can’t be [...]

Saturday, April 3, 2004

Record Labels Using “Pirate” Data to sell more CDs: Copyfight: Record Labels Using “Pirate” Data to sell more CDs
Folks keep asking why more artists aren’t breaking into the mainstream through P2P. I think this may provide some answers — they are; the record labels are just taking all the credit.

Tuesday, March 30, 2004

File-sharing Effect: Copyfight: New UNC Study Finds File-sharing Has No Effect on CD Sales

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Broadcast Flag: Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large
April’s Cites & Insights is devoted to the Broadcast Flag.

OSI Grants: Open Access News (Formerly: FOS News)
The Information Program of the Open Society Institute (OSI) is now making grants to support institutional memberships in the Public Library of Science.

LWDRM

Wired News: Pay Once, Share Often With LWDRM

The institute, which developed the MP3 format in the first place and is therefore partly responsible for the digital-rights controversy, has conceived a new technology called Light Weight Digital Rights Management. LWDRM has the potential to end the conflict between the people and Big Music by putting the [...]

Monday, March 22, 2004

Independents Fine: Wired News: Record Stores: We’re Fine, Thanks
The independent music shops that are thriving have built a close connection to their communities and deliver personal service that so-called big box stores like Wal-Mart and Best Buy can’t match, the panelists said.
Imagine, service customized to the community…

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Digital Preservation: The Right to Preserve: The Rights Issues of Digital Preservation
The flip side of moving to digital collections. They are far more useful in the present but what about the future?

Friday, March 5, 2004

Library sued over copiers: Open Access News:Canadian Supreme Court rules for plaintiff in copyright case
The Canadian Supreme Court upheld the appeal of the Law Society of Upper Canada which was sued by several legal publishers for having photocopiers in its research library and maintaining a photocopy distribution service “in person, by mail or by facsimile transmission” for the society’s [...]

Friday, February 27, 2004

Piracy Answer?: Wired News: The Answer to Piracy: Five Bucks?
EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann, speaking as part of a panel on peer-to-peer music sharing, proposed that music fans pay a small monthly fee — perhaps $5 — to share files with impunity, using whatever software they like. The money could be collected by a central organization and [...]

Friday, February 20, 2004

Information Needs Are Legitimate: Information Needs Are Legitimate, Interview with Kay Raseroka, WSIS, First Phase, Geneva, 10-12 December 2003
Copyright was meant to assist authors, the people that created the material, so that they could be acknowledged appropriately. Yet what is happening now is that it is no longer the authors that benefit, but the publishers. That in itself raises [...]

RIAAcketeering: RIAA sued under racketeering laws
Online chat rooms and bulletin boards populated by file-swapping fans are filled with postings comparing the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to a Mafia-like syndicate. Now, one target of the group’s lawsuits against alleged music pirates is asking the judicial system to back that assessment.

Friday, February 13, 2004

FindLaw’s Writ: FindLaw’s Writ - Karl: How the Current Congressional Database Protection Bill Would Go Beyond Current Law,
…the Framers drew a line between copyrightable and uncopyrightable material. Yet the DCIMA would cross that line.
Excellent source of legal information.

Thursday, January 29, 2004

Anti-Feist: Copyfight: the Politics of IP
The Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act (DCIMA, H.R. 3261) extends extremely broad copyright-like protections to collections of factual data–data like the price of a TV, the temperature in Arizona or information collected during scientific research. DCIMA would allow companies to sue anyone who interferes with their ability to profit [...]

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Built-in DRM: Companies tossing aside consumers freedoms | ReachCustomersOnline.com
There are a few companies that ignore big media’s attempt to limit or deny fair use but they’re definitely not HP, Microsoft, or Intel.

Monday, January 12, 2004

mediAgora: mediAgora defines a fair, workable market model that works with the new realities of digital media, instead of fighting them.
I don’t know if this model is really workable but it is something to think about. There is also a blog

Monday, December 15, 2003

Patents and Open Standards: Patents and Open Standards is a white paper by Priscilla Caplan that clarifies the meaning of those 2 terms and the possible intersection of them.

Monday, December 8, 2003

Right to Communicate: The Internet and the right to communicate
The Internet and the right to communicate by William J. McIver, Jr., William F. Birdsall, and Merrilee Rasmussen
First Monday, volume 8, number 12 (December 2003),
URL: http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_12/mciver/index.html
The “Right to Communicate” is an interesting balance to the controversy over information ownership.

RIAA on the right path: ‘We’re on the right path’ / Latest news / Root folder - p2pnet.net
The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) tells anyone who’ll listen - and that means most of the establisment media - that its sue ‘em all subpoena campaign against alleged copyright violators is a roaring success.
That is, of course, about as accurate [...]

Tuesday, November 4, 2003

Downloads beat CDs: MacMegasite - US downloads beat CD sales
Legitimate download sites, such as Apple’s iTunes, the newly relaunched Napster and Musicmatch, are the most popular. They are trying to tempt fans from unauthorised free download services like Kazaa and Morpheus, which have been blamed by the music industry for falling CD sales.
This proves my theory that [...]

Thursday, October 30, 2003

DMCA Exemptions

DMCA Exemptions - LibraryPlanet.com
DMCA Exceptions -TechnoBiblio

Step by agonizing step, we slowly inch back to sanity.

Friday, October 17, 2003

Database Legislation Introduced: ResourceShelf
Critics warn that under new federal legislation, writers and Web designers could be hauled into court over something as simple as publishing a list of local sporting events or creating a Web site offering consumers price comparisons on car parts.
And the insanity grows. How can you legislate people’s minds?

Thursday, October 9, 2003

DMCA Reform Resources Report: The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Many artists singing mixed tune when it comes to file-sharing fight
The recording artist Moby, on his Web site, offered a similar opinion, suggesting the music companies treat users of file-sharing services like music fans instead of criminals.
“How can a 14-year-old who has an allowance of $5 a [...]

Tuesday, October 7, 2003

New DRM Silliness: The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Many artists singing mixed tune when it comes to file-sharing fight
The recording artist Moby, on his Web site, offered a similar opinion, suggesting the music companies treat users of file-sharing services like music fans instead of criminals.
“How can a 14-year-old who has an allowance of $5 a [...]

Friday, September 26, 2003

They’re kidding?: The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Many artists singing mixed tune when it comes to file-sharing fight
The recording artist Moby, on his Web site, offered a similar opinion, suggesting the music companies treat users of file-sharing services like music fans instead of criminals.
“How can a 14-year-old who has an allowance of $5 a [...]

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Public Domain Blog: PUBDOMAIN BREAD- Broadening the base of our Public Domain.

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

Artists Uncertain about file sharing: The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Many artists singing mixed tune when it comes to file-sharing fight
The recording artist Moby, on his Web site, offered a similar opinion, suggesting the music companies treat users of file-sharing services like music fans instead of criminals.
“How can a 14-year-old who has an allowance of $5 a [...]

Court scrutinizes P2P subpoena process: Court scrutinizes P2P subpoena process | CNET News.com
Judge John Roberts questioned the RIAA’s expansive interpretation of the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which allows copyright holders to glean the identity of alleged infringers without filing a lawsuit first. Roberts said that if he left the door to his library ajar and someone entered, “that [...]

Digital Rights Bill: EFF: Senator Brownback Introduces Digital Rights Bill- Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) today introduced the Consumers, Schools, and Libraries Digital Rights Management (DRM) Awareness Act of 2003. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) supports the bill as an important step toward balancing the rights of the public and the interests of entertainment industries in the age of [...]

Saturday, September 13, 2003

EFF: RIAA Petition

EFF: RIAA Petition

To The United States Congress:

We are the customers and former customers of the member labels of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). We love music and will gladly pay a fair price for it, but we are outraged by the RIAA’s tactics in suing ordinary Americans for filesharing.

We condemn the RIAA’s [...]

Friday, September 12, 2003

Confessions of Kazaa downloader: Technology - story - canada.com network- Confessions of Kazaa downloader
Personally, I’ve sworn off Kazaa but my CD purchases will still be few and far between. Until the music industry comes up with a win-win business model for consumers and the labels, I’ll just listen to all my old CDs that have been collecting dust.
An honest [...]

Consumers sue RIAA: Consumers strike back, sue RIAA- It’s likely the RIAA will have to admit that they don’t have the authority to release all claims, because they don’t have the power to stop these lawsuits, because they don’t own the copyrights.

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

RIAA sues 12 year-old: RIAA settles with 12-year-old pirate’s mother
The settlement was reached with the mother of 12-year-old Brianna Lahara, a user of the Kazaa file-sharing service. Lahara was featured on the cover of Tuesday’s New York Post newspaper, which described the girl as being scared and on the verge of tears when she discovered she was being sued.
Schoolgirl [...]

Tuesday, September 9, 2003

Databases–the next copyright battle?: Databases–the next copyright battle? | CNET News.com
Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are circulating a proposed bill that would prevent wholesale copying of school guides, news archives and other databases that do not enjoy copyright protection.
The proposed bill would provide a legal umbrella for publishers of factual information such as courtroom decisions and [...]

Re: DRM Avoidance: DRM Avoidance - September 8, 2003 - LibraryPlanet.com is a beautiful collection of quotes from knowledgable people around the web. The last one in particular puts it perfectly for me.

Monday, September 8, 2003

DRM default effect: Educated Guesswork: August 2003 Archives- What do you mean I can’t print?
There was no real reason to stop me from printing this file, but whenever there’s a question about whether to add some restriction or not, it’s easier just to add it than think about whether it’s necessary or not. Nobody ever got fired for [...]

Friday, September 5, 2003

RIAA offering amnesty: RIAA to offer music download amnesty?
The report indicated that individuals who participate in the amnesty program would be required to sign a notarized affidavit promising to stop using peer-to-peer file sharing services to download copyrighted music, and would be required to delete all such music they’ve acquired.

Friday, August 29, 2003

How RIAA tracks downloaders: CNN.com - Revealed: How RIAA tracks downloaders - Aug. 28, 2003
For example, the industry disclosed its use of a library of digital fingerprints, called “hashes,” that it said can uniquely identify MP3 music files that had been traded on the Napster service as far back as May 2000. Examining hashes is commonly used by the [...]

Friday, August 22, 2003

Individual challenges RIAA: Individual challenges RIAA subpoena
Glenn Peterson and Dan Ballard, lawyers with the Sacramento-based law firm of McDonough, Holland & Allen who are representing the “Jane Doe,” said in a statement that the RIAA’s subpoena campaign has far-reaching implications in terms of consumer rights and privacy.
“The recent efforts of the music industry to root out [...]

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

RIAA Appeals: Recording, movie industries appeal file-trading ruling
Late Monday, the Recording Industry Association of America Inc. (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the National Music Publishers’ Association Inc. filed an appeal to a Los Angeles district court judge’s decision that said the operators of the Grokster and Morpheus peer-to-peer (P-to-P) services couldn’t know when [...]

Thursday, August 14, 2003

RIAA undeterred by subpoena setback: RIAA undeterred by subpoena setback
They just don’t get the point, do they?

Thursday, August 7, 2003

RIAA, Warpath, Backlash: TechnoBiblio: RIAA On The Warpath…And The Backlash is a nice summary of the developing problems for the Recording Industry Association of America. Even Microsoft knew better than to try and intimidate the American public.
On the other hand, TechnoBiblio has some very interesting posts. It’s going on my personal blog roll.

Wednesday, August 6, 2003

The Copyright Cage: Legal Affairs: May | June 2003- The Copyright Cage is a passionate, authoritative and well-written essay on the effects of copyright in the digital age. A good link for those who don’t understand what the problem is.

Friday, August 1, 2003

Pac Bell’s Internet arm sues music industry: Pac Bell’s Internet arm sues music industry over file-sharer IDs
“The action taken by SBC Internet Services is intended to protect the privacy of our customers,” said SBC spokesman Larry Meyer. “Misapplication of DMCA subpoena power raises serious constitutional questions that need to be decided by the courts, not by private companies which operate without duty [...]

Schools put privacy above subpoenas: Schools put privacy above subpoenas
The record industry this month subpoenaed Bentley College student records as part of the battle to halt Internet music downloading, but school officials yesterday said they believe student privacy should take precedence.
Bentley spokeswoman Janet Mendelsohn refused to discuss the subpoena yesterday, but said she believes student records fall under [...]

Senator launches investigation into RIAA: Kansascity.com - Your Kansas City Everything Guide: Senator launches investigation into RIAA piracy crackdown
The chairman of the Senate’s permanent subcommittee on investigations Thursday began an inquiry into the music industry’s crackdown against online music swappers, calling the campaign “excessive.”
“Theft is theft, but in this country we don’t cut off your arm or fingers for [...]

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

RIAA Apparently Willing to Cut Off Its Nose: RIAA Apparently Willing to Cut Off Its Nose: The Shifted Librarian: Tuesday, July 29, 2003
I just put my home radio in the closet because I never used it. I listen to music on my laptop because it’s so much more convenient.

Saturday, July 12, 2003

EFF Opposes Printer Manufacturer’s Broad DMCA Claims: EFF Opposes Printer Manufacturer’s Broad DMCA Claims
In a nutshell, Lexmark is trying to use the DMCA to keep people from using printer toner cartridges manufactured by other companies in their printers. When will companies realize that trying to monopolize customers’ choices just makes their products less attractive.
Oh wait, it works for Microsoft…

Friday, July 11, 2003

Marketing 101: Marketing is an important task that seems to be overlooked in many libraries. Just offering useful services doesn’t work if your patrons don’t know they’re available. Even a simple marketing strategy can make your library and your services much more visible in your organization, giving you extra leverage when it’s budget time.
Act Your Age delivers [...]

Creativity and Public Domain: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (as explained in the link) was written using several characters that had passed into the public domain. It makes a good demonstration of the value of expiring copyright.

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

Frank Field: FurdLog is a weblog maintained by a professor at MIT that looks at current events but focuses mostly on copyright matters.
Intellectual “Property” in the Digital Age is a category of annotated links.

Tuesday, May 6, 2003

Copyfight: the Politics of IP: Copyfight: the Politics of IP, written by Donna Wentworth and sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, this news blog focuses on the legal and technological innovations of intellectual property.

Saturday, May 3, 2003

Good News: According to a BILLBOARD article, the new iTunes music service has done amazingly well. It serves as a example that if a half-way decent legal alternative is offered, people will prefer that to file-sharing services.

Wednesday, April 30, 2003

Copy Protected CDs: A big problem stemming from the music industry’s attempt to regulate music file sharing is the introduction of copy-protected cds into the market. The purpose of the copy-protection is to prevent digital copying of the files fromlegally purchased cds(not even backups). However, in those attempts they often keep people from even listening to the cds [...]

Digital copyright: Digital copyright is a big story right now but to the uninvolved the unfamiliar terms make it hard to understand. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions has a great explanation on how the new copyright rules will hurt libraries and The Shifted Librarian has a very nice summary.

Monday, April 28, 2003

War on internet piracy suffers setback: War on internet piracy suffers setback is an article in the Financial Times covering a federal court’s ruling that file-sharing services could not be held accountable for what their users did with them.

Sunday, April 27, 2003

Chilling Effects Clearinghouse: The Chilling Effects Clearinghouse is “A joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, and University of Maine law school clinics.” The site’s purpose is to educate non-legal professionals on their rights under the First Amendment and intellectual property laws as they apply to the Internet. The [...]

Friday, April 25, 2003

Baen Free Library

Bean Books publishes a lot of science fiction and fantasy works. Since 2000, they’ve had the Baen Free Library up where they post electronic versions of some of their books for free in text, html, and pda formats. It’s not unknowns, either. They have stuff by:

Lois McMaster Bujold
Mercedes Lackey
Holly Lisle
and David Weber

The introduction by [...]