ENTRIES TAGGED "law"
Legally speaking, think before you tweet
David Ardia on how libel laws apply to Twitter and new media.
Most of us are familiar with the libel lawsuits aimed at magazine and newspaper publishers, but how do libel laws apply to Twitter, Facebook, and blogs? David Ardia, fellow at the Berkman Center and the director of the Citizen Media Law Project, breaks it down.
Public domain here, under copyright there
The interesting thing about Golan v. Holder is that a decision either way will have big implications.
The Golan v. Holder copyright case the US Supreme Court agreed to hear not only will affect foreign copyrights in the US, but it’s likely to affect US copyrights — one way or the other — abroad as well.
Google Book Settlement Round 2
Don't Hold Your Breath
The US government filed its Statement of Interest regarding the revised Google settlement yesterday with the District Court in New York. While the statement was signed by an attorney from the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department, several agencies including the Copyright Office reportedly contributed to it. As you may recall, the judge has only 2 choices: he can approve the settlement, or send it back to the parties for revision. He cannot modify it himself.
EFF Attorney: Google Book Search Settlement Weakens Innovation
In an editorial in The Recorder, Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation says Google's settlement with publishers and authors signals an implicit abandonment of Google's legal team working on behalf of innovation across Silicon Valley: .. By settling rather than taking the case all the way … Google has solved its own copyright problem — but not…
EFF's Concerns About the Google Book Search Settlement
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) notes that the Google Book Search settlement accomplishes a degree of access that litigation might have taken years to develop, but it also observes areas of concern: fair use, innovation, competition, access, public domain and privacy. Innovation: It seems likely that the "nondisplay uses" of Google's scanned corpus of text will end up being…
Ruling: Consider Fair Use Before Issuing Takedowns
A fairly significant ruling came down Wednesday in Lenz v. Universal, a rather infamous case where Universal Music Publishing Group issued a takedown against a YouTube video of a young child dancing to a song in the background — a song in which Universal maintained some rights. Universal later acknowledged that this was a fair use of the music,…
EFF Looks at the Big Questions Surrounding Digital Books
At the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a post on what the future of digital books portends for pubishers and consumers: Skeptics should remember that it wasn't long ago that many predicted that CDs would never replace vinyl, and later that MP3s would never replace CDs. You can still find great record stores that specialize in vinyl, but the trend…
New Rulings Let Pubs Create Digital Archives With No Additional Royalties
Two recent cases allow publishers to create exact digital archives of back catalogs without freelancer permission or payment of additional royalties.
News Roundup: Dual-Display E-Reader Prototype, Content Tracking Not Just for Takedowns Anymore, Indiana "Explicit" Law Struck Down
Researchers Develop Dual-Display E-Reader Researchers from Berkeley and the University of Maryland have built a dual-display e-reader prototype that uses traditional book-reading navigation (i.e. page turns, flipping the cover under, etc.). From the New Scientist: The two leaves can be opened and closed to simulate turning pages, or even separated to pass round or compare documents. When the two…
Indiana's "Explicit" Law Struck Down
An Indiana law requiring retailers who sell explicit material to register with the state was struck down by a U.S. Federal Court on First Amendment grounds. From the Indianapolis Star: The law would have required anyone who intended to sell sexually explicit materials — which plaintiffs say could have included classic literature, as well as pornography — to register…