Category Archives: Copyright
Google’s Numerous Legal Battles
Google’s legal battles both in and out of the courtroom are becoming more ubiquitous.
First, the new legal challenge. ABC News is reporting that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Google over it’s controversial policy of (1) having your closest contacts automatically follow you on Google Buzz and then (2) publishing those contacts to [...]
Author Gets Caught Plagiarizing, Defends on Grounds that She Belongs to a Generation of Plagiarists
Helene Hegemann is a precocious author who at 17 is one of the most popular authors in Germany. Her novel “Axolotl Roadkill” is currently the fifth bestselling book in Germany right now.
Unfortunately, it turns out that much of the novel is plagiarized word for word from other works. According to the NYT, Hegemann is less [...]
Legal Ethics and Copyright: A Comment on Lawrence Lessig’s New Repulic Article
Lawrence Lessig has an article in the current issue of the New Republic about copyright and its effect on our culture. Essentially, he criticizes the current climate of copyright licensing, and blames over zealous lawyers have created a situation in which we will need a lawyer “at every turn of page.”
I agree with most of [...]
French Government Agency Established to Fight Copyright Infringement Infringes Artist’s Copyright
The French government enacted a law in October 2009 that will effectively cut off internet access to the households of repeat copyright infringers. The legislation established a government agency to oversee the enforcement of the laws called “HADOPI.” The agency chose this as their logo:
Soon after HADOPI released this logo, a font designer named Jean-François [...]
The Bono Op-Ed: A Digest
As many already know, U2’s Bono wrote an op-ed in the New York Times about “10 ideas that might make the next 10 years more interesting, healthy or civil.”
Bono devoted only three paragraphs of the op-ed to the subject of intellectual property, but those three paragraphs enraged many people. Bono argues that (1) “we’re just [...]
Why Mailing Yourself Something Does Not Amount To Incontrovertible Proof of Copyright: A Tale of Copyright Fraud
One of the biggest misconceptions in copyright law is that mailing yourself your own work (e.g., a screenplay or CD of music) will establish a copyright.
I was once at a Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts meeting where this issue came up. The crowd was almost ready to mutiny on the lawyer answering questions because he [...]
Posted in Copyright Tagged Copyright, copyright fraud, mailing yourself, poor man's copyright 4 Comments
The Effects of Litigant Behavior: Usenet.com Liable for Infringement
Yesterday, Usenet.com and its owner, Gerald Reynolds, were found liable for direct infringement, inducement of infringement, contributory infringement, and vicarious infringement and discovery misconduct. There are several lessons to be learned here: for online service providers, don’t assist your users in downloading copyrighted material and don’t market your service as a provider of pirated material. [...]
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Government Seeks Input for Intellectual Property Policy