Monthly Archives: February 2010
Government Seeks Input for Intellectual Property Policy
The U.S. Government recently formed a task force to enforce intellectual property laws. Now Victoria Espinel, the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, is asking for input from the public about IP policy: To further these goals, we are working to find ways of measuring these threats and their impact on us. How many jobs depend on [...]
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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 [...]
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 [...]
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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 [...]
Recovering Artwork Stolen by Nazis: Two Recent Cases
Two cases decided recently highlight the difficulty descendants of holocaust victims experience when trying to recover artwork the Nazis stole from their ancestors. In the first case, a German appeals court decided that the heir to a six million dollar collection of vintage posters may not be entitled to the return of the posters from [...]
Google Successfully Defends $600 Million Patent Lawsuit Brought by Company with No Programming Expertise