US Copyright Office urges Congress to revise Digital Millennium Copyright Act
The US Copyright Office issued a report on Thursday claiming that the safe-harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) now favors tech companies over rights-holders. After studying the issue for years and taking into consideration more than 92,000 comments, the Copyright Office suggests that “Congress may wish to fine-tune” the statute. The report [...]
For better or worse, the paradigmatic television show of the coronavirus pandemic is Netflix’s documentary miniseries Tiger King, an excruciatingly intimate reflection on a feud between two tiger-fanciers. On the one side is Carole Baskin, the rather sanctimonious leader of a big cat sanctuary in Florida. And on the other is Joe Exotic, the “colorful” [...]
Supreme Court rules Georgia not entitled to copyright protection for annotated code
The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday in Georgia v. Public.Resource.org that Georgia is not entitled to copyright protection for the official annotated code of the state. The majority opinion, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, based its reasoning on a prior holding from Banks v. Manchester (1888). In Banks, the court held that “non-binding, [...]
*Editor’s Note: The title as written is not ungrammatical, but rather refers to an internet meme you can read about here. Apparently, quarantine means never having to say you’re sorry. All of a sudden, people are coming out with hot takes you never would have expected. Except you did all along. For example, a remarkable [...]
France competition regulator calls on Google to negotiate payment for re-use of press's content
France’s national competition regulator on Friday issued a statement that urges Google to begin negotiating payment with publishers and news agencies for the re-use of their content. The statement calls on Google to begin negotiating within three months. The regulator agency states that press publishers and Agence-France Presse (AFP) complained that Google is infringing on [...]
It’s a truism that when lobbyists push a bill supposedly intended to help the disadvantaged, the real beneficiary is someone else. After all, lobbyists don’t work for free, and the disadvantaged can’t afford to hire them. The Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act is no exception. At least, in theory, the CASE Act is [...]
Like everyone, the copyright cops want to have their cake and eat it too. They claim that copyright is a kind of property, so the law should protect it just like any other kind of property. But they also claim that authors are morally entitled to copyright ownership because of their special contribution to society. [...]
The world in a plague year is a world turned upside down. Everything familiar becomes strange, and everything normal becomes peculiar. Commodities become scarce and luxuries become worthless. Leisure becomes insufferable and labor becomes precious. The great become small and the small reveal their greatness. But one thing is constant. The plagiarism police remain vigilant. [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Monday in Allen v. Cooper that a state cannot be sued for copyright infringement because Congress did not validly abrogate sovereign immunity when it enacted the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act (CRCA) of 1990. The case arose after petitioner Fredrick Allen documented the salvage of Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge, which sank [...]
Federal appeals court rules for Disney in 'Inside Out' copyright suit
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Monday affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a woman who claims that Disney stole her idea for the characters in Inside Out that represent emotions. The plaintiff, Denise Daniels, had started a business called The Moodsters Company, marketing eponymous characters that [...]
