Groklaw Turns Ten
Founded just to cover the SCO/Caldera UNIX lawsuits back in 2003, Groklaw has proven itself a great place to read and discuss many of the major tech trials since. And today, it turns ten: "We made it. A decade of Groklaw as of today. Who'd a thunk it? Not I. When I started, I thought I'd do a little fiddling around for a couple of months to learn how to blog. But then all you guys showed up and taught me some important things that I didn't know, and vice versa I hope, and here we are, on our 10th anniversary, still going strong, together on a very different path than I originally imagined. The important moment for me was when I realized the potential we had as a group and decided to try to surf this incredible wave all of you created by contributing your skills and time. I saw we could work as a group, explain technology to the legal world so lawyers and judges could make better decisions, and explain the legal process to techies, so they could avoid troubles and also could be enabled to ...
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Judge Tosses DMCA Defenses, Creating Unexpected Copyright Liability for Web Services In New York
Editor’s note: Sid Venkatesan is an IP partner specializing in high stakes IP disputes and IP counseling for technology companies in the Silicon Valley office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. James Freedman is an associate in Orrick’s IP group and a recent Stanford Law School graduate. A New York appellate court has recently ruled in UMG Recordings v.Escape Media Group that the safe harbor protections that Congress designed for Internet companies do not cover sound recordings made before 1972. The decision is a new and unexpected break with earlier decisions by state and federal trial courts.
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Reckless Law Of The Month: Congressman Wants To Literally Politicize Science Funding
At least one congressman thinks he is better equipped to judge the merit of research than the world’s premier scientists. Representative Lamar Smith (CrunchGov Grade: F), co-author of the infamous Stop Online Piracy Act, wants the director of the National Science Foundation to certify that all research is meeting national priorities, based on the accusation that current scientific research isn’t doing a good enough job. ”It’s a dangerous thing for Congress, or anybody else, to be trying to specify in detail what types of fundamental research NSF should be funding,” said Presidential science advisor, John Holdren, on Smith’s proposed High Quality Research Act. According to Science magazine, the act would alter the mission of the NSF to require all research to advance national priorities and be both “groundbreaking” and “not duplicative.” Unfortunately, it’s a well-known fact that important research is often both incremental and done in parallel. Both evolution and ...
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House Judiciary Chairman Plans Comprehensive Review of US Copyright Law
SEWilco writes in with news that U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte plans on conducting "...a comprehensive review of US copyright law over the coming months.""In a speech given in celebration of World Intellectual Property Day at the Library of Congress today, Goodlatte mentioned a few examples of the sorts of problems that he hopes to address in such a review: 'The Internet has enabled copyright owners to make available their works to consumers around the world, but has also enabled others to do so without any compensation for copyright owners. Efforts to digitize our history so that all have access to it face questions about copyright ownership by those who are hard, if not impossible, to locate. There are concerns about statutory license and damage mechanisms. Federal judges are forced to make decisions using laws that are difficult to apply today. Even the Copyright Office itself faces challenges in meeting the growing needs of its customers - the ...
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David Sleight on New-School Publishing: Passing On Our Rights
Last month, a U.S. District Court handed down a decision that’s pretty awful if you care about consumer rights and digital content. It all started in 2011, when a company called ReDigi launched a service to let folks resell their unwanted iTunes purchases—the digital equivalent of unloading your old vinyl at a swap meet. This annoyed the legal department at Capitol Records enough that they sued ReDigi in federal court to stop it. Unfortunately for consumers, Capitol Records succeeded. This isn’t just bad news for ReDigi though. What’s really troubling is the court’s take on current copyright protections. The ReDigi case When it comes to the CDs, DVDs, and paper books you own, U.S. law is clear. A legal concept called the first-sale doctrine establishes your right to sell them to another person, provided you’re handing over the item you originally bought, and that you didn’t make any copies. That’s the idea behind garage sales, swap meets, and Craigslist. As repeated by the ...
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