The Wire Science: “Data tracking has long been a lucrative business model for many corporations. The fact that it also takes place in science is not so well-known, however. But here too, dangers are lurking for data protection and the freedom of science and research. And libraries also have a role to play, as stakeholders… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Category Archives: Copyright
Libraries, Publishers Battle Over Terms for E-Books’ Use
Bloomberg Law: “States that want to give libraries a better deal on e-books are watching a publishers’ suit against Maryland, the first state to set terms for how digital books are distributed for public borrowing. Library associations, including the American Library Association and several state groups, have been pushing for state laws to require publishers… Continue Reading
Academics want to preserve video games. Copyright laws make it complicated.
Washington Post – “For decades, champions of the video game industry have touted gaming’s cultural impact as the equal of literature, film and music. Traditionally, the classic works from those mediums have been preserved for study by future generations, and amid gaming’s global rise in relevance, a group of video game scholars and advocates is… Continue Reading
‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ just entered the public domain. Here’s what that means for fans.
Washington Post – “Luke McGarry began drawing a nude Pooh Bear as soon as he heard the news. The original, nearly 100-year-old “bear of very little brain” from the Hundred Acre Wood had rung in this new year by entering the public domain. Now quite humbly, McGarry’s creative appetite felt rumbly. The Los Angeles-based artist… Continue Reading
Celebrate Public Domain Day With Works by Kafka, Hemingway, and Zora Neale Hurston
Hyperallergic: “There’s no better way to observe the dawn of a new year of the roaring 2020s than celebrating Public Domain Day. On January 1, 2022, cultural items in the archive dating from 1926 shed their copyright and made their proper full and proper entrance into society. In 2022, for the first time, a swath… Continue Reading
January 1, 2022, is Public Domain Day
Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain – Works from 1926 are open to all, as is a cornucopia of recorded music: an estimated 400,000 sound recordings: “On January 1, 2022, copyrighted works from 1926 will enter the US public domain, where they will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon.… Continue Reading
Intellectual Property in the New Technological Age: 2021 – Chapters 1 and 2
Menell, Peter S. and Lemley, Mark A. and Merges, Robert P. and Balganesh, Shyamkrishna, Intellectual Property in the New Technological Age: 2021 – Chapters 1 and 2 (July 11, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3884159 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3884159 “Rapid advances in digital and life sciences technology continue to spur the evolution of intellectual property law. As professors… Continue Reading
Show me a 10ft paywall, I’ll show you a 12ft ladder.
Thomas Miller – I build things on the internet http://12ft.io / http://billclintonswag.com FAQ What? Prepend 12ft.io/ to the URL of any paywalled page, and we’ll try our best to remove the paywall and get you access to the article. Why? I believe Google Adwords killed the web. Google Adwords incentivized sites to peddle SEO optimized… Continue Reading
Who Owns a Recipe? A Plagiarism Claim Has Cookbook Authors Asking.
The New York Times: “U.S. copyright law protects all kinds of creative material, but recipe creators are mostly powerless in an age and a business that are all about sharing…U.S. copyright law seeks to protect “original works of authorship” by barring unauthorized copying of all kinds of creative material: sheet music, poetry, architectural works, paintings… Continue Reading
After COVID boom, ebook aggregators face licensing questions from Congress
Verge: “A Democratic senator launched an investigation into how publishers license ebooks to libraries on Thursday, calling on nine major ebook aggregators to provide details on the licensing agreements they make with libraries. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), along with Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), sent letters demanding that aggregators like Overdrive and EBSCO provide them with… Continue Reading
Facebook allows stolen content to flourish its researchers warned
WSJ [paywall – this link may be free]: “Facebook has allowed plagiarized and recycled content to flourish on its platform despite having policies against it, the tech giant’s researchers warned in internal memos. About 40% of the traffic to Facebook pages at one point in 2018 went to pages that stole or repurposed most of… Continue Reading
Public.org asks FTC to investigate business practices of Lexis and Westlaw
Via Mary Whisner: “Public.Resource.Org filed a submission to the FTC on Friday asking the FTC to investigate business practices of Lexis and West (i.e., Thomson Reuters and Westlaw). The submission and supporting declarations are very interesting—both because we use the products all the time and because the assertions of copyright and other business practices are… Continue Reading
