Via Kris Kasianovitz, Government Information Librarian for International, State and Local Documents, Head, Social Sciences Resource Group, Green Library, 123E, Stanford, CA 94305 – “For those who work with State and Local government information (legal, regulatory, legislative, executive, etc. – that’s most of us, yea?) – you might want to tune in to this webcast or if… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Intellectual Property
How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results
WSJ.com: “More than 100 interviews and the Journal’s own testing of Google’s search results reveal: Google made algorithmic changes to its search results that favor big businesses over smaller ones, and in at least one case made changes on behalf of a major advertiser, eBay Inc., contrary to its public position that it never takes… Continue Reading
USPTO wants to know if artificial intelligence can own the content it creates
The Verge: “The US office responsible for patents and trademarks is trying to figure out how AI might call for changes to copyright law, and it’s asking the public for opinions on the topic. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a notice in the Federal Register last month saying it’s seeking comments,… Continue Reading
What Would Happen If the Internet Went Down … Forever?
Popular Mechanics – “…So how long could society carry on without the internet? However implausible, it’s nonetheless a scenario that futurists, economists, and IT workers spend considerable time contemplating. “Eliminating all internet communications, even if only for a few days, would inflict huge economic costs,” says Thomas Hazlett, who served as chief economist of the… Continue Reading
Don’t Let Science Publisher Elsevier Hold Knowledge for Ransom
EFF: “…An academic publisher should widely disseminate the knowledge produced by scholars, not hold it for ransom. But ransoming scientific research back to the academic community is essentially the business model of the world’s largest publisher of scientific journals: Elsevier. In February of this year, after drawn-out negotiations broke down, the University of California terminated… Continue Reading
ABA Tech Report 2019
Tech Report 2019 – Cloud Computing – Law Technology Today: “…To keep it simple, the 2019 Legal Technology Survey has focused on the basic concept of a “web-based software service or solution,” including SaaS. In practical terms, you can understand cloud computing as software or services that can be accessed and used over the internet… Continue Reading
The Misadventure of Copyrighting State Law
Johnson, Eric E., The Misadventure of Copyrighting State Law (2019). Kentucky Law Journal, Vol. 107, No. 4, 2019. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3446229 – “Many states have asserted copyright over their own official state legal texts, limiting access to those materials and attempting to monetize them. This Article aims to provide helpful analysis for state officials deciding… Continue Reading
AAP Suit Seeks to Block Implementation of Audible Captions
Publishers Weekly – “The Association of American Publishers filed suit on August 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in a bid to stop Audible from moving ahead with its plans to implement its Audible Captions program. Under Captions, Audible will transcribe a book’s audio in order to create… Continue Reading
Steal This Book? There’s a Price
The New York Times – I have about 400 offers to buy illegal copies of my own work. Something is very wrong – “Most of them, it turns out, are phishing scams, asking gullible users to hand over credit card information before proceeding to their ostensibly free copy. The real theft happens elsewhere, though, according to… Continue Reading
WIPO Global Brand Database
“…The WIPO IP Portal is a new WIPO initiative aimed at harmonizing our services and simplifying your work. It is a one-stop shop for our full range of online intellectual property (IP) services. The underlying business processes will stay the same, so the way you conduct your interactions with WIPO will not change…Perform a trademark… Continue Reading
The Internet Relies on People Working for Free
Medium – Who should be responsible for maintaining and troubleshooting open-source projects? – “…It’s hard to demand that programmers who are working for free troubleshoot problems or continue to maintain software that they’ve lost interest in for whatever reason — though some companies certainly try. Not adequately maintaining these projects, on the other hand, makes the… Continue Reading
Why Angry Librarians Are Going to War With Publishers Over E-Books
Slate – “If I wanted to borrow A Better Man by Louise Penny—the country’s current No. 1 fiction bestseller—from my local library in my preferred format, e-book, I’d be looking at about a 10-week waitlist. And soon, if the book’s publisher, a division of Macmillan, has its way, that already-lengthy wait time could get significantly… Continue Reading
