DMCA’s 10 Year Anniversary

Wired has a great re-cap of the history and impact of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, signed ten years ago today (and 3 years before the new millenium, just in case anyone noticed).
Here are a few more reactions:
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Amrit Williams Blog
Wired Blog Network
Public Knowledge
Freedom to Tinker
TechDirt
Free Culture News
And, of course, the obligatory profiteering.  Though, [...]

J.K. Rowling: $4.5Billion, Copyright: 0

Back in May, I wrote about the copyright infringement suit filed by J.K. Rowling against the author and publisher of the Harry Potter Lexicon.
At the time, I hoped that the courts would realize that, on its face, the Lexicon qualified as fair use.  Apparently not.
Ms. Rowling’s response is that the potential publication of the Lexicon [...]

Public Domain Tool

Ever wonder whether the copyright on a particular work has expired? Trying to figure it out amongst all of the various copyright extensions isn’t exactly simple. So Michael Brewer and the American Library Association has done it for you - with pinache! Check out the Public Domain Tool.  Make sure you read [...]

First Sale Doctrine

As esoteric as the subject matter of this blog can be, I tend to stay away from the really, really, really nitty-gritty legal discussions for fear that most of you don’t really care.  Heck, I barely care sometimes.
But the first sale doctrine is an important aspect of the Copyright Act.  Basically (and over-simplistically), it says [...]

Harry Potter

The vast majority of software is protected under the Copyright Act as a work “fixed in a tangible medium of expression.” Some is patented, but copyright automatically affixes itself to any software as it’s being written - and it’s cheap (currently $30) to obtain a registered Copyright. So it’s important sometimes to watch [...]

Malware Licensing

Wow. More here.  And here.  And here (from the original Symantec Alert).  (For those who don’t want to click the links, a malware author inserted a EULA into their virus code.)

First, let’s be clear.  Even though the software could be used for malicious purposes, this doesn’t affect the ability to license it.  Copyright protection doesn’t [...]

Terms of Use

The SaaS/ASP ship has sailed and we’re now living in a world in which online services will continue to proliferate and will probably (by some estimates) overtake installed software in the next few years. Each one of these services has some sort of Terms of Use or Terms of Service and as you might [...]

IP Donation?

I saw this on the intertubes today and found the image hilarious, but the concept really academically interesting. Would such a donation attempt actually hold water? Can a copyright holder effectively turn his/her IP over to the public domain this easily? What if you’ve registered with the US Copyright Office? Anyone [...]

Holiday AND Intellectual Property related… how about that?

THIS is the reason there’s a parody exception in copyright law. (Never mind that most of the songs aren’t protected anymore.)
Happy Holidays!

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Two-Top Tuesday

Thanks to Apple’s press release yesterday regarding iPhone unlocking tools and the iPhone’s warranty and license agreements, you get a special second-post (I’m also still feeling guilty about last week).
“CUPERTINO, Calif., Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the [...]

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