http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/fairuse/ en-us Fri, 4 Dec 2009 01:57:44 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2399849/posts EU ACTA Analysis Leaks: Confirms Plans For Global DMCA, Encourage 3 Strikes Model Monday November 30, 2009 The European Commission analysis of ACTA's Internet chapter has leaked, indicating that the U.S. is seeking to push laws that extend beyond the WIPO Internet treaties and beyond current European Union law (the EC posted the existence of the document last week but refused to make it publicly available). The document contains detailed comments on the U.S. proposal, confirming the U.S. desire to promote a three-strikes and you're out policy, a Global DMCA, harmonized contributory copyright infringement rules, and the establishment of an... http://www.michaelgeist.ca/ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2399849/posts#comment Fri, 4 Dec 2009 01:57:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2365020/posts Shepard Fairey’s claim that he had the right to use a news photo to create his famous Barack Obama “HOPE” poster became a widely watched court case about fair use that now appears to have nearly collapsed. By Friday night, his attorneys — led by Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University — said they intend to withdraw from the case and said the artist had misled them by fabricating information and destroying other material. Fairey himself admitted that he didn’t use The Associated Press photo of Obama seated next to actor George Clooney he... NY Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2365020/posts#comment Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:06:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2345691/posts There was a time, not so long ago, when the term "Internet Freedom" actually meant what it implied: a cyberspace free from over-zealous legislators and bureaucrats.... Those days are now gone; the presumption of online liberty is giving way to a presumption of regulation. A massive assault on real Internet freedom has been gathering steam for years and has finally come to a head. Ironically, victory for those who carry the banner of "Internet Freedom" would mean nothing less than the death of that freedom.... Here is the reality: Because of the steps being taken in Washington right now, real... Forbes http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2345691/posts#comment Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:59:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2272323/posts The MPAA apparently said that the “enemies of copyright have really done a good job at creating the false premise that the interest of copyright holders and the interest of society as a whole are antagonistic” during the World Copyright Summit. The worry is that their pro-copyright advocacy perspective is fading away in the public conscious. In an interesting report from IP-Watch where there were a few choice words levelled against those that disagreed with the view-points of the copyright industry. Apparently, Fritz Attaway suggested that it's false to assume that the rights of the industry and the interest of... ZeroPaid http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2272323/posts#comment Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:51:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2251091/posts Broadcasters are vowing to fight legislation requiring radio stations to pay royalties to performers, even as the recording industry and artist coalitions say the effort is gathering steam. The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday passed a modified version of a performance royalty bill that gives some exemptions to small broadcast stations. Broadcast radio stations now pay song royalties to songwriters and ... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2251091/posts#comment Thu, 14 May 2009 21:15:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2246400/posts So the Copyright Office is currently in the middle reviewing proposed exceptions to the DMCA, and one of the proposals on the table would allow teachers and students to rip DVDs and edit them for use in the classroom. Open and shut, right? Not if you're the MPAA and gearing up to litigate the legality of ripping -- it's trying to convince the rulemaking committee that videotaping a flatscreen is an acceptable alternative. Seriously. It's hard to say if we've ever seen an organization make a more tone-deaf, flailing argument than this. Take a good look, kids. This is what... engadget http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2246400/posts#comment Thu, 7 May 2009 21:11:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2228257/posts Is Internet access a fundamental human right? Or is it a privilege, carrying with it a responsibility for good behavior? ...The United States Congress held hearings last week on the growing problem of piracy, which the American entertainment industry says accounts for the loss of $20 billion a year in sales. Several lawmakers vowed to increase scrutiny of international markets where piracy is widespread. But if events in Paris last week are any indication, legislative solutions will not be easy. French lawmakers rejected an antipiracy plan championed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, where the Internet connections of people who ignored repeated... New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2228257/posts#comment Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:59:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2213086/posts NewYorkCountryLawyer writes"The Obama Administration's Department of Justice, with former RIAA lawyers occupying the 2nd and 3rd highest positions in the department, has shown its colors, intervening on behalf of the RIAA in the case against a Boston University graduate student, SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, accused of file sharing when he was 17 years old. Its oversized, 39-page brief (PDF) relies upon a United States Supreme Court decision from 1919 which upheld a statutory damages award, in a case involving overpriced railway tickets, equal to 116 times the actual damages sustained, and a 2007 Circuit Court decision which held... slashdot.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2213086/posts#comment Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:02:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2178506/posts AP suing Shepard Fairey over altered image. See article. AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2178506/posts#comment Wed, 4 Feb 2009 23:40:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2175683/posts "Yes we can,'' the Obama campaign proclaimed. "No you can't,'' says the Obama White House of the varied attempts to cash in on the brand Obama built. Or maybe they can, or can't. The lawyers are looking into it, Bloomberg News reports" ### President-elect Barack Obama has created his own brand - represented both by the iconic images of the candidate who campaigned for "change'' and by the "Yes we can'' and "Change We Can Believe in" slogans generated by that campaign. Now the Obama White House, mindful of the "worldwide fascination'' about his election, First Amendment free-speech rights and... The Swamp http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2175683/posts#comment Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:33:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2160022/posts As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama won applause from legal adversaries of the recording industry. Stanford law professor Larry Lessig, the doyen of the "free culture" movement, endorsed the Illinois senator, as did Google CEO Eric Schmidt and even the Pirate Party. That was then. As president-elect, one of Obama's first tech-related decisions has been to select the Recording Industry Association of America's favorite lawyer to be the third in command at the Justice Department. And Obama's pick as deputy attorney general, the second most senior position, is the lawyer who oversaw the defense of the Copyright Term Extension Act--the... CNet http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2160022/posts#comment Wed, 7 Jan 2009 03:17:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2148211/posts The Bambu rolling-paper company is smoking mad at a Barack Obama-loving artist for using its iconic packaging on T-shirts that show the president-elect smoking a joint. Seamus McGovern and his "Love Fatigues" Web business were hit with a trademark-infringement suit for putting Obama's name and face on the beige and white cover of "the world's finest rolling papers." The Manhattan federal court case claims the $22 "Obambu" shirts expose Bambu to "criticism and scorn" because they show Obama smoking weed, and could "confuse the consuming public" into believing they came from the company. New York Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2148211/posts#comment Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:07:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2107412/posts You may recall the lawsuit earlier this year, where radio talk show host Michael Savage tried to sue one of his critics for copyright infringement. The group in question had a pretty clear fair use claim, as they were using Savage's radio broadcasts for commentary and to respond to Savage's attacks on the group. And, in fact, a judge wasted little time explaining fair use to Savage, and tossing out the lawsuit. However, it appears that Savage hasn't yet learned his lesson on fair use, as he's apparently been sending more takedown notices to folks who use his recordings and... Techdirt http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2107412/posts#comment Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:52:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2105665/posts Syndicated talk host Michael Savage is being sued by a filmmaker over his demand that YouTube remove a video by the filmmaker criticizing Savage using excerpts from his show. Brave New Films alleges in the suit filed on Friday (10-10) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that use of the excerpts containing anti-Muslim rhetoric falls under "fair use." Robert Greenwald, a documentary filmmaker, uploaded to YouTube a short video titled "Michael Savage Hates Muslims," criticizing comments Savage made on a broadcast in October, 2007. The video contains about a minute of audio excerpts in which... Radio Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2105665/posts#comment Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:28:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2101511/posts John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono and EMI Records, the world's fourth largest music company, dropped copyright infringement lawsuits against the makers of a documentary that used the portion of the song "Imagine" without permission. The news was made public on Tuesday by a Stanford Law School's Fair Use Projects release. The dismissal follows unsuccessful attempts by Yoko Ono in federal court and EMI Records in state court to enjoin Premise Media Corp's documentary, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," because it uses a 15-second clip of the song. "We think it was clear from the beginning that our clients had every right... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2101511/posts#comment Thu, 9 Oct 2008 17:38:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2065643/posts A judge's ruling today is a major victory for free speech and fair use on the Internet, and will help protect everyone who creates content for the Web. In Lenz v. Universal (aka the "dancing baby" case), Judge Jeremy Fogel held that content owners must consider fair use before sending takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). Universal Music Corporation ("Universal") had sent a takedown notice targeting a 29-second home movie of a toddler dancing in a kitchen to a Prince song, "Let's Go Crazy," which is heard playing in the background. Because her use of the song... EFF http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2065643/posts#comment Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:09:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2054410/posts A federal judge has dismissed radio host Michael Savage's copyright infringement lawsuit against the Counsel on American-Islamic Relations, which had posted excerpts of one of his programs online. Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco ruled that the clips, totaling four minutes out of the two-hour Savage Nation program that ran on Oct. 29, 2007, constituted a fair use. "Defendants used plaintiff's material in order to criticize and comment on plaintiff's statements and views," Illston wrote in the 21-page ruling. Savage filed suit for copyright infringement and racketeering last December. Among other allegations, Savage asserted that the CAIR took his statements... MediaPost.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2054410/posts#comment Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:56:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2052738/posts Several newspapers and The Associated Press have settled a copyright infringement lawsuit against the operator of a collection of Web sites, the news organizations announced Friday. The Police News Publishing Co., Breck Porter and six affiliated Web sites had been accused of accessing the news content of the organizations without their authorization and posting it on the Web sites, where advertising appears. The content was then archived; the archiving, publication, distribution and display of the content all violated the news organizations' copyright, according to the suit. Porter, of Galveston, was the editor of the various Web sites. In addition to... businessweek.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2052738/posts#comment Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:34:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2052727/posts DBKP.com was alerted yesterday to both a good news-bad news situation by Doug Ross, of DougRoss@Journal. The good news was the TimesOnline had used several of our quotes from our interview this week with David Perel, Editor-in-Chief of the National Enquirer, in a story it ran July 26 2008 on John Edwards’ run-in with the Enquirer’s reporters at the Beverly Hilton while visiting his mistress and their love child. The bad news was that the Times reporter, Sarah Baxter, in her story, Sleaze scuppers Democrat golden boy never credited DBKP as her source for the quotes, which were taken word-for-word... bloggernews.net http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2052727/posts#comment Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:19:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036799/posts Excerpt - As the economic pressure on newspapers intensifies, the Associated Press, a 162-year-old newsgathering cooperative for the industry, is beginning to fracture. Long a newspaper-centric organization, the AP has shifted its focus in recent years. With readers and advertisers migrating away from news on printed paper and toward cable TV and the Web, the AP is devoting more of its resources to producing content for other news outlets. These include the very Web portals that pose the greatest competition for newspapers, such as Yahoo and Google, which are now among the AP's biggest customers. For some editors, the AP's... The Wall Street Journal (excerpt, subscription) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036799/posts#comment Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:59:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032646/posts Google deal uncovers truth that AP is now a competitor to newspapers, and papers are suckers for being members of it 9/2/07Posted by Steve Boriss in Uncategorized. trackback As reported by Jeff Jarvis and many others, Google News has just reached the incredibly obvious conclusion that its readers would rather not wade through dozens of nearly identical versions of the same original AP story that are published by its member papers. So, striking a deal with AP and three foreign wire services, Google News will now feature the originating wire service’s story, reducing the prominence and interest in similar members’ stories,... http://thefutureofnews.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032646/posts#comment Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:21:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2034087/posts I don't blame the Associated Press for refusing to participate in a conversation about its attempts to overthrow government authority and rewrite copyright law its own liking. The AP is like a husband who foolishly told his wife that the new jeans do make her butt look big. The best way to limit damage at that point is to simply shut up and hope the subject eventually goes away. But this issue isn't going away. The AP is doing nothing less than attempting to unilaterally rewrite copyright law, and also undermine citizens' freedom to criticize the news media. It's just... Information Week http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2034087/posts#comment Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:01:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2034075/posts No money changed hands but Rogers Cadenhead, who owns the Retort, evidently agreed to tweak the offending posts to bring them into compliance with the AP’s guidelines. And what might those guidelines be? He’s not saying. Yet. I spent around two hours yesterday talking to AP attorneys about their specific objections to the user blog entries in dispute, going line by line through the text to pinpoint exactly where they have intellectual property concerns in the short excerpts that were posted. I won’t reveal the details of this discussion until AP releases the guidelines for bloggers that it promised on... hotair.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2034075/posts#comment Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:39:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033008/posts Speak to any teacher these days and the biggest gripe about the internet age will probably be plagiarism. Where I teach in Rome, the university has a strict "no copying" policy. If a student is caught lifting text from a website and claiming it as his own, that’s grounds for failure. End of story. And, if the crime is particularly grievous, it could lead to expulsion. The one-strike-and-you’re-out policy isn’t perfect, but it seems to strike enough fear into enough students to get them to think twice about stealing somebody else’s work on Shakespeare or Cicero or Einstein. If only... Times Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033008/posts#comment Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:03:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2032830/posts Bloggers, like me, are voicing their views and commentary on the news (and falsehoods, etc) of the day as is our right under the constitution.  When a corporation tries to tell me I cannot comment, criticize (and more often correct) their lousy product I lose all interest in being reasonable.  There are lines you do not cross because they cannot be uncrossed. The-news-source-that-shall-not-be-named, which went after bloggers for excerpting and linking their biased and error prone ‘news’ articles, crossed that line - in full hypocrisy it seems: 1. The AP is essentially arguing that anyone who excerpts 33 to 79... Strata Sphere http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2032830/posts#comment Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:55:36 GMT