Photographers urge action over copyright outrage: related news

Photographers urge action over copyright 'outrage'

UK photographers have been urged to lobby the government over what is seen as a worldwide copyright threat imposed by proposed legislation in the United States.

Copyright Office Releases Online Registration of Claims

Beginning July 1, 2008, the Copyright Office is offering online registration of claims to copyright. Online registration through the electronic Copyright Office (eCO) is the preferred way to register basic claims for literary works; visual arts works; performing arts works, including motion pictures; sound recordings; and single serials. Advantages of online filing include a lower filing fee; the fastest processing time; online status tracking of your claim; secure payment by credit or debit card, electronic check, or Copyright Office deposit account; and the ability to upload certain categories of deposits directly into eCO as electronic files. To register your claim electronically, go to the Copyright Office website at www.copyright.gov and click on the eCO logo.

Elsevier Selects Rightslink for Online Copyright Permissions

Copyright Clearance Center Inc. (CCC), a provider of copyright licensing solutions, has announced that Elsevier, a scientific, technical and medical (STM) publisher, has selected CCC’s Rightslink service for online ordering of copyright permissions. Rightslink will improve customer service by providing a real-time service for Elsevier content users to use copyrighted material published in 2,000 Elsevier journals. Rightslink will enable Elsevier journal subscribers to order permissions directly through ScienceDirect, Elsevier’s major full-text platform that offers over 8 million articles online from over 2,000 peer-reviewed journals published in 24 fields of science.

Photographers snap over artists' theft

EASTERN Cape photographers are in a tizz over infringement of their copyright, with artists copying their photographs in the form of paintings and selling these for up to R100000 – with the photographer not receiving a cent or any recognition.

EU Plans To Extend Copyright; Turns Copyright System Into Welfare For Musicians

Just as we feared, the EU has now approved copyright extension of performance royalties from 50 years to 95 years. This is basically an approval to steal from the public. The public made a deal with musicians 50 years ago: give us music, and we'll give you performance royalties for 50 years. The musicians accepted that, and it was a worthwhile deal for them. Yet, now, the government has decided to change the deal, remove that content from the public domain and give it to the musicians for another 45 years. This is, simply, bad policy. It encourages the exact wrong behavior: telling people that the public will pay them for work they did many many years ago over and over again. This doesn't encourage musicians to continue working and it doesn't encourage them to be fiscally responsible and save for retirement or anything.

Karaoke System Suppliers, SHINE Multimedia Co. Ltd and Thunderstone Technology Ltd, Investigated for Providing Pirated Songs

BEIJING, June 25 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The Karaoke Copyright Operation Center of China Audio-Video Copyright Association (CAVCA) revealed that the two companies, SHINE Multimedia Co. Ltd and Thunderstone Technology Ltd, were investigated by copyright authorities on June 20th because they were suspected of illegally copying and supplying pirated songs to Karaoke operators. In May of this year, the Yunnan Copyright Administration received complaints against the Kunming offices of these two companies from China Audio -Video Copyright Association, Music Copyright Society of China (MCSC) and some other rights owners, who claim that the two companies produced and sold VOD systems to Karaoke operators, copied and sold large numbers of music works, including Love Me or Not.

Copyright Office Amends Rules Governing Interest Payments on Certain Royalty Fees and Makes Technical Amendment

In light of the Copyright Office’s electronic funds transfer requirement, the Copyright Office is amending its rules governing the payment of interest on late or underpaid royalty fees under the Copyright Act to clarify when interest for late payments and underpayments is due. The Copyright Office is also making a technical correction to its satellite carrier requirements to recognize changes made to section 119 in 2004. (Read further information.) (Read further information.)

EU Again Thinks About Extending Copyright, Despite Earlier Rejection

Copyright was never designed to be a welfare system -- yet increasingly we're hearing from people who seem to think it is one. A couple years ago, the UK commissioned a detailed report on the question of copyright extension, known as the Gowers Report -- which clearly recommended against extending copyright on performance rights. In fact, Gowers later admitted that all the evidence suggested that copyright length should be shortened, rather than lengthened. And, for at least a little while, the government agreed.

Should Organizations Get To Ignore Copyright For The Sake Of Preservation?

Copyright was clearly designed for a different age: when not everyone was a "publisher." And while we've spent years pointing out many of the different problems that has caused, here's another one: how is a library or some other institution charged with "archiving" written works for posterity supposed to deal with copyright laws that can often make such archival activities against the law? Well, the Library of Congress and a bunch of other organizations have a suggestion: let them all ignore copyright law for the sake of archiving. Basically, the report recommends that certain organizations be designated as "preservation institutions," which are then more or less allowed to ignore copyright law and copy-at-will for the sake of preservation. Of course, this is clearly going to lead to many questions, including just who would get designated

Copyright Police May Seize Laptops, MP3 Players

"iPods, iPhones, laptops and other digital devices could be seized by customs officials worldwide under a new top-secret copyright policing deal being worked out between the G8 nations, reports claim. Nations including Canada, the US and various European states (including the UK, which sits on the G8) are secretly agreeing a new pan-global state police deal in which information held on iPods and other devices could be subject to investigation by customs officials tasked with a new role, as copyright police. Dubbed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), signatory nations will form an international coalition against copyright infringement. The deal’s up for discussion at the next G8 meeting in Tokyo in July, It creates rules and regulations to govern private copying and copyright laws, and posits the founding of an international

Copyright Office: cable should lose special access to local channels

Cable and satellite broadcasters have long relied on a special set of three narrow statutory licenses that Congress gave them years ago to help prop up the pay-TV industry in its infancy. The licenses (found in sections 111, 119, and 122 of the Copyright Act) allow the pay-TV providers to grab certain over-the-air signals from local broadcasters or from far-off "superstations" like WGN in Chicago and transmit them over their own networks without asking permission. They have to pay, but the amount is fixed by Congress and is likely below market rates. A new report from the Copyright Office (PDF) suggests that this system should come to an end, and that it should not be extended to Internet broadcasters.

U.S. Copyright Office Releases New Technology

The Copyright Office announced that it will enter the next phase in the implementation of its business process reengineering effort to modernize operations from a paper-based to a Web-based processing environment. At the center of the reengineering initiative is a new online registration system named electronic Copyright Office (eCO). Filing an eService claim via eCO allows for a lower filing fee; online status tracking; secure payment by credit or debit card, electronic check or Copyright Office deposit account; and ability to upload certain categories of deposits directly into eCO as electronic files. Users who intend to submit a hard copy of the work being registered may file an application and payment online. eCO may be used to register basic claims to copyright for literary works, visual arts works, performing arts works including mo

Copyleft, Copyright and Everything in Between

As the Internet and file-sharing have mushroomed rapidly over the past few years, copyright law has been questioned by a myriad of organizations and individuals, including file-sharers and the student-based Free Culture movement. Within the filmmaking community there have been a range of standpoints in the debate over intellectual property rights as well. Some choose to throw their work immediately into the public domain, while traditionalists favor full copyright laws to protect their work from being pilfered. Then there are the in-betweens who put only partial restrictions on their work.

Applauding Copyright Bill's Introduction...

TORONTO, June 12 /CNW/ - The members of the Canadian Publishers' Council welcome the long-awaited copyright reform bill that will modernize Canada's Copyright Act. It will enable Canada to ratify the crucial WIPO digital treaties and buttress the rights of copyright creators and producers in a digital world. Our knowledge-based economy will reap benefits from strong copyright legislation while serving Canadians well with access to an ever-increasing repertoire of digital works.

Applauding Copyright Bill's Introduction...

TORONTO, June 12 /CNW/ - The members of the Canadian Publishers' Council welcome the long-awaited copyright reform bill that will modernize Canada's Copyright Act. It will enable Canada to ratify the crucial WIPO digital treaties and buttress the rights of copyright creators and producers in a digital world. Our knowledge-based economy will reap benefits from strong copyright legislation while serving Canadians well with access to an ever-increasing repertoire of digital works.

The Other Future Of Copyright: The Draconian Suffocating One

The fourth piece in the Cato Institute's Future of Copyright series is a bit bizarre. Written by Tom Bell, who we've mentioned before for his efforts to get people to start calling "intellectual property" "intellectual privilege", it attempts to take a look at the "other" future of copyright. It's sort of the opposite scenario to Rasmus Fleischer's opening piece imagining a world without copyright. Bell's piece tries to get into the mindset of a Hollywood exec, explaining why it seems to make sense to make copyright more and more draconian in an effort to make the "costs" of infringement go up by attacking infringers with everything they've got. Of course, this isn't surprising, and even Bell sort of makes the half-hearted case for it, as he admits at the end.

Japan Considers Fair-Use Clause Based on U.S. Copyright Law

The Japanese government's group in charge of copyright reform is proposing the addition of fair-use clauses similar to those found in the United States Copyright Law. The current Japanese Copyright Law requires permission from the copyright holders for any kind of copying or use, except for personal, library, or academic purposes. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters proposes to expand these exceptions by considering other factors, including whether the copying or use is intended for non-commercial purposes and whether they influence the market or value of the original work.

UK Government May Extend Copyright, Despite Saying It Wouldn't

Back in 2006, you may recall that the UK released the so-called Gowers' Report, which was a look into various issues having to do with copyright law in the UK. I pointed out, at the time, that the report was too balanced for its own good, focusing on how to "balance" one side's views against the other's -- without recognizing there could be paths that made everyone better off. The one thing it got sort of right, was in making it quite clear that extending the length of copyright was a bad, bad idea and totally unnecessary. In fact, Gowers later admitted that he toned down the report, since the actual evidence he found suggested that things would be better if copyright length were shortened -- but he knew suggesting that would lead to screams of outrage from the industry.

Is Watching An Infringing YouTube Video Copyright Infringement?

Last year we pointed to a report where a law professor tallied up how much he "infringed" on copyright in a regular day, coming out with a multi-million dollar total. Now Tom writes in to alert us to an article by Chris Soghoian questioning whether or not watching an infringing video on YouTube counts as infringement as well. The summary is that it's hardly a clearcut issue -- which should be seen as a problem. A copyright holder could conceivably make an argument that it's infringement, though it's not clear that it would hold up in court (and the backlash against anyone stupid enough to make such an argument would be overwhelming). What this really highlights, though, is how poorly our copyright laws are structured for the internet age, where anyone can create, distribute and consume tons and tons of content (all covered by copyright, t

Over-The-Air Video Service of Napster Inc debuts in Japan and offers unlimited over-the-air music and videos

TMCNet: Over-The-Air Video Service of Napster Inc debuts in Japan and offers unlimited over-the-air music and videos

Mattel triumphs over MGA in Bratz copyright row

LONDON - Mattel has won its copyright infringement case against MGA Entertainment over who owns the original drawings for the successful $1bn-plus Bratz dolls franchise.

A $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit over YouTube's ability to keep copyrighted material off its popular video-sharing site threatens how hundreds of millions of people exchange all kinds of information on the Internet, owner Google Inc. said.

NEW YORK - A $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit over YouTube's ability to keep copyrighted material off its popular video-sharing site threatens how hundreds of millions of people exchange all kinds of information on the Internet, owner Google Inc. said.

The Canadian Photographers Coalition (CPC) welcomes copyright reform legislation

OTTAWA, June 13 /CNW Telbec/ - The Canadian Photographers Coalition (CPC) congratulates the federal government on the introduction of copyright reform legislation.

Napster Debuts New Over-The-Air Video Service in Japan and Offers Unlimited Over-The-Air Music and Videos on New NTT DoCoMo Handsets

Napster Debuts New Over-The-Air Video Service in Japan and Offers Unlimited Over-The-Air Music and Videos on New NTT DoCoMo Handsets

Adobe hands over copyright to PDF format

Adobe has expressed interest in making the movement of digital document files more open, and having their format (PDF), being the popular standard. PDF's will soon become the international standard for electronic documents after Adobe handed over the copyright to ISO.

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