At one point Viacom, the cable powerhouse that owns networks such as MTV and Comedy Central, had been seeking $1 billion in damages from Google. But no money traded hands in the settlement, according to people familiar with the transaction.
via It’s Over! Viacom and Google Settle YouTube Lawsuit. | Re/code.
Projects like Wikipedia, uses such as text and data mining, online access to cultural heritage and educational resources, and transformative use of the Internet do not follow the same logic as the traditional content industry value chains. Here limited user rights and long terms of protection become problematic and increased enforcement translates into chilling effects.
At the same time all of these types of uses are exactly what makes the Internet special and drives its potential to accelerate innovation and to democratize access to knowledge, tools and culture. The Internet is the first mass medium that is simultaneously enabling market driven uses, uses that are driven by public policy objectives (such as education or access to culture), and uses driven by people’s desire to create, collaborate and contribute to the commons.
“It suggests, falsely, that ideas are property and that building on others’ ideas always requires permission,” Stoltz says. “The overriding message of this curriculum is that students’ time should be consumed not in creating but in worrying about their impact on corporate profits.”
While spending some time on my Facebook feed I came across a post I missed earlier by a friend of mine Den Lennie talking about censorship from a test he did on some lights. It would seem that the company Rotolight didn’t fare as well as they would have liked and decided to file a DMCA notice with Vimeo. This is a disturbing trend that companies are trying to use to remove tests that they don’t like, and even bigger brands are trying to use it as GoPro tried to do with a review it didn’t like. Though GoPro upper management realized it stepped in it and backtracked a bit saying it was just the images they were filing on not the review content.
via Rotolight uses DMCA to claim ”Infringement” on Review it didn’t like – Dave Lawlor {Dot} Com.
Video games are treated differently, though, primarily because they exist on a screen rather than a board. “A video game under copyright law is an audiovisual work, which gives a public performance right to the copyright holder,” Dallas attorney and Law of the Game blog author Mark Methenitis explained in an interview with Ars. “Under the public performance right, the copyright holder is allowed to say when, where, or whether something is publicly performed, meaning displayed in front of a group of people larger than, say, at your house.”
In other words, if you want to put on a Street Fighter tournament and charge people to watch, Capcom can make you get a license for the “public performance” of the game. In fact, that is exactly what Capcom does with for-profit tournaments.
via Why Nintendo can legally shut down any Smash Bros. tournament it wants | Ars Technica.
“Additionally, software can be written that will allow only authorized users to open files containing valuable information. If an unauthorized person accesses the information, a range of actions might then occur. For example, the file could be rendered inaccessible and the unauthorized user’s computer could be locked down, with instructions on how to contact law enforcement to get the password needed to unlock the account. Such measures do not violate existing laws on the use of the Internet, yet they serve to blunt attacks and stabilize a cyber incident to provide both time and evidence for law enforcement to become involved.”
via Lauren Weinstein’s Blog: USA Intellectual Property Theft Commission Recommends Malware!.
Oracle lost in their attempt to protect their position using patents. They lost in their attempt to claim Google copied anything but a few lines of code. If they succeed in claiming you need their permission to use the Java APIs that they pushed as a community standard, software developers and innovation will be the losers. Learning the Java language is relatively simple, but mastering its APIs is a major investment you make as a Java developer. What Android did for Java developers is to allow them to make use of their individual career and professional investment to engage in a mobile marketplace that Sun failed to properly engage in.
via Developer Freedom At Stake As Oracle Clings To Java API Copyrights In Google Fight | TechCrunch.
In Europe, sound recordings enter the public domain 50 years after their initial release. … , a published U.S. sound recording created in 1890 will not enter the public domain until 177 years after its creation, constituting a term of rights protection 82 years longer than that of all other forms of audio visual works made for hire.”
via Copyright Protection That Serves to Destroy | Sightings by Terry Teachout – WSJ.com.
Avaya, for example, is known for suing service companies, accusing them of violating copyright for simply using a password to log in to their phone systems. That’s right: typing in a password is considered “reproducing copyrighted material.”
Because manufacturers have copyrighted the service manuals, local mechanics can’t fix modern equipment. And today’s equipment — packed with sensors and electronics — is too complex to repair without them. That’s a problem for farmers, who can’t afford to pay the dealer’s high maintenance fees for fickle equipment.
A video of the wreck, shot by a fan and uploaded almost immediately to YouTube, detailed some of the carnage that swept across the stands and the race-goers that filled them. In a particularly intense moment, one person appeared to be pinned down by an errant wheel that flew off one of the wrecked cars.
But just as quickly as it was uploaded, the video was taken down from YouTube at Nascar’s request, citing copyright concerns.
via A Race, a Crash and the Nascar Approach to YouTube Video Takedowns – Mike Isaac – Media – AllThingsD.
The copyright to any video or photograph is owned by the person taking that video or photograph. This is clearly an abuse of DMCA. Here’s an update from the above linked to site with a restored link to the video in question.
Update 7:45 pm PT: Well would you look at that. Not more than a few hours later, the video in question has been unblocked, and is now viewable on YouTube user Tyler4DX’s page.