Introduction to Intellectual Property

From DigitalMediaWire:

CNET News.com recently reported on two current battles brewing between copyright holders, consumer groups and consumer electronics firms, over what kind of copy-protection should be installed on new TVs and radios that accept digital broadcasts, and whether or not the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should mandate the security technologies. The first article discusses negotiations over the "broadcast flag," which would allow Hollywood to regulate how digital TV shows and movies can be shuffled between TVs, digital video recorders and PCs. The second story focuses on a letter sent by several consumers groups to the FCC, urging them to delay any regulation of the nascent digital radio broadcasting industry until a "strict review of technical costs and benefits" can be conducted.

When writers get mad

From GrepLaw:

An editorial against Lessig, and Lessig's response. Review of Free Culture, response.

Dollars for Dialing

Here’s a link to an article on the “gray market” for telephone numbers. (This is actually a link to Google’s cached page, since accessing two-week old articles from the Baltimore Sun requires registration.) While it seems troubling that people are able to create a valuable alienable product out of what ought to be essentially a public good, the bulk of the uses seem perfectly consistent with current trademark law.

As far as “typo-dialing,” here’s an article on Matt Besser. He built a stand-up act around the misdialed calls he received that were intended for a similarly-numbered computer company helpline. It seems pretty clear that he didn’t seek out that telephone number in ‘bad faith,’ and moreover, he had legitimate First Amendment interests in what he chose to say or not say when he answered his own phone. Nevertheless, his use of the telephone number -- intentionally misleading consumers in such a way that he was able to profit from it -- seems questionable from a trademark perspective. Should the law be any different if people are mistakenly calling you, as opposed to you cold-calling them in the hopes that you can profit from their likelihood of confusion?

Nombres de dominio

Not really current events, but today's class reminded me about a suit filed by whatshappenin.com against quepasa.com. (Article here). I think it eventually settled. It was filed as a regular trademark infringement case, but I'm guessing it wouldn't fly under the UDRP either.

A Panicked RIAA

The New York Times reported on a study by 2 economists concluding that "Downloads have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from zero, despite rather precise estimates." RIAA is, as you might expect, not pleased with this, and appears rather flustered.

stretching 'novelty' and apple's UI

Apple has filed a patent for the interface on its iPod mp3 players--it would appear that they're reaching as far as possible with this one, e.g.:

Claim 34: While this invention has been described in terms of a preferred embodiment, there are alterations, permutations, and equivalents that fall within the scope of this invention. It should also be noted that there are many alternative ways of implementing both the process and apparatus of the present invention. It is therefore intended that the invention be interpreted as including all such alterations, permutations, and equivalents as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.

patent application by steve jobs & co.:
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20040055446&OS=20040055446&RS=20040055446

commentary on slashdot:
http://slashdot.org/articles/04/03/27/2144253.shtml?tid=155&tid=176&tid=188&tid=99

Obsessed with Lessig?

Lessig has released his new book Free Culture under the Creative Commons license - attribution, non-commercial. Download: Torrent, HTTP.

And here's an NPR interview: http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1785931

Hyperlinks, Hate Speech, and Holding Out On Treaties

In fine international form, the U.S. is once again holding out on a treaty - this one calls for policing hate speech on the internet. This is also related to our discussion today of the boundaries of the First Amendment, and our previous discussion (re 2600) if linking to other sites is protected by that amendment.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/02/06/findlaw.analysis.ramasastry.cyberlaw/index.html

RIAA vs UPenn

For those who havn't seen this already, the RIAA has filed a new round of music copyright infringement suits against 21 American universities, UPenn included. You can read about it in today's Daily Pennsylvanian.

Recording Industry Web Site Downed

The RIAA's website has been shutdown. The Association has been keeping the story quiet since last Wednesday when the site went down and did not give much information to the press. Apparently, a virus was created to target the RIAA's site and cause it serious problems. It is unknown whether the virus actually infected the website or if the RIAA shut it down itself once it received warning of the potential threat. I have included some of an article discussing the issue below.

Later this week (or weekend), I will be posting some of the statistics on the music industry during the "Napster Era". I did mention a few of the key stats during class a few weeks ago, but after recent debates I have promised a couple of people that I'd post my arguments - While we have been off the copyright topic for a while, I don't think there were too many students who agreed with my opinions and I'm interested to see the responses. So until then...

"Recording Industry Web Site Downed
Mon Mar 22, 3:59 PM ET
By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES - The Web site for the recording industry's anti-piracy lobby has been inaccessible for several days, possibly the victim of a computer virus specifically targeting the site.

The Recording Industry Association of America's site at riaa.com was among the targets named in the "MyDoom.F" virus, which Internet security firms spotted last month. The site has been down since Wednesday and remained offline Monday...

It's not clear whether the virus actually caused an Internet traffic jam that shut down the site, or if the RIAA opted to take the site down in anticipation of the virus' activation.

...The RIAA site has been attacked several times since July 2002. As the trade organization for the major recording label, the RIAA has been at the forefront of efforts to stop file-sharing programs..."

If you are interested in reading more about this, here is the link...CLICK HERE