The great game between broadcasters and upstart services that stream TV took another turn this week as Fox and others filed a new copyright lawsuit in Washington, DC. Read more »
The New York Times’ legal response to a startup whose software allows publishers to replicate the look of the NYT’s Snow Fall feature goes so far above and beyond a simple cease-and-desist it becomes ridiculous. Read more »
The long-running fight over Google’s decision to scan the world’s library books took a new twist on Wednesday as an appeals court pushed the parties over copyright law’s “fair use” doctrine. Read more »
Aereo, which sells $8 a month subscriptions to watch TV on mobile devices, has responded to lawsuits from broadcasters by filing an unorthodox suit of its own this week. The suit may be for PR purposes more than legal ones. Read more »
Companies want to use Craigslist’s large pool of user-generated classified ads to create new services. Are they innovators or criminals? A California court ruling will help determine that. Read more at GigaOM »
When is the use of another artist’s image “transformative” and when is it just copyright infringement? A major court ruling provides broader protection for appropriation artists. Read more »
Aereo, a service that lets you watch live TV on your phone, is going live in Boston on May 15. Read more »
The long-awaited Digital Public Library of America launched this week — but its collection does not include the digital repositories of many major university libraries. Meanwhile, a much bigger library collection scanned by Google is tied up in court. Read more »
YouTube notched a major victory in its long-running copyright suit with Google. A New York judge emphatically rejected Viacom’s theory that YouTube had “red flag” knowledge that made it liable for content uploaded by its users. Read more »
Fox, PBS and other broadcasters filed for a New York appeals court to revisit a crucial ruling that permitted start-up Aereo to beam their signals. The appeal raises the stakes further in a battle for the future of TV. Read more »
Mendeley, an open collaboration platform for scientific research, has promised that it won’t become less open after being acquired by journal publisher Elsevier, but some prominent users aren’t waiting around. Read more »
In “The Slow Death of the American Author,” Scott Turow decries the state of the country’s copyright system. He gets it wrong and hurts the Authors Guild’s standing among potential allies. Read more »
Have you checked out Vine recently? Legendary pop artist Prince has, with his record label filing a copyright notice with Twitter regarding videos on Vine. It seems like the general public might be giving Vine a serious look. Read more at GigaOM »
A major appeals court ruling says that Aereo — which lets users watch and record live TV to mobile devices — doesn’t violate copyright law. The decision is the biggest blow yet to the existing TV business. Read more at GigaOM »
ReDigi claims to offer a legal way for consumers to buy and sell iTunes tracks through its “music locker.” In a stern court ruling, a judge said the service amounts to widespread copyright infringement. Read more »
A New York court issued a major ruling that limits the amount of content an internet scraping service can take without paying for it. Here’s a plain English explanation. Read more »
The Supreme Court sided with a student textbook seller agains the publisher John Wiley in a major dispute over who can resell copyrighted works. Read more »
Google is trying to paint a new German law regulating news excerpts as a victory, just as it did with the deals it cut with France and Belgium . But it feels like Google is losing more than it is winning. Read more »
A new system of warnings for users who download copyrighted content is being rolled out by some of the biggest internet service providers in the United States. Is it something you should be concerned about? That depends. Read more at GigaOM »
How much can news agencies like the AP control their stories on the internet? The New York Times has just weighed in on a critical case that will help determine that. Read more »
After a fan posted a video of a horrific crash at a NASCAR event, the organizer removed it claiming copyright infringement, but Google over-ruled the company — an example of a decision that happens all too rarely. Read more »
Cries for copyright reform have typically come from Silicon Valley liberals. But in recent months, conservatives are adding arguments of their own. This presents the chance to reach a grand bargain on fixing copyright. Read more at GigaOM »
Some call it aggregation, while others call it copyright infringement or even theft. In a recent Twitter debate sparked by a post on the topic, Digiday’s editor-in-chief and Business Insider founder Henry Blodget traded theories. Read more »
Amazon has won a patent to create a virtual marketplace where users could resell digital content like apps, songs and ebooks. But it’s unclear whether such a marketplace would be legal under current copyright law. Read more »
While Google may see its payments to French publishers as a smart move for its own short-term purposes, the deal is still being seen by many as a payment for links, and that could set a dangerous precedent. Read more at GigaOM »
Antigua says it can disregard American patent and copyright law, thanks to a trade ruling. Here’s a quick summary plus a funny Taiwanese video to explain it all. Read more at GigaOM »
Flamboyant entrepreneur Kim Dotcom is marketing his new file-sharing locker as “the privacy company.” Is he for real or are the privacy claims just a cynical cover-up for a new piracy business? Read more »
A new court ruling forces the Washington Post to pay for publishing disaster photos found on Twitter. The ruling may seem fair but it will do nothing to solve bigger issues of copyright law in the age of photo sharing. Read more »
Huge and expensive patent battles aren’t going away anytime soon– in fact, they’re likely to continue to pick up steam this year. Efrat Kasznik, of Foresight Valuation Group, lays out some of the intellectual property battlegrounds of tomorrow. Read more at GigaOM »
The body that represents Ireland’s major newspapers says a charity group’s website should pay substantial licensing fees for simply linking to its members’ content — and it is also lobbying to have the country’s copyright laws define the simple act of linking as copyright infringement. Read more »
It will soon become legal in the UK to copy music from a CD to an iPod, show copyrighted texts on an interactive whiteboard and use copyrighted works in a parody. In other words, this reform was sorely needed. Read more »
There’s a brewing conflict over consumers’ rights to use platforms like ReDigi to resell their books, music and other digital property. Now libraries and companies like eBay and Redbox are leading a campaign to pass “You bought it, you own it” laws. Read more »
Aereo, which lets consumers in New York watch live TV on their phones and online, now has a cable channel. The deal shows viewers it can get more content — and also gives it a small PR boost in its legal fight with broadcasters. Read more at GigaOM »
Google and Belgian news publishers announced a deal that will put an end to their copyright dispute. Google says it is not paying the papers for content — so then why is money changing hands? Read more »
Consumers in Austria could be forced to pay rights holders for accessing cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive, if an authors’ rights group has its way. The plan is being vehemently opposed by a group of CE makers and internet companies. Read more »
A copyright law that lets authors break contracts after 35 years will start taking effect in January. The law, which is meant to give authors like Stephen King and Judy Blume a “second bite at the apple,” could provide yet another disruption for traditional publishers. Read more »
An old hoax has resurfaced that suggests Facebook users can tell the company what to do by posting a legal notice on their profile. Alas, it’s not true — your interactions with the company are governed by law and licenses, not your wishes. Read more at GigaOM »
In the fight about royalties from streaming media services like Pandora, Popular cellist Zoë Keating says she’s willing to give up the money in exchange for data. It’s an idea that’s gaining traction elsewhere, too, as more companies are paying consumers for their truly valuable data. Read more »
The European Commission wants to make it easier for digital services to offer content across the bloc’s national borders. Now research examines whether citizens want it as much as operators do. Read more »
The popularity of image sites like Instagram and Pinterest means more photo sharing — but also more copyright infringement. If we’re to avoid the bitter experience of the music industry, image owners should look to Dreamstime’s example of turning infringers into customers. Read more »
