Publishers and manufacturers want to use copyright to stop people selling books or watches from other countries in the US. The Supreme Court is hearing a major case today that will force it to choose between consumers and sellers. Read more »
A skirmish between Google and newspapers over crawling of news headlines suggests Latin America’s digital publishing sector is maturing. But can Google keep publishers sweet enough to exploit opportunities in the fast-growing Brazilian market? Read more »
A federal court has found that scanning books for search — which Google was doing for a university project called the Hathi Trust — is clearly covered by the “fair use” principle in copyright law, which could help Google in its own lawsuit with the Authors Guild. Read more at GigaOM »
An appeals court granted a stay in the copyright dispute between the Authors Guild and Google so it can review a lower court’s decision to let the class action advance. The literary community is watching to learn if Google’s book scanning will be considered “fair use.” Read more »
Moves to allow the digitization of ‘orphan works’ and free up the metadata around 20 million cultural objects will benefit the public and could inspire a new wave of apps and web services. But the underlying motivation is fundamentally political. Read more »
Remember that Hugo Awards live stream that got yanked off Ustream earlier this week just as author Neil Gaiman was delivering his acceptance speech? Ustream blamed Vobile’s content filters for the incident. Now Vobile is shooting back and saying it was all Ustream’s fault. Read more »
South Africa’s government has been urged to get tough with ISPs that refuse to pay royalties and to introduce graduated-response piracy measures against freeloaders, by a report that decries a dysfunctional digital content market. Read more »
The long-running copyright lawsuit over Google’s book scanning — in which the Authors Guild is seeking $750 per book — is turning into a procedural snarl as both the case and an appeal go forward at the same time. A new order confirms that the parties are due in court in December. Read more »
Aereo, a technology that uses tiny antennas to let people watch TV on the go, has already generated a flurry of lawsuits. Now the man behind Aereo is suing a copycat service for using his name. The disputes highlight disruptions to the traditional TV industry. Read more »
The company doesn’t think it’s a great idea for search engines to have to pay to reproduce headlines and story summaries in their results. But that’s nothing on the crazy earlier draft of this proposed law. Read more »
Judge Denny Chin has allowed a coalition of scholars, librarians and digital activists to file briefs in support of Google as part of the long-running copyright controversy over the company’s book scanning. The ruling will serve to draw further attention to fair use issues. Read more »
Intellectual property is about assigning ownership of brands and ideas. Here are some highlights from a gathering of leading thinkers in the field — in an easy to skim format. Read more at GigaOM »
Broadcasters are in a pitched fight with Aereo over whether the TV-streaming service violates copyright. Now, Fox is suing an Aereo copycat called BarryDriller.com. The cases will help define the laws for how we watch TV in coming years. Read more at GigaOM »
Google will tweak its search algorithm to push pirated content further down in search results — a move welcomed by the film and music industries. Read more »
Craigslist is no longer asking users for an exclusive rights in their classified ads but it has hardly backed off on an unpopular campaign to shut down popular rivals like PadMapper. Read more at GigaOM »
Recent reports say Google could be on the hook for billions if it loses a long-running copyright case with the Authors Guild. A closer look at the claims, however, show that only a fraction of authors would be eligible to collect. Read more »
A court filing provides new details about how Google scanned 20 million books and its reasons for doing so. The new facts come at a time when the long running case between Google and the Authors Guild is heading to an end game. Read more »
Craigslist this week told users that it can use the classifieds they post as the basis for lawsuits against other sites. The claim appears weak from a legal standpoint and even worse from a public relations one. Read more at GigaOM »
Apple’s legal tactics are as carefully designed as its products. Here’s a look at Apple’s distinct efforts to wrap its gadgets in a legal forcefield and drive away competitors. Read more at GigaOM »
The Associated Press continues to evolve from a news service to a broader, one-stop shop for a broad variety of content. AP now has audio offerings thanks to a new alliance with indie music licensor Audiosocket. Read more »
France’s Supreme Court has set aside a critical piracy ruling won by Google in 2011, leaving the door open to the search giant being forced to censor some of its autocomplete listings to prevent copyright infringement and piracy. Read more »
Only a handful of very large software and entertainment associations are permitted to use the official FBI logo to warn consumers about the perils of piracy. Until now, that is. Read more »
The European Commission proposed a law on Wednesday to pave the way for easier digital distribution. Prominent musicians, however, immediately slammed the proposal, saying it fails to fix problems of inefficiency and embezzlement. Read more »
The European Parliament has delivered a stunning defeat to the controversial anti-piracy treaty ACTA, voting it down by 478 votes to 39. But although campaigners are claiming victory and the proposals are on the canvas, they’re not quite knocked out yet. Read more »
Under new proposals from the British media regulator Ofcom, internet providers will start sending warning letters to those accused of illegal filesharing in 18 months — and will be forced to handed people’s data over to copyright holders after three successive hits. Read more »
In an act of childishness worthy of his championship players, a minority owner of the Miami Heat NBA team has filed a copyright suit against a blogger for posting a photo of him. He is also suing Google for refusing to take the photo down. Read more »
In a victory for Comcast, a federal judge in Chicago quashed four subpoenas that would have let a porn studio identify hundreds of subscribers accused of using torrent technology to share videos. Read more »
In a move that suggests Google is coming to see itself as a content owner, the company is threatening legal action against sites that let users strip audio from YouTube videos and play them as stand-alone audio clips. Read more »
In a major development in the long-running case over Google’s unauthorized book-scanning, a federal judge ruled today that groups representing authors and photographers could go forward with a class action. Read more »
The judge in the notorious trial between Oracle and Google over Java software declared at the outset that the case was the “World Series” of intellectual property. And no wonder. The two sides have already spent nearly the annual payroll of the San Diego Padres. Read more at GigaOM »
Image-sharing site Pinterest has been in negotiations for months with photo service Getty. A breakthrough could dispel some of the copyright questions hanging over the red-hot start-up — but one expert says not to hold your breath. Read more »
Google is waving its victory in front of French culture makers, after emerging winner from a copyright infringement case brought by France’s largest TV network. Read more »
Here we go again. Another disruptive TV technology, another major lawsuit. This time Dish Network and the major TV networks are suing each other over what Dish calls its “best in class DVR” technology. Read more »
Bloomberg, the mighty news and data empire owned by the mayor of New York City, is an unlikely candidate to strike a blow for flexible copyright laws. Read more »
Russia’s leading social network, Facebook copycat vKontakte, loses an appeal against a copyright conviction – is that an opportunity for Mark Zuckerberg in Moscow? Read more »
Russia’s government has commissioned the building of a system which would let copyright owners identify unauthorised use of their works online. Read more »
In a long-awaited ruling on digital age “coursepacks,” a federal judge drew some bright lines about how professors can share reading materials with their students. Read more »
Verizon Communications has had a history of standing up against publishers seeking to subpoena information about its subscribers and their downloading habits, so it’s not a big surprise to see Big Red telling John Wiley’s lawyers to stuff it. Read more at GigaOM »
The hacking collective claims to have crashed the website of Virgin Media in retribution for complying with an order to block UK Pirate Bay access – but Bay honchos condemn the act. Read more »
In a bitter coincidence, hip-hop great Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys was hit by a copyright lawsuit on the same day he passed away from cancer last week at the age of 47. Read more »
