Digital Rights Network - Copyright

British Academy Report: Copyright and research in the humanities and social sciences

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 10:50:06 +0100

The British Academy has just published its report on "Copyright and research in the humanities and social sciences". They find a variety of problems (detailed below) and also provide an extensive set of recommendations (see the Executive Summary linked from the main report page.

The findings of the Review

* Copyright law generally provides exemptions for fair dealing for private study and non-commercial research, and for purposes of criticism and review. These exemptions should normally be sufficient for academic and scholarly use.

* The problems lie in narrow interpretation, both by rights holders and by publishers of new works which refer to existing copyright material. These problems are acute in some subjects, particularly music, and history and film studies.

* Copyright holders have become more sensitive in defence of their rights, as a result of the development of new media, and are more aggressive in seeking to maximise revenue from the rights, even if the legal basis of their claims is weak.

* Risk averse publishers, who are often themselves rights holders, demand that unnecessary permissions be obtained, and such permissions are often refused or granted on unreasonable terms.

* There is an absence of case law, because the financial stakes involved in each individual case are small relative to the costs of litigation.

* Publishers and authors are very uncertain as to the true position and misapprehensions are widespread.

* There are well-founded concerns that new database rights and the development of digital rights management systems (DRMs) may enable rights holders to circumvent the effects of the copyright exemptions designed to facilitate research and scholarship.

EU Consultation on Copyright Levy Reform

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 12:32:10 +0100

subject: copyright levies and private copy exception
url: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/levy_reform/index_en.htm
start: 2006-06-06 (6th June)
end: 2006-07-14 (14th July)

From the Website

Copyright levy reform is included in the Commission Work Program for 2006. In October 2004, the Commission consulted Member States on the scope of the private copying exception and existing systems of remuneration. Replies from Member States were due by March 2005. Where relevant, Member States were asked to update their replies and return them by January 2006. Member States have authorised the publication of these replies. Some Member States are still updating the replies submitted in 2005 and once these are received, these replies will also be published.

Stakeholder Consultation

The attached questionnaire on "Copyright levies in a converging world" is submitted for public consultation to ensure that later Commission proposals are technically viable, practically workable and based on a bottom-up approach. Stakeholders and Member States already provided valuable input in the process and this additional follow-up consultation serves the dual purpose to help to further improve the quality of the policy outcome and at the same time enhancing the involvement of interested parties and the public at large. This additional follow-up consultation period will run from 6 June through 14 July 2006. (Questionnaire PDF - http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/docs/levy_reform/stakeholder_consultation_en.pdf)

Parliamentary debate: "(c) is not a pension fund"

Mon, 22 May 2006 14:06:46 +0100

Don Foster MP organised a parliamentary debate last week on the Gowers review into intellectual property policy (via dooooooom.blogspot.com):

"Opponents also challenge the idea that back catalogue revenues provide investment for new ventures and to support new artists. Peter Jameson of the BPI argued in The Guardian on 24 April that such investment had contributed to a boom in new British music, citing artists such as Arctic Monkeys, James Blunt and Kaiser Chiefs. However, Arctic Monkeys are with Domino Records, which was founded in 1993 and rarely re-releases records that predate itself, and James Blunt was signed by the US label Custard Records, which was set up only in 2004 and so has little back catalogue material to release; the same is true of Kaiser Chiefs, who are signed to B-Unique, which was also founded in 2004. Those are hardly good examples of recording companies that rely on significant revenue from the back catalogue profits that would be under threat if we were to stick at the 50-year copyright term." ( More info here.)

Private Eye: The Unedifying Cliff Richard

Mon, 08 May 2006 11:51:33 +0100

Private Eye magazine this week comments on ageing pop star Cliff Richard's campaign for copyright extension.

"The sight and sound of Sir Cliff Richard pleading for an extension in the 50-year copyright period in sound recordings is an unedifying one. Mainly because it represents a successful and rich artist arguing for a law that will benefit him, the complacent record companies and a few other successful performers at the expense of less-fortunate acts."

"Extending the copyright period would mean that record companies have no incentive to discover new talent. When Cliff Richard signed to EMI in 1958, the company wasn't relying on the smash hits of 1908 to fund the deal."

EUCD / DADVSI : what is going on with the new French copyright law ?

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 13:12:37 +0100

Jean-Baptiste Soufron has posted a useful summary of current state of the French effort to transpose the EUCD into national law: http://soufron.typhon.net/article.php3?id_article=132

Judge creates own Da Vinci code

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 12:35:59 +0100

The BBC reports that Mr Justice Smith, the judge who presided over the recent failed Da Vinci Code plagiarism case at London's High Court, has hidden his own secret code in his written judgement. Seemingly random italicised letters were included in the 71-page judgement given by Mr Justice Peter Smith, which apparently spell out a message. Italicised letters in the first few pages spell out "Smithy Code", while the following pages also contain marked out letters.

Hugenholtz to do a broad evaluation of copyright directive for the Commission

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:30:20 +0000

Michelle Childs of CPTech has posted a summary of a presentation by Leonardo Cervera Nava (LCN) an Administrator in the Copyright and Knowledge-based Economy section of DG Internal Market. Of specific interest was the following info about their scheduled review of the copyright and term directives:

"... First in relation to the Commission's review of the Copyright Directive, due this year. Originally it was to be a review only of implementation, but now it will be an evaluation review of the Directive i.e an evaluation of whether or not has it achieved its policy objectives. This is an important change. ....

Dutch Court upholds Creative Commons License

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 13:04:15 +0000

This text reproduces Bernt Hugenholtz's email to the iCommons list:

Dutch Court upholds Creative Commons license

Photographs made available on flickr.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Sharealike license may not be reproduced in a weekly magazine without the author’s permission.

On March 9, 2006 the District Court of Amsterdam, judging in summary proceedings, decided the first court case in the Netherlands involving the validity of a Creative Commons license. Local media celebrity Adam Curry (see http://curry.podshow.com/?p=49) had published photo’s of his family on www.flickr.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Sharealike license. The photos also carried the notice ‘This photo is public’. The Dutch weekly Weekend, a gossip magazine, had reproduced four photos in a story on Curry’s children without seeking Curry’s prior permission.

Vatican to Assert Copyright Aggressively in Pope's Pronoucements

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 12:20:48 +0000

The Times online is carrying a story that the Vatican has decided to aggressively assert its copyright in the Pope's pronouncements:

For the first time all papal documents, including encyclicals, will be governed by copyright invested in the official Vatican publishing house, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

... Publishers will have to negotiate a levy of between 3 per cent and 5 per cent of the cover price of any book or publication “containing the Pope’s words”. Those who infringe the copyright face legal action and a higher levy of 15 per cent.

Commission Releases Study on Effect of Sui Generis Database Right

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 09:16:38 +0000

Another item from December that has only just come on the radar is the Commission's release of its long-awaited study on the effect of the database right (see here).

Empirical evaluation consisted of simply counting the number of databases before (1998) and after (2004) the directive and comparing it with the US. This has obvious problems -- for example the merging of two database doesn't necessarily imply a reduction in the industry -- but is better than nothing and, given the data constraints, may be the best one could do.

Using this approach it was found that the introduction of this extra monopoly right had almost no effect (3092 dbs in 1998 and 3095 in 2004 with a high point of 4085 in 2001).

PROTECTING COPYRIGHT AND INNOVATION IN A POST-GROKSTER WORLD

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 16:18:42 +0000

Testimony by Sam Yagan, President MetaMachine, Inc. (developer of eDonkey and Overnet) September 28, 2005: PROTECTING COPYRIGHT AND INNOVATION IN A POST-GROKSTER WORLD in which he explains his companies 'capitulation' to the RIAA and the conversion of eDonkey to a 'closed' P2P system.

In the rest of hist testimony he argues that major chilling effects on innovation in P2P have already been felt, effects which the Grokster decision will significantly accelerate. More excerpts and comments below:

First Google Print books launched

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 16:56:04 +0000

The BBC is reporting that the first works from the Google Print project have been unveiled and put online. Included in this opening swathe are many 19th Century works of American literature and history.

The works were chosen because they are uncopyrighted works that are unaffected by the legal action that briefly halted Google's digitisation project. The legal challenge comes from the Authors Guild which claims it involves "massive copyright infringement".

The entire text of these works is being put online by the search giant's digitisation project. The text will be searchable and users will be able to save images of pages. Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan which has been involved in developing the project said "Today we welcome the world to our library".

14+14 Copyright Petition Seeks to Return Copyright to Original Balance

Wed, 21 Sep 2005 14:29:14 +0100

You can sign up to *sign up to the petition* regarding copyright extensions and a return to a 14+14 year copyright term via:

http://14plus14.freeculture.org.uk/

If you have the time you can also add your personal testimony.

(see http://14plus14.freeculture.org.uk/ for existing submissions)

Please note the petition and testimony system allow you to sign up to the a more limited statement against copyright extension rather than the full one about a 14+14 term should you so wish.

About the 14+14 Campaign
========================

Copyright terms have been continually extended since they were passed into English law by the Statute of Queen Anne. As these monopoly rights have grown, so the public domain has shrunk, greatly reducing our access to creative works, condemning vast quantities of our culture to obscurity and disappearance, and limiting the opportunities for future creators to build upon the works of the past. The 14+14 campaign has a simple goal: to restore a balance long lost by returning copyright to its original term as laid down in the Statute of 14 years with the option of a 14 year renewal.

Home Page: http://www.freeculture.org.uk/campaigns/14plus14/
Petition and Testimony: http://14plus14.freeculture.org.uk/
Sign up: http://14plus14.freeculture.org.uk/entry/new

Defending BitTorrent from the Content Industry

Mon, 12 Sep 2005 12:12:23 +0100

The American content industry is feeling a bit chipper at the moment. With the recent judgements of Grokster and Kazaa having gone, to a significant extent, their way the MPAA and RIAA clearly hope that the demon spectre of unpaid file sharing can be brought under control, if not exactly *their* control. The Grokster case laid a potential for liability on a technology innovators. The Kazaa judgement in turn mandated that judicially enforceable anti-infringment technology be incorporated into Kazaa. They will hope that this sets a trend for any technology with a potential for infringement. Perhaps all these will, in time, become well controlled distribution channels, forcing consumers to pay their monopoly prices for a diet of the usual high quality boy bands and highly original Hollywood plots with Tom Cruise.

EFF Release Guide to Music DRM

Sat, 03 Sep 2005 19:18:59 +0100

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released a Guide to Music DRM including links to some sites selling MP3s without DRM.