Digital Rights Network

See previous DRN article on 2004 decision by US Sixth circuit that even a 2 second sample constituted infringement.

See http://www.low-life.fsnet.co.uk/copyright/index.htm for an excellent (though dated) overview of copyright and sampling along with many examples of litigation over sampling infringements.

Examples

One of the more famous U.S music infringement cases involved ex-Beatle George Harrison, who was found by a jury to have "unconsciously" copied the Shirelle's composition "He's So Fine" in his 1971 hit "My Sweet Lord." Although George Harrison's hit was found to be strikingly similar to the Shirelle's song, it is even possible to infringe another song if only just a few notes are "borrowed." [Source]

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:

The first work of western literature, the Iliad, and indeed the second, the Odyssey, are usually attributed to someone called Homer. Modern Classical scholarship agrees that if such a person existed, he did not make up the poems from scratch and write them down. At most he was a 'master compositor' who collated traditional material; perhaps he was no more than the first bard who knew how to write; perhaps he was an invention of later Greeks.

If there was no individual claiming authorship, how do we come to have these enormous and masterful poems? Research carried out in the 1950s among the illiterate guzlari of Serbia showed that bards in oral cultures are capable of memorising and reproducing epics of comparable length. They do not memorise word for word, rather they inherit a template of stock phrases, lines, scenes and story-patterns that they recombine in performance. A good bard recombines imaginatively, adds pertinent details, and can even produce 'special effects' by knowing or incongruous use of formulae. Because a formulaic phrase is certain to fit the metre, it buys the bard time to retrieve the next line from the memory bank.

The first printed book in the world (or rather, the first printed book that is actually dated) was the Chinese translation of an Indian Sanskrit treatise, the so-called Diamond Sutra, which was printed in China in 868AD. While the Diamond Sutra is almost entirely a religious document, the boldly inscribed dedication of this ninth-century book, for universal free distribution, announces a commitment to public education.

Source: Passage to China, an essay by Amartya Sen, NYRB 2004-12-02, p. 63

1. kingkong.demon.co.uk. Lots of information on author's and copyright dates including the New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors.
2. http://www.copyrighthistory.com/ - contains some useful source texts such as Statute of Anne.
3. Value of the Public Domain - useful information on law in US and elsewhere as well as how to determine whether a work is public domain (includes links to listings of PD works).

Please feel free to add any resources you find to the list below:

1. BitLaw: A Resource on Technology Law. Highly recommended.
2. GrokLaw. Primarily dedicated to the SCO case but includes large amounts of useful legal information.
3. GrokLine. Originally dedicated to tracing the history of Linux and the other 'Unices' it is now focusing on patents and prior art research.

Here's a list of texts people could read, to learn a bit about intellectual property and its relation with other subject areas. Most of the material here is from a set of critical but moderate progressive authors.

This list is inevitably incomplete and covers some areas better that others. It also focuses on material avaialble online. It will be extended and updated over time as we receive feedback. An introductory section providing a core reading list is provided at the beginning.