Today's news....
2010 IS THE 15TH YEAR OF PUBLICATION OF THE LEH-LETTER. ALL BACK
ISSUES ARE ARCHIVED AT:
http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/202/300/copyright-a/
FROM THE OFFICES OF LESLEY ELLEN HARRIS
Copyright, New Media Law & E-Commerce News
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Vol. 14, No. 2, March 16, 2010
ISSN 1489-954X
Contents:
1. Studies, Legislation and Conventions:
U.S. Orphan Works Report
Orphan Works in the U.K.
U.S. Interim Regulation on Deposit of Online Works
2. Legal Cases:
Google Held Liable in France
Damages Reduced in Thomas Piracy Case
Chinese Court Holds Search Engine Not Liable for Deep-
Linking
U.S. Supreme Court Restores Freelance Settlement
3. Of Interest:
What Could Have Been Entering the Public Domain on January 1, 2010
4. Seminars and Publications:
The Copyright & New Media Law Newsletter 2010
Copyright Certificate Program
In-Person Sessions
Digital Licensing Online eCourse
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Copyright, New Media & E-Commerce News is distributed for free by the
office of Lesley Ellen Harris. Information contained herein should not
be relied upon or considered as legal advice. Copyright 2010 Lesley
Ellen Harris. This e-letter may be forwarded, downloaded or reproduced
for non-commercial purposes provided that you cc: lehletter at
copyrightlaws.com
.
This e-letter, from 1996 to the present, is archived with Library &
Archives Canada at: http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/300/copyright/.
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1. STUDIES, LEGISLATION AND CONVENTIONS:
U.S. ORPHAN WORKS REPORT - The U.S. Congressional Research Service
("CRS") has published a report entitled "Orphan Works in Copyright
Law". Topics addressed in the report include the Copyright Office's
2006 "Report on Orphan Works," the various orphan works bills pending
before Congress, and the Google book settlement proposal.
ORPHAN WORKS IN THE U.K. - Leading U.K. cultural organizations,
including the British Library, press for the passage of clause 42 of
the Digital Economy Bill. The Bill would provide a system that allows
a cultural or educational organization to apply for a licence for the
use of orphan works.
U.S. INTERIM REGULATION ON DEPOSIT OF ONLINE WORKS ? The Copyright
Office will be adopting an interim regulation governing mandatory
deposit of electronic works published in the United States and
available only online. The regulation establishes that online-only
works, that is those without a physical version, will be exempt from
mandatory deposit unless and until a demand for deposit of copies of
such works is issued by the Copyright Office. The categories of
online-only works that will be subject to demand will be identified in
the regulations, and currently electronic serials have been identified
as the first category for which demands will issue. See:
www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2010/74fr3863.pdf
.
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2. LEGAL CASES:
GOOGLE HELD LIABLE IN FRANCE - The Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance
(Court of First Instance, or "TGI") determined that Google's digital
book project infringed the copyrights of French books. TGI ordered
Google to remove excerpts of French titles available online and to pay
?300,000 in damages and interest to two publishers. In 2006, the two
publishers, both subsidiaries of La Martini?re, sued Google for
violating French copyright law as Google made available online 10,000
protected French works without obtaining permission from the copyright
owners. Google argued that since the books were scanned in the U.S.
and under Article 5.2 of the Berne Convention, the fair use defense in
U.S. law should apply. In their ruling, TGI decided that French
copyright law applied since the books were owned by French authors,
intended for French readers, and made available through Google's
French-language Web site. This decision is currently under appeal.
DAMAGES REDUCED IN THOMAS PIRACY CASE - In the case of Capitol
Records Inc. v. Thomas-Rasset, the U.S. District Court for the
District of Minnesota issued an order reducing the $1.92 million in
damages awarded by a jury to recording companies to about $54,000.
The defendant Thomas had been found liable for illegally downloading
and uploading 24 songs over the Internet. The Court stated that the
reduced award was justified since Thomas did not profit from the
infringement. Thomas had requested an even greater reduction of the
award but the Court disagreed given that the defendant's conduct was
wilful. As well, the Court stated that the reduced award was still
"significant and harsh" and would sufficiently deter future
infringement. Following the Court decision, the plaintiff offered to
settle the case if Thomas would agree to pay half of the reduced
award, donate this money to a charity for musicians, and asked the
judge to vacate his decision so that it would be removed from the
record. The settlement offer was rejected and the recording companies
are now seeking another trial just on damages, arguing that the
court's calculation of damage per infringement is so low that it will
leave some content owners without an incentive to file suit.
Joel Tenenbaum, a university student who was ordered to pay four
recording companies $675,000 for downloading and distributing songs
online, has also filed a motion in his case requesting a new trial or
a reduction in damages.
CHINESE COURT HOLDS SEARCH ENGINE NOT LIABLE FOR DEEP-LINKING ?
China's largest search engine, Baidu, who provides online deep-links
to copyright-protected music files was found not liable for copyright
infringement by Beijing's No.1 Intermediate People's Court. The Court
stated that simply providing search results does not breach Chinese
copyright law. According to some lawyers, the case against Baidu was
lost because the record companies failed to identify the actual sites
that hosted the illegal music downloads.
U.S. SUPREME COURT RESTORES FREELANCE SETTLEMENT - The U.S. Supreme
Court overturned an appellate decision that threw out an $18 million
settlement between publishers and freelance writers in a copyright
infringement case. The writers had sued publishers and electronic
database services, such as Dow Jones, the New York Times and the
owners of Lexis-Nexis, saying that their contracts did not give the
publishers the permission or right to electronically reproduce their
work. The Federal Court in 2005 approved a settlement which covered
both registered and unregistered freelance works. An appellate
decision threw out the settlement, deciding that the federal court
lacked jurisdiction over infringement claims arising from unregistered
copyrights. The Supreme Court stated that the law did not restrict
federal court jurisdiction over copyright infringement actions.
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3. OF INTEREST:
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN ENTERING THE PUBLIC DOMAIN ON JANAURY 1, 2010 ?
If the pre-1978 U.S. Copyright Act was still in effect, copyright-
protected works from 1953 would have entered the public domain on
January 1, 2010. Current U.S. law protects works for 70 years from the
date of the author's death, but prior to the 1976 Copyright Act
(effective in 1978), the maximum copyright term was 56 years (an
initial term of 28 years, renewable for an additional 28 years).
Copyright-protected works from 1953 include Casino Royale, Marilyn
Monroe's Playboy cover, The Adventures of Augie March, the Golden Age
of Science Fiction, Crick & Watson's Nature article decoding the
double helix, Disney's Peter Pan, and The Crucible. See:
www.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/pre1976
.
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4. SEMINARS AND PUBLICATIONS:
THE COPYRIGHT & NEW MEDIA LAW NEWSLETTER 2010 ? The 2010 Volume of
this previously print-only Newsletter (which has been in publication
since 1997) is now also available in a PDF format. This unique
publication provides plain English copyright compliance and licensing
information aimed at a diverse audience including librarians,
educators, government employees, publishers, digital content creators
and distributors, and lawyers. See: www.acteva.com/go/copyright.
Email editor at copyrightlaws.com for a sample.
COPYRIGHT CERTIFICATE PROGRAM ? Copyrightlaws.com jointly with the
Special Library Association/Click University offers a seven course
Certificate in Copyright Management. See: www.clickuniversity.com.
An eighth course, a primer on Canadian Copyright Law, is available for
any Canadians wishing to pursue the Certificate. Participants may
enroll in individual courses or in the entire Certificate. The next
course in the program, an online course on Copyright Issues for
Librarians (CCM 500), begins April 6, 2010.
IN-PERSON SESSIONS - At Computers in Libraries 2010 (April 12-14, 2010
in Crystal City, VA), Lesley Ellen Harris is participating in the
following 2 sessions:
? April 14, 2010 - A302 ? Licensing Content & Creative Commons 11:30
am ? 12:15 pm. Licensing issues and strategies appropriate for
libraries with co-speaker Michael Sauers.
? April 15, 2010 - W17 ? Copyright Management 101 9:00 am ? 12 pm.
Workshop includes discussions on copyright risk management, license
agreements, managing fair use, avoiding copyright infringement,
contents of a Copyright Policy, and copyright compliance.
See: http://www.infotoday.com/cil2010.
DIGITAL LICENSING ONLINE eCOURSE ? American Library Association
("ALA") is offering a self-study 27 e-lesson course on licensing
digital content, based on the book Licensing Digital Content: A
Practical Guide for Librarians (2nd ed. 2009), by Lesley Ellen
Harris. See: http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=2907.
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This newsletter is prepared by Copyright Lawyer Lesley Ellen Harris.
Lesley is the author of the books Canadian Copyright Law, 3rd ed.
(McGraw-Hill), Digital Property: Currency of the 21st Century (McGraw-
Hill), Licensing Digital Content: A Practical Guide for Librarians,
2nd ed. (ALA Editions), and A Canadian Museum's Guide to Developing a
Licensing Strategy (Canadian Heritage Information Network). Lesley
edits the print newsletter, The Copyright & New Media Law Newsletter.
Lesley may be reached at: http://copyrightlaws.com.
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If you are looking for further topical and practical information about
copyright law, obtain a sample copy of the print newsletter, The
Copyright & New Media Law Newsletter, from editor at copyrightlaws.com.
