News Clips

... VCR-selling business. In short, if there's no infringement liability for the customer, there can be no secondary liability for the carriers. (ASCAP also has a theory that the carriers are direct infringers because they set up the system that causes phones to ring in public, but that theory is pretty handily wiped out by the recent Cablevision ruling, where the court found that setting up a "...

September 2008 Edition: Issue 3

... Judiciary Committee has approved the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008, which includes a section that would allow the Justice Department to bring civil lawsuits against intellectual property infringers on behalf of content owners. In the proposed law which now goes before the full Senate, any restitution imposed by the lawsuits would be given to the intellecutal property ...

... something better." Over the weekend Virgin Media agreed to talks with the BPI with a view to trialling a "three strikes" system of written warnings, followed by disconnection for the most persistent infringers. Tiscali, the UK's fourth biggest ISP, implemented similar rules to act on BPI evidence successfully last summer, only for a row over who should pay for it to scupper the relationship. ...

An open letter to the U.S. House on the Orphan Works Bill

... is, ones by deceased authors) available for use by museums and archivists. But proposed legislation is written so broadly that it will almost certainly unleash a torrent of mischief by unscrupulous infringers, with little to fear in the way of legal consequences. Both the AAEC and NCS hope your committee will reconsider this dramatic erosion of current copyright protections. Sincerely, Nick ...

I Wouldn’t Steal Either

...really holding my breath). Meanwhile, there is (once again) talk about the European Parliament planning to introduce “voluntary” content filtering by the ISPs and cutting off all internet access from alleged infringers (and all their families too, of course). And the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health would like to make a law that would in effect ban all online poker playing in Finland ....

So, Can You Really Sell EBooks On EBay And Make Cold Hard Cash?

... Favorite Searches* Suspension of repeat offenders* Continuing efforts to identify and prevent previously suspended users from reregistering for eBay* Cooperation with rights owners seeking personal information on alleged infringers.* However, because eBay is not an expert in your intellectual property rights, and cannot verify that sellers have the right to sell the millions of items they post on...