The Boston Public Library is screening the 14 part series "Eyes on the Prize", a documentary about the American civil rights movement (thanks for the link, Nicole):
Mondays, November 5, 2007 through January 7, 2008 at 6 p.m.

Eyes on the Prize is a fourteen-part documentary series about the American Civil Rights Movement that was created and produced by the Boston-based documentary filmmaker, Henry Hampton (1940-1998) of Blackside, Inc. Hampton was a major figure in Boston, serving on the boards of the Children’s Defense Fund and Boston’s Museum of African American History as Chairman. Hampton founded Blackside, Inc. in 1968 to produce independent film and television productions including Malcolm X, The Great Depression, and I’ll Make Me a World. Eyes on the Prize is his most acclaimed production, winning a Peabody Award and Emmy for Writing as well as being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary and an Emmy in Editing. The series uses extensive archival footage to present an in-depth account of the most important American social justice movement of the 20th century.

The particular significance of this to copyright is that the series will probably never be available on DVD due to the expense of copyright clearance.

Vonage Targeted by AT&T Patent Suit

Internet telephone company Vonage Holdings Corp. disclosed Friday that it's the target of yet another patent lawsuit from a telephone company, in this case AT&T Inc. That makes AT&T the third major phone company to sue Vonage, which until recently was a leader in selling phone service that rides the customer's broadband connection.

Can a band plagiarize itself?

Music Fan Drops Dime on Nickelback Song Similarity

Can a band plagiarize itself? One listener in Canada has implied as much by taking two songs by the band Nickelback and superimposing them over one another to emphasize the similarity.

Mark Twain's plans to compete with copyright "pirates" (in 1906)

Mark Twain was a brilliant author, philosopher, and humorist, but he was also a man made quite nervous by copyright. Copyright didn't bother him in principle, of course. It benefited him greatly as one of the leading writers of his day. What bothered him about copyright was the fact that it would eventually expire, leaving his heirs without a way to make an easy buck. Twain didn't want perpetual copyright, only something that would cover his children's lives. He noted on more than one occasion that the grandkids should fend for themselves, but for Twain and his daughters, he sought to combat "the pirates."

A recent decision by US Court of Appeals goes against business method patents: Court Hits Patent Holders

The decision, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, suggests that business-method patents will now be considered invalid unless the invention has a practical application and can be linked to a particular technology, such as a computer. The court said that "mental processes -- or processes of human thinking -- standing alone aren't patentable even if they have practical application."

In related news: Amazon One-click patent rejected by Patent Office

The Royal Canadian Mint is demanding payment for the use of the term "one cent" in a promotional campaign. The situation is complex, so read on: Success of Toronto's "One Cent of the GST NOW!" education campaign brings request for payment from the federal government

The Royal Canadian Mint, a corporation of the federal government, has now demanded that the City of Toronto pay $47,680 for the public education campaign. Included in this amount is a request for $10,000 for the use of the words "one cent" in the campaign website address (www.onecentnow.ca) and the campaign email address (onecentnow@toronto.ca), and an additional $10,000 for the use of the words "one cent" in the campaign phone number (416-ONE CENT). The remaining $27,680 has been assessed against the City for the use of the image of the Canadian penny in printed materials such as pins and posters. (The Mint has come to this amount by taking the total number of materials printed divided by the approximate population of Toronto, and then using a percentage of that number to arrive at a dollar figure.)

IBM withdraws patent claim Bob Sutor's Open Blog

Here’s why we are withdrawing it — IBM adopted a new policy a year ago to sharply reduce business method patent filings and instead stress significant technical content in its patents.

The dispute over alleged patent infringement by Linux continues:

Linux group calls Microsoft's bluff

The head of the Open Invention Network (OIN) has dismissed Microsoft's claims that Linux violates over 200 of its patents.

OIN chief executive Jerry Rosenthal said that Microsoft's assertions are simply an attempt to undermine the open source movement.

Rosenthal added that it is time for Microsoft to reveal the patents that are supposedly being infringed, or to drop the claims.

Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth, speaking about Steve Ballmer

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has once more claimed that Linux and open source violates Microsoft's intellectual property and patents. Canonical's CEO Mark Shuttleworth thinks Ballmer has it all wrong.

Ballmer made his claims about Linux patent liability back in November 2004, and his claims were disputed at the time:Microsoft reignites its war on Linux
Here is what Ballmer actually said:

Number two, on licensing costs I would say two things. First of all, I don't know that it's clear to anybody what the licensing costs are for open source. Today, people say, well, isn't it just free, but we don't know in the long run. Open source software does not today respect the intellectual property rights of any intellectual property holder. There was a report out this summer by an open source group that highlighted that Linux violates over 228 patents. Some day, for all countries that are entering WTO (World Trade Organization), somebody will come and look for money to pay for the patent rights for that intellectual property. So the licensing costs are less clear than people think today.

This casts aspersion upon Linux without providing any evidence and by itself might be dismissed as FUD except that in May 2007, the charge was repeated by Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith: Microsoft takes on the free world (Fortune magazine)

Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith and licensing chief Horacio Gutierrez sat down with Fortune recently to map out their strategy for getting FOSS users to pay royalties. Revealing the precise figure for the first time, they state that FOSS infringes on no fewer than 235 Microsoft patents.

Can posting links be charged as "contributory copyright infringement"?

Major Pirate Website Shut Down

One of the world's most-used pirate film websites has been closed after providing links to illegal versions of major Hollywood hits and TV shows.

The first closure of a major UK-based pirate site was also accompanied by raids and an arrest, the anti-piracy group Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) said today.

A 26-year-old man from Cheltenham was arrested on Thursday in connection with offences relating to the facilitation of copyright infringement on the internet, Fact said.

Since the site is now down, it is impossible to say what they were doing. One allegation is that they embedded material in their Web pages which could give the viewer the idea that the content was actually posted on www.tv-links.co.uk rather than being linked to.

The BBC continues to wallow in the tarpit of DRM:

BBC U-turn: Full iPlayer service may never be available to Mac and Linux Users

Although the BBC has said it will offer streaming services for Mac and Linux, this does not provide an equivalent experience to the service provided for Window users of iPlayer. Because of DRM, the BBC is caught in a fundamental contradiction. In June 2007, Ashley Highfield, director of Future Media and Technology at the BBC, said:

“I am fundamentally committed to universality, to getting the BBC iPlayer to everyone in the UK who pays their licence fee.”

but now in October he says:

“We need to look long and hard at whether we build a download service for Mac and Linux. It comes down to cost per person and reach at the end of the day.”

This article doesn't discuss copyrights, but provides some background about "electronic paper", one of the technologies which figures in the eventual success of e-books:

The Future of Electronic Paper

The RIAA continues to target university students for file sharing:

George Washington Univ. students next to feel RIAA's wrath (thanks for the link, Nicole).

What is interesting about this case is the procedure the Judge has implemented:

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly (best known for her role in the Microsoft antitrust trial) granted the RIAA's request to serve the university with an immediate subpoena.

She required that George Washington University to tell its students--or faculty or staff if they're the ones behind the IP addresses in question--about the existence of the subpoenas in five business days.

She also gave the school and any of the John Does 25 days to respond with a legal motion opposing the subpoena. The RIAA had suggested only 15 days.

Radiohead was in the news earlier this month because they have released an electronic version of their new album "In Rainbows" asking for people who download it to pay what they think it's worth: Review in Rolling Stone The album can also be purchased as a boxed set with two CDs and a vinyl disc.

Other groups are following Radiohead's lead (thanks for the link, Nicole):

Let Their Music Go Free

And there is other related news:

iTunes DRM-free tracks drop in price back to 99 cents

Led Zeppelin to Make its Songs Available Digitally

Nine Inch Nails Totally Free Agent

Today, October 15, is Blog Action Day

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

While copyright may seem at first not to be an issue relating to the environment, consider this: every year the book publishing industry consumes an enormous number of trees to produce books (see the Green Press Initiative Web site). While recycling may go a long way to reduce this, think of the barriers presented by current copyright practice, including Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) and a plethora of incompatible formats, impeding the acceptance of electronic books as an alternative to paper. Then imagine a world of the future in which these barriers are greatly reduced.

Genetic Algorithm Produces Non-Patented Design

Perhaps the most cunning use of an evolutionary algorithm, though, is by Dr Koza himself. His team at Stanford developed a Wi-Fi antenna for a client who did not want to pay a patent-licence fee to Cisco Systems. The team fed the algorithm as much data as they could from the Cisco patent and told the software to design around it. It succeeded in doing so. The result is a design that does not infringe Cisco’s patent—and is more efficient to boot. A century and a half after Darwin suggested natural selection as the mechanism of evolution, engineers have proved him right once again.

Embrace digital or die, EMI told

Guy Hands, the financier whose private equity group, Terra Firma, bought EMI in August, told staff in a confidential e-mail last week that the industry had been too slow to embrace the digital revolution. Hands' letter was in response to the decision by Radiohead, one of the biggest bands nurtured by EMI but now out of contract with the label, to release their latest album via the internet and at a price decided by fans.

More on the Radiohead album

Supporting a rock band used to be an act of rebellion. In the face of today's mounting music piracy, it has become an act of conscience. Radiohead, the contrarian giants of British rock, last week released their seventh album on an unsuspecting public with the challenge of paying as little or as much as they chose. In Rainbows is available on the internet only, and the only compulsory charge is a 45p credit card handling fee.

Don't Play That Radio at Work

A car repair firm has been taken to court accused of infringing musical copyright because its employees listen to radios at work. The action against the Kwik-Fit Group has been brought by the Performing Rights Society which collects royalties for songwriters and performers.

Target has lost a trademark infringement case in the UK. Thanks for the link, Nicole.

Target, the US discount retailer, will face restrictions on using its distinctive red and white bulls-eye trademark in the UK - and potentially the rest of Europe pending other hearings - after the US retail chain lost its four-year battle to wrest ownership of the logo from Music Choice, a British-based digital music provider.

Don't Post This Cease-and-Desist Letter, or Else

Greg Beck writes "In an apparent attempt to avoid the Streisand Effect, lawyers sending threat letters sometimes claim that the recipient would violate the firm's copyright by posting it online. This post is about Public Citizen's response to one dumb threat letter and its decision to post the letter online despite the copyright claim."

Vonage has settled a patent suit filed against it by Sprint Nextel:

Internet phone company Vonage Holdings Corp. took a step back from the brink Monday, saying it has settled for $80 million a patent suit filed by Sprint Nextel Corp.

Vonage still is defending a patent case filed by Verizon.

The Supreme Court will hear another case having patent implications.

Intel licensed a set of patents from South Korean firm LG, then used some of the licensed patents to create parts of the chipset technology it sold to Taiwanese computer makers like Quanta. LG then sued the computer makers in a US court, claiming that the patent license to Intel specifically did not extend to combining Intel parts with non-Intel parts, and that the computer makers in question each needed to obtain licenses from LG. The Supreme Court has now agreed to take up the issue, which could help to answer the question of how many times a patent holder can cash in as products move through the supply chain.

Can you copyright yoga?

Suketu Mehta writes in the New York Times

The United States government has issued 150 yoga-related copyrights, 134 patents on yoga accessories and 2,315 yoga trademarks. There’s big money in those pretzel twists and contortions — $3 billion a year in America alone.

It’s a mystery to most Indians that anybody can make that much money from the teaching of a knowledge that is not supposed to be bought or sold like sausages. Should an Indian, in retaliation, patent the Heimlich maneuver, so that he can collect every time a waiter saves a customer from choking on a fishbone?

The Indian government is not laughing. It has set up a task force that is cataloging traditional knowledge, including ayurvedic remedies and hundreds of yoga poses, to protect them from being pirated and copyrighted by foreign hucksters. The data will be translated from ancient Sanskrit and Tamil texts, stored digitally and available in five international languages, so that patent offices in other countries can see that yoga didn’t originate in a San Francisco commune.

This dovetails with recent stories we have linked to in this blog about "intellectual property" issues in the restaurant industry, the fashion industry, and among stage magicians.

The RIAA won a $222,000 judgement in the file sharing case Capitol vs. Thomas.

Ars Technica summarizes the case with followup reporting:

Judge bars testimony from Capitol Records president

Debate over "making available" jury instruction

Jury finds Thomas liable for infringement

Thomas will appeal

Especially contentious was the issue of what constitutes copyright infringement in a file sharing case: is it enough to make the files available (in the sense that they are indexed for searches by other people) or must the plaintiff show evidence that the files were actually transfered to others? There have been several cases recently where judges have ruled differently on this issue. Reportedly the appeal will focus on this.

Other links:

Commentary from the EFF

Commentary from a writer who cannot afford to defend his copyrights the way the RIAA does.

Commentary by Declan McCullough.

Interview with Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA)

Commentary with lots of links to additional material.

The next meeting of Cambridge/Boston CopyNight will be at 7:30 PM on Tuesday, October 23, 2007.

We meet at the Hong Kong restaurant in Harvard Square (see "Meeting Place" for details).