Boston/Cambridge CopyNight: Tues. 9/25

Dada Mail » CopyNight Cambridge » Archives » Boston/Cambridge CopyNight: Tues. 9/25

The next Boston/Cambridge CopyNight is Tuesday, September 25th at 7:30pm. We'll meet at the Hong Kong restaurant in Harvard Square (back on the ground floor now that renovations are complete).
Hong Kong Restaurant
1238 Mass Ave.
Cambridge, MA, 02138
Phone: 617-864-5311
Web: http://www.hongkongharvard.com
Peter Olson, the co-host of our CopyNight, has revitalized our blog at http://cambridgecopynight.blogspot.com where he posts useful information about our meetings and a variety of relevant new items. Be sure to check it out. He's also interested in your opinions on how to best use the blog or some other medium like a wiki.
Email us here about what you think or just comment at the blog.
Recent News Items of Interest Posted by Peter on Our Blog:
"In a move which might have taken one or two industry pundits by surprise, SCO has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection from its creditors. This automatically puts on hold the trial by Novell for damages due to SCO violating copyrights held by Novell.
SCO, which is headquartered in Linden, Utah, was scheduled to appear in federal District Court in Salt Lake City Monday as a defendant in a trial to determine how much it has to pay Novell in licensing fees for violating Novell’s copyrights for Unix and UnixWare software. U.S. District Court Judge Dale Kimball, who was to preside over the trial, was the same judge who ruled Aug. 10 that Novell, not SCO, owned the copyrights.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/091407-sco-seeks-bankruptcy.html?fsrc=netflash-rss
In a related story, SCO CEO Darl McBride blames Linux for his company's woes. The mind boggles.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201806893
Filmmaker Christopher Knight has prevailed against Viacom by filing a counterclaim notice with YouTube:
VIACOM SITUATION UPDATE: YouTube has restored my clip
Knight goes on to say:

Very special thanks to Fred von Lohmann and the Electronic Frontier Foundation for their terrific assistance in this matter! Folks, I cannot begin to describe how impressed I have become with the Electronic Frontier Foundation because of this. Theirs has been the kind of service that is so rare to witness nowadays that when you do see it, it practically comes as a shock. There's no telling how much grief and headache that Fred and his crew have prevented not just for me, but for a lot of other people also. And if you find that you are capable of doing so, I would really like to suggest making a contribution to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This is one organization that really does merit a tremendous amount of respect for the work that it does.
http://theknightshift.blogspot.com/2007/09/viacom-situation-update-youtube-has.html
The original story:
Filmmaker Christopher Knight posts in his blog:
Viacom hits me with copyright infringement for posting on YouTube a video that Viacom made by infringing on my own copyright!
It's a tangled story. From the blog:

So Viacom took a video that I had made for non-profit purposes and without trying to acquire my permission, used it in a for-profit broadcast. And then when I made a YouTube clip of what they did with my material, they charged me with copyright infringement and had YouTube pull the clip.
http://theknightshift.blogspot.com/2007/08/viacom-hits-me-with-copyright.html
The Recording Industry of America is in the news again. Judge Rudi M. Brewster dismissed the RIAA's case on the grounds that the plaintiff has failed to state a case upon which relief can be granted.
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2007/09/riaa-complaint-dismissed-in-california.html
Last week the Computer and Communication Industry Association issued a report saying that more than 4.5 trillion dollars of annual revenue in the US economy is due to exceptions to copyright law, such as Fair Use: Fair Use Economy Represents One-Sixth of U.S. GDP

The Fair Use exception to U.S. copyright law, as codified in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 states, “The fair use of a copyrighted work … is not an infringement of copyright.” Fair use permits a range of activities that are critical to many high technology businesses such as search engines and software developmers. As the study indicates, however, fair use and related exceptions to copyright are crucial to non-technology industries as well, such as insurance, legal services, and newspaper publishers. The dependence of industries outside the high-tech field illustrates the crucial need for balanced copyright law.
The study itself is available for download from the CCIA Web site.
http://www.ccianet.org/artmanager/publish/news/First-Ever_Economic_Study_Calculates_Dollar_Value_of.shtml
One of our topics at last month's meeting was an article which argued that the fashion industry could not thrive in an arena where strong IP protection prevails. A recent paper by Jacob Loshin of the Yale Law School discusses How Magicians Protect Intellectual Property without Law
From the abstract on the Social Sciences Research Network:

Intellectual property scholars have begun to explore the curious dynamics of IP's negative spaces, areas in which IP law offers scant protection for innovators, but where innovation nevertheless seems to thrive. Such negative spaces pose a puzzle for the traditional theory of IP, which holds that IP law is necessary to create incentives for innovation.

This paper presents a study of one such negative space which has so far garnered some curiosity but little sustained attention - the world of performing magicians. This paper argues that idiosyncratic dynamics among magicians make traditional copyright, patent, and trade secret law ill-suited to protecting magicians' most valuable intellectual property. Yet, the paper further argues that the magic community has developed its own set of unique IP norms which effectively operate in law's absence. The paper details the structure of these informal norms that protect the creation, dissemination, and performance of magic tricks. The paper also discusses broader implications for IP theory, suggesting that a norm-based approach may offer a promising explanation for the puzzling persistence of some of IP's negative spaces.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1005564
Two and a half years ago, NTP won a 600 million dollar judgement against RIM, makers of the Blackberry communicator, over claims of patent violation. Last week they took aim at most of the wireless telecomm companies:
NTP Brings More Suits: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118953894926724093.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
This case is especially problematic because the US Patent and Trademark Office issued a preliminary ruling around the time of the RIM settlement that several of the patents were invalid."
You can more postings by Peter and further information at the blog.

Best,
Andrew Jankowich