Favorite After three years of discussing changes to copyright law, Congress’s first bill is a strange one. House and Senate Judiciary Committee leaders have introduced a bill that would radically change the way the Register of Copyrights is picked – taking the process out of the hands of the Librarian of Congress and putting it…
All posts tagged Fixing Copyright? The 2013-2016 Copyright Review Process
This Year in U.S. Copyright Policy: 2016 in Review
Favorite Three years into Congress’s copyright review and it’s still more talk than action. The talk: at the start of the year, the Commerce Department released its long-awaited recommendations for copyright reform, and in the spring, the Copyright Office moved forward with three major copyright policy studies. President Obama sent two international copyright treaties to the Senate for ratification, and the White House called…
Dear Sony Music: It’s Not “Fee Use,” But “Fair Use”
Favorite We’re pleased to report that Sony Music backtracked on its accusation of copyright infringement against the Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association, and HVBA‘s educational video remains freely available to the public. But the music label’s response leads us to think that Sony‘s misuse of copyright and of YouTube’s automated enforcement system will continue. We wrote…
YouTube’s Copyright Robots Help Sony Shake Down Bluegrass Educators
Favorite A series of bluegrass history lectures has become the latest victim of the bullying that is enabled by content filtering systems like YouTube’s Content ID. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s safe harbors protect websites like YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, and many others against runaway copyright lawsuits. They also protect people’s fair use rights when they…
The Misguided Plan to Expand A Performers’ Veto: More “Copyright Creep” Through Policy Laundering
Favorite A proposal to rewrite parts of copyright law being pushed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office would create new restrictions for filmmakers, journalists, and others using recordings of audiovisual performances. Against the background of the the Next Great Copyright Act lurching forward and the Copyright Office convening a new series of roundtables on…
The Commerce Department Has Good Recommendations For Fixing Copyright Law – But More is Needed
Favorite The U.S. Commerce Department released its long-awaited White Paper on fixes to copyright law yesterday and it’s a pretty mixed bag. It includes some good recommendations on how Congress should change the law, but punts on some crucial enduring problems. This paper grew out of a series of hearings in 2013 and 2014 in…
“Notice-and-Stay-Down” Is Really “Filter-Everything”
Favorite The Proposal Is Unfair to Both Users and Media Platforms There’s a debate happening right now over copyright bots, programs that social media websites use to scan users’ uploads for potential copyright infringement. A few powerful lobbyists want copyright law to require platforms that host third-party content to employ copyright bots, and require them…
Digital Freedom Depends on the Right to Tinker
Favorite One of the most crucial issues in the fight for digital freedom is the question of who will control the hardware that you have in your home, in your pocket, or in your own body. Have you ever been frustrated when a beloved feature was taken away in an update? Or felt helpless to…