Copyright Collectives

Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives

The New York Times yesterday published an excellent op-ed, by Chief Judge Randall Rader and Professors Colleen Chien and David Hirick on the issue of patent trolls. It follows an announcement by President Obama regarding measures against patent trolls made the day before. The authors explain that the problem of patent trolls stems largely from the fact that in the current legal system “trolls have an important strategic advantage over their adversaries: they don’t make anything.” Therefore, “they need not fear a counterclaim for infringing some other patent. They need not be concerned with reputation in the marketplace or with their employees …

It’s Only a Northern Troll Read more →

Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Stationers

To opt out or not to opt out? This is the question that UofT and Western are currently facing, as the initial term of their license agreements with Access Copyright is about to end, but will be renewed automatically unless they choose to terminate by the end of the next month. The question may not be as existential as Prince Hamlet’s, but like the him, the universities will have to decide whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous Agreement, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? 

Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, My Research

Michael Geist sez: “I am delighted to report that this week the University of Ottawa Press published The Copyright Pentalogy: How the Supreme Court of Canada Shook the Foundations of Canadian Copyright Law, an effort by many of Canada’s leading copyright scholars to begin the process of examining the long-term implications of the copyright pentalogy. The book is available for purchase and is also available as a free download under a Creative Commons licence. The book can be downloaded in its entirety or each of the 14 chapters can be downloaded individually. This is the first of a new collection from the UOP on law, technology and society …

The Copyright Pentalogy: How the Supreme Court of Canada Shook the Foundations of Canadian Copyright Read more →

Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Stationers

Locke and I: Part 3 Continued from Locke and I: Part 2   “[A]s all things that are good in this act, the Company of Stationers minding nothing in it but what makes for their monopoly.” John Locke (1693) When I called John Locke the following day he was much more cheerful than he was in our previous conversations. “Good morning Ariel, I’m so glad you called back,” he said when he answered the phone. “Your explanations about Access Copyright’s latest moves allow me to start making sense of it. But you still have to explain to me what you meant …

The Company of Stationers Minding Nothing But What Makes for Their Monopoly Read more →

Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Stationers

Locke and I: Part 2 Continued from Locke and I: Part 1 [T]he Company of Stationers have obtained from the Crown a patent to print all, or at least the greatest part, of the classic authors, upon pretence, as I hear, that they should be well and truly printed. … but by this act scholars are subjected to the power of these dull wretches, … unless they pay them 6s. 8d. a book for that leave. John Locke (1693) Locke did not wait until the next day. A couple of hours after our previous conversation–I was still in my office–he called …

Scholars are Subjected to the Power of These Dull Wretches Read more →

Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Stationers

Locke and I: Part 1   “By this act England loses in general, scholars in particular are grounded, and nobody gets, but a lazy, ignorant Company of Stationers, to say no worse of them.” John Locke (1693) A few days ago my phone rang. John Locke was on the line. Yes, the John Locke. The philosopher. John and I call each other once in a while. We usually talk about our current work, we discuss some politics (he likes to talk about the Queen, I talk about the Middle East), and we almost always end up talking about copyright issues, culminating in him …

A Lazy, Ignorant Company of Stationers, To Say No Worse of Them Read more →

Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, My Research, Stationers

Volume 27(3) of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal is now published. This issue is based on last year’s Orphan Works & Mass Digitization: Obstacles & Opportunities Symposium. It contains eight papers, by Register of Copyright Maria Pallante, Randal Picker, Stef van Gompel, Jennifer Urban, Lydia Pallas Loren, Molly Shaffer Van Houweling, Matthew Sag, and myself. Here’s the symposium issue webpage. The title of my paper is The Orphans, the Market, and the Copyright Dogma: A Modest Solution for a Grand Problem, and it can be downloaded from here. Here’s the abstract:

Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Stationers

“For centuries, scholars and educators have excerpted the works of their colleagues, transforming them from individual, static monographs into dynamic pedagogical and intellectual tools for classroom learning. Such transformations reside at the heart of fair use, a core copyright law doctrine established to protect socially beneficial uses of works that increase public access and promote the progress of human understanding.” This is the opening statement of an Amicus Brief on behalf of academic authors and legal scholars in support of the defendants in the copyright case against Georgia State University. I am proud to be one of the signatories and also proud …

Academic Authors and Legal Scholars’ Amicus Brief in the GSU Copyright Case Read more →

Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Featured, Stationers

Earlier the previous week the US Department of Justice announced that it reached a settlement with McMillan in the antitrust e-books case, following previous settlements with the other four book publishers (Hachette,  HarperCollins, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster)that it sued less than a year ago. According to the DOJ, the agreements between those publishers and Apple “provided a perfect opportunity to coordinate the Publisher Defendants’ collective action to raise e-book prices.” The DOJ took swift action to prevent anticompetitive practices at a crucial moment in the development of digital publishing to ensure the competitiveness of this rapidly emerging industry.

Antitrust / Competition Law, Blog, Copyright, Copyright Collectives, Featured, Stationers

The Australian Copyright Advisory Group Schools (CAG Schools), an organization representing over 9000 schools and Australia’s 3.5 million schools students urges the repeal of the Education Statutory License and relying on a flexible fair use/fair dealing regime in its stead. This position is part of the CAG School’s submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission who is currently reviewing Australia’s copyright laws. In its submission, the CAG Schools highlights several shortcomings of current Australian copyright laws as applied to education. UPDATE (Dec. 10, 2012, at 5:33 pm): Universities Australia make similar points in their ALRC submission. The CAG Schools argues that the …

Australian Educators: Repeal the Education Statutory License, Expand Fair Dealing Read more →