The Truth Shall Set Us Free: Copyrights in Biblical Translations
By Bennett L. McMordie, ed. by Barry Neil Shrum “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, [...]
YouTube Uses Happy Tree Friends to Educate on Copyright
By Rachel Galloway IMPORTANT NOTICE: The views expressed in this article are solely those of Ms. Galloway and may not necessarily reflect the views of Law on the Row or Barry Neil Shrum, Esquire. The last time I watched a Happy Tree Friends video was when I was around 13 years old in the company [...]
Judge Chin rejects settlement agreement in Authors Guild v. Google
Under Rule 23(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a settlement of a class action requires approval of the court. Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(e). The court may approve a settlement that is binding on the class only if it determines that the settlement is “fair, adequate, and reasonable, and not a product of [...]
The Utilitarian Idea of a Monopolistic Right in Intangible Property
By Barry Neil Shrum, Esquire and Nathan Drake The classical libertarian, Frédéric Bastiat, is quoted as saying: In the full sense of the word, man is born a proprietor. . . . Faculties are only an extension of the person; and property is nothing but an extension of the faculties. To separate a man from [...]
French Court Finds Google Liable and Refused to Apply Safe Harbor Provisions of The Law of Confidence in the Digital Economy
The search engine giant Google, known for its colorful name and creative endeavors, has been convicted in French Court of infringing the copyrights of four artistic works and now faces fines upwards of $600,000, not including legal costs and attorneys fees. The plaintiffs in the case was made up of four entities who owned the [...]
Immigration and Counterfeit Enforcement Agency Brings Criminal Charges against Owner of ChannelSurfing.Net
By Barry Neil Shrum & Nathan Drake In November 2010, the Federal Immigration and Counterfeit Enforcement agency (“ICE”) recently seized 82 websites and shut them down on the grounds that they were committing criminal copyright infringement. One of these websites has recently become the spotlight of attention:. Brain McCarthy, the owner and operator of channelsurfing.net, [...]
98% of all Statistics are Made Up on the Spot! Fact is, copyright infringement DOES kill jobs.
Mark Twain had a lot to say about statistics, ranking them as the highest of all lies: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. Twain is also attributed with the more insinuated saying that “statistics are like ladies of the evening, once you get them down, you do anything with them!” [...]
The Magical Ring of Gyges: Why Illegal Downloading is So Rampant in the Age of Cyberspace
NBC Universal recently hired a company called Envisional to study counterfeiting activity over the Internet. The results of this study – despite the fact that it is industry funded – are literally astonishing: 24% of all global Internet traffic involves digital theft! Stated another way, one in every four people surfing the Internet are stealing [...]
Congress proposes Copyright Protection for Fashion Design
In response to concerns in the fashion industry, a bill originally introduced by Senators Schumer and Senator Clinton in 2006 has been revised and reintroduced to the new Congress as Senate Bill 3728. The new bill would amend Title 17 of the Copyright Act of 1976 of the United States Code to include copyright protection for “fashion design.” If it passes, this would represent the first addition of a new protected class of copyrighted works since Congress passed the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act in 1989
Nothing left to lose – the ongoing war on copyrights
Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster once penned one of my favorite lyrics in the song Me and Bobby McGee, i.e., “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” The sentiment is perhaps appropriate for the ongoing war that is being waged against copyright laws as we know them. The latest battle in this war [...]
Thomas verdict vacated; new trial ordered
The trial in Capital v. Thomas was one of the first stories I began tracking over a year ago. See Jury Awards RIAA $222,000 against Thomas: My Thoughts on the Verdict and Jammie Thomas to appeal verdict in RIAA Litigation. Now, in a decision issued on September 24, 2008 – only eight days shy of [...]
Second Circuit gets it wrong in Cartoon Network v. Cablevision
On August 4, 2008, the Second Circuit court of appeals overturned a lower courts opinion that Cablevision’s Remote Storage” Digital Video Recorder (“RS-DVR”) system violated the Copyright Act by infringing plaintiffs’ exclusive rights of reproduction and public performance. The full 44-page opinion is available at Cartoon Network, LLP, et al. v. Cablevision. In my humble yet [...]
All that glitters is not gold – tips on analyzing a songwriting/band contest
When is the last time you heard of someone getting a really “big break” in the music industry through any contest, other than perhaps American Idol? That’s because most artists and songwriters are not discovered through contests, they are discovered through relationships in the industry. Yet, there are literally hundreds of such contests out there [...]
Hey, what’s the big idea? Protecting your ideas when submitting them to a third party.
One question clients often asked me is whether an idea can be protected. The question frequently arises when a client has an idea for a screenplay, or an outline for a story, or a unique title for a song or book, and wishes to submit or “pitching” that idea to a major movie house, publisher [...]
Why "Freeconomics" – and the Music Industry's Five Point Plan – won't work in the long term
There is a great deal of talk these days about the concept of “freeconomics,” spurned by the fact that most teenagers and college students are still ripping music and sharing it online. Most recently, the major record labels commissioned a study from two think tanks, The Leading Question and Music Ally, which resulted in a [...]
You Say You Want A REVOLUTION?
You say you want a revolution Well, you know We all want to change the world . . . You say you’ve got a real solution Well, you know We’d all love to see the plan You ask me for a contribution Well, you know We are doing what we can [...]
Fair is not always "Fair Use"
The concept of “fair use” is a very misunderstood concept. The first common misunderstanding that people espouse is that the concept of “fair use” is a right or privilege granted by copyright law. It is not. Secondly, many people mistakenly believe that so long as they do not make any money from an infringing use [...]
"More than a Feeling" – Momma, look what they’ve done to my song!
I received a call from one of my readers to address the topic of whether a songwriter has the ability to restrict the use of his or her composition in the instance it is being used in advancing a cause opposite to that espoused by the songwriter. This was spawned, of course, by the recent [...]
Columnist David Pogue sings a humorous diddy about the RIAA
New York Times technology columnist and Emmy-award winning CBS news correspondent David Pogue is featured in this YouTube video singing a fun diddy about the digital wave of media on the Internet, ending with a humorous take on the RIAA and its wave of litigation against college students nationwide. Enjoy Technorati Tags: digital copyright [...]
Atlantic Records et al. v. Brennan: Federal Judge Denies Default Judgment for RIAA
U.S. District Judge for the District of Connecticut Justice Janet Bond Arterton, handed down a very pointed and decisive opinion hammering the R.I.A.A. for its boilerplate style of pleading in the nationwide wide campaign against illegal file sharing. Justice Arterton was appointed by President Clinton in 1995. The full decision is here: Decision. At several [...]
New Copyright Legislation, H.R. 4279, being considered by House Committee on the Judiciary
The U.S. House of Representatives introduced a 69-page bill entitled the “Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2007.” The legislation is significant in that it increases civil penalties for copyright infringement, expands criminal enforcement, and creates both a new federal agency and a new division of the Attorney General’s office of the [...]
Expert Witness Fund established to defend against RIAA Lawsuits
The Recording Industry v. the People, an anti-RIAA blog operat ed by New York attorney, Ray Beckerman, is cooperating with the Boston-based non-profit, The Free Software Foundation, to establish “a fund to help provide computer expert witnesses to combat RIAA’s ongoing lawsuits, and to defend against the RIAA’s attempt to redefine copyright law.” The Free [...]
Copyright: it's the end of the world as we know it.
Abraham Maslow’s famous “hierarchy of needs” places self-actualization as the pinnacle of human behavior. To illustrate what the phrase “self-actualization” meant , Maslow said: “a musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if they are to be ultimately at peace with themselves.” Of course, the thing that is important to [...]
Last Man Standing – collaborating with other songwriters
See Jane. See Jane write lyrics. See Dick. See Dick write melodies. See Dick meet Jane. See Dick and Jane combine their efforts and collaborate together to write a song. This is one frequent story among Nashville’s songwriting community. On any given afternoon in Nashville, there will be innumerable co-writing sessions occurring at any given [...]
