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, [...]
Will the real Sarah Palin please standup?: Interplay between Right of Publicity and Trademark
OR, What’s in a Name? Personal Names as Trade Names REMIXED. By Barry Neil Shrum, Esquire (with Ashley Trout) “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” You may know this quote from William Shakespeare’s classic play Romeo and Juliet or from the more “pop-culture” reference by Anne Hathaway [...]
Illegal file-sharing has the greatest impact on the lowly songwriter
A decade’s worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators… and the people this reverse Robin Hooding benefits are rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business. -Bono (New York Times, January 2010) The passage of the Digital Economy [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
Origins of an Idea–Nothing New Under the Sun?
That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the [...]
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
Return fire by the music industry – artists to testify before Senate
The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a high-profile hearing today on the subject of imposing additional performance royalties on so-called “over-the-air” or “terrestrial” radio stations (I’ll just call them OTA’s in this article). Investigative hearings such as these are usually precursors to legislation being introduced on the subject. Grammy winner, Lyle Lovett and Chicago-based singer-songwriter [...]
