[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4Cast #223: Copyright news

Wed Mar 30 10:28:11 EDT 2011

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OPLIN 4Cast

OPLIN 4Cast #223: Copyright news
March 30th, 2011

<http://www.oplin.org/4cast/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/scales_justice_rev.png>Unless 
you work in a law library, you probably don't pay a lot of 
attention to laws and legal issues, with the exception of 
copyright laws. Copyright laws have traditionally contained 
special limitations that allow libraries to loan books and 
other library items, so there are quite a few copyright laws 
and court cases 
<http://www.librarylaw.com/Copyright_and_Libraries.html> 
that have a direct impact on libraries' ability to do what 
they do. Now that intellectual property so often takes the 
form of non-print media, however, traditional copyright laws 
have been stretched and strained, and sometimes changed, to 
make them fit new media. Some people would even argue that 
copyright laws are either: a) being abused, or b) not 
relevant anymore. This week we look at a few recent 
developments related to copyright that might have some 
interest for libraries.

    * Free trove of music scores on web hits sensitive
      copyright note
      <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/arts/music/22music-imslp.html>
      (New York Times/Daniel J. Wakin) "Mr. Guo said
      volunteers checked every score---15,000 at the
      time---for copyright violations. [...] A disclaimer
      was made to appear before any score opens, saying that
      the project provides no guarantee that the work is in
      the public domain and demanding that users obey
      copyright law. The site operates from servers in
      Canada, where copyright law is generally looser. 'We
      cannot know the copyright laws of 200 countries around
      the world,' Mr. Guo said. 'It is up to the downloader.'"
    * Son of ACTA: meet the /next/ secret copyright treaty
      <http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/03/son-of-acta-meet-the-next-secret-copyright-treaty.ars>
      (Ars Technica/Nate Anderson) "Canadian law professor
      Michael Geist calls it 'everything [the US] wanted in
      ACTA but didn't get.' 'For example,' he says, 'the
      digital lock rules are the US DMCA, complete with
      [the] exact same exceptions (no more, no less). The
      term of copyright matches the US term of life of the
      author plus 70 years, beyond the Berne requirement and
      Canadian law. The ISP provisions including a copy of
      the US notice-and-takedown system as well as
      provisions that go beyond US law. In other words, the
      US envisions using the TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership]
      to export its copyright law to as many countries as
      possible while creating backdoor changes to its own
      domestic laws.'"
    * Supremes to decide if public domain works can be
      re-copyrighted
      <http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/03/supremes-will-decide-if-public-domain-works-can-be-re-copyrighted.ars>
      (Ars Technica/Matthew Lasar) "Congress' decision to
      uphold an international treaty allowing for public
      works to be 'restored' into copyright will create an
      atmosphere of uncertainty for libraries, they warn,
      caretakers of the public domain. 'Because it protects
      our cultural commons, the public domain is equally
      essential, in turn, to free speech, helping to give
      meaning to the First Amendment right to receive
      information,' wrote the Electronic Frontier Foundation
      and Internet Archive in a brief asking the Supremes to
      hear the matter."
    * /Amicus brief/ on behalf of Internet Archive in
      support of petitioners
      <https://www.eff.org/files/Golan%20Petition%20for%20Cert%20Final.pdf>
      (brief filed with US Supreme Court mentioned above
      [pdf]) "The Internet Archive files this brief because
      the effects of Section 514---both the provision itself
      and the radical approach to the public domain that it
      represents---pose a significant threat to the ability
      of libraries and archives to promote access to
      knowledge. The emergence of this threat is
      particularly unfortunate now, when the advent of new
      technologies is making it more possible to share
      public domain works with more people, in more ways,
      than ever before---making the public domain truly
      'public.' In accomplishing this task, libraries
      necessarily rely on a robust and static public domain
      that will allow them to confidently determine that
      they have the right to provide access to a given work."

*/Terms fact:/*

Peter B. Hirtle has posted a very large chart at the Cornell 
Copyright Information Center 
<http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm> 
that illustrates the daunting complexity of current 
copyright terms in the United States.
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