Copyright News Round Up

Week of October 6, 2017

Stay informed about all things Copyright with our weekly Copyright News Round Up.

A Small Claims Court is on the Horizon for Creators
Copyright Alliance | Creators of all sizes struggle to combat infringement, but for individual creators and small businesses the challenge of combating infringement is compounded by what is best characterized as “a right without a remedy.” For far too many creators, the protections afforded by copyright are more theoretical than practical, as they lack the financial resources to bring a suit for infringement in federal court. In a practical sense, the courthouse doors are locked shut for individual creators and small businesses seeking to enforce their rights.

Friday’s Endnotes – 10/6/17
Copyhype | “On Eve of ‘Blurred Lines’ Appeal Hearing, Richard Busch is the Music Industry’s Most Feared Lawyer Oral arguments in the “Blurred Lines” case, on appeal after a jury held that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams infringed on Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up” when they created “Blurred Lines.” Rob Levine interviews the attorney who represented two of Gaye’s children in the case. The Ninth Circuit provides live streaming of oral arguments, which you can access here.”

Ad Industry Efforts Keep the Pirates at Bay
Copyright Alliance | The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), a group of advertisers and agencies formed to address ad supported piracy, malware, and fraud, released its year-long study this week on the impact of the ad industry’s initiatives against internet piracy. Since 2014, TAG created various initiatives to combat digital piracy such as the “Certified Against Piracy” Seal program, the TAG registry of trusted advertising partners, and the TAG anti-piracy pledge.

Copyright and Politics: Interesting Bedfellows
Hugh Stephens Blog | “On June 22 of this year, Christy Clark, Premier of British Columbia, commonly called “BC”- where yours truly happens to liveÐpresented her party policy platform (aka the “Speech from the Throne”) to the BC Legislature. Ms. Clark and her BC Liberal Party had just won 43 seats out of a possible 87 in the election concluded the previous month. (You may have noticed that 43 is not quite a majorityÑand that is the nub of the issue).”

Sirius XM Takedown of Stern/Trump Interviews Is Not Censorship
The Illusion of More | “The implication that copyright is fundamentally a tool of censorship is a favorite theme among its critics. They rarely miss an opportunity to ring this particular bell when the chance presents itself; and most recently, Cyrus Farivar, writing for Ars Technica, reported that Sirius XM filed a DMCA notice to have an archive of interviews between Howard Stern and Donald Trump removed from the blog site factba.se. On cue, Mike Masnick at Techdirt was quick to describe this as “yet another situation where copyright law is being used to censor information that is in the public interest.””

Study Shows Piracy Losing Premium Ad Revenue
The Illusion of More | “Among the standard responses to any proposal to mitigate online piracy is an insistence that it just cannot be stopped. Perhaps not entirely. But it can be starved. That was the underlying goal of SOPA, but people decided the criminal sites deserved the money they were making because freedom.”

What Does a Special Effects Makeup Artist Do? A Conversation with Christien Tinsley
CreativeFuture | “When you first step into the lobby of Tinsley Studio, you’ll be greeted by Brad Pitt and a dead woman in a wheelchair. “Brad Pitt” is strapped to a board with ropes. He is made mostly from silicone and is a life-size body cast of the actor – a prop from the feature film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007). Our dearly departed grandmother’s arm is surprisingly lifelike, despite its rubbery wobble whenever her chair is jostled by a passerby. “One of the seasons of American Horror Story, I think,” someone nearby offers, when asked where she came from. “Creepy, right?””

American Continental Group
Content & Technology Policy Report | September 28, 2017

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Photo Credit: Kubkoo/iStock/thinkstock & seb_ra/iStock/thinkstock

Photos edited by: Copyright Alliance