Honest polling may or may not be interesting. Interesting polling may or may not be honest. Rasmussen pulled off the latter in a poll containing disinformation in the questions, and trumpeted baseless findings.
A recent Rasmussen Reportclaims that “only 21% of the respondents want the FCC to regulate the Internet.” Utter hogwash. It’s polling was disingenuous, […]
This morning, the White House released the Administration’s First Joint Strategic Plan to Combat intellectual Property Theft by Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, Victoria Espinel. It falls so far short of the mark that the best news of all is that it is called the “First” such Plan.
The “Second” Plan would do well to cover […]
Normally, when you die, your heirs can receive your books, magazines, iPods, laptops, CDs, DVDs, photographs, sketches, automobiles, home appliances, power tools, Omega watches, shampoo bottles, paper, canvas, and any other articles in which a copyrighted work as been lawfully reproduced. Several courts, however, led by an aberration in the Ninth Circuit precedent and a […]
In the anniversary year of the 1909 codification of the First Sale Doctrine, two cases make news, as book publishers and watch makers try to create a loophole that will give them control over their products long after they have sold them. Even lending a watch or a textbook, or giving it to charity, would require their permission, if they get their way.
I nearly fell out of my chair when I read CRM News: Strategy: Is Your Supply Chain Going Gray? Frustrated that the Supreme Court has made is so that “Copyright lawyers won’t save you” because the Copyright Act makes it clear that copyrights do not extend to control over re-distribution of lawfully made copies owned […]
The article by Shannon P. Duffy appeasing in Law.com’s
3rd Circuit Upholds FCC’s Deregulation of High-Speed Internet Access succumbs to the regulation/de-regulation doublespeak pressed by the Internet regulators. I would have hoped a law rag would have been sharp enough to avoid such gullibility.
This is not at all a ruling in favor of deregulation. To […]
Universal Music Group (UMG) has taken steps calculated to exercise control over copies (”phonorecords”) it may not own. In one case, Universal Republic is said to be threatening music retailers selling imported copies of the album it plans to release this fall. The basis for the threat is not clear to me, given that press […]
When Warner Brothers backed Wal-Mart’s plan to offer movie downloads along with a DVD, critics booed, but missed the point.
It is hard to know what to make of HarperCollins’ new initiative to allow book browsing. Bookstores have long permitted customers to browse books on display – a shrink-wrapped book is more likely to be passed over. For online shoppers, services like Amazon.com’s online book-browsing are a terrific complement to reading reviews, […]
It was only a matter of time before book publishers jumped on the DMCA-enabled copyright expansion bandwagon. Book publisher Random House and Sylvania, a leading light bulb manufacturer, announced today the launch of a new strategic partnership. Beginning April 1, 2007, Random House will begin publishing all of its books using a specialized […]