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Copyright Office and Librarian of Congress announce six DRM exemptions — good news for fair use in filmmaking

artflaw — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 05:28:02 +0000

The U.S. Copyright Office and Librarian of Congress announced six new exemptions to Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Digital Rights Management (DRM) measures stating, “Persons making noninfringing uses of the following [...] classes of works will not be subject to the prohibition against circumventing access controls (17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)) until the conclusion of the next rulemaking.” The six classes of works include:

1. Motion pictures on DVDs that are lawfully made and acquired and that are protected by the Content Scrambling System;
2. Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications;
3. Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, that enable used wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telecommunications network;
4. Video games accessible on personal computers and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully obtained works;
5. Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete; and
6. Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book’s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format.

Of note is the fair use exemption for circumventing copyright protection technology on DVDs — when accomplished solely in order to incorporate short portions of motion pictures into new works for the purpose of criticism or comment in the following instances:

i. Educational uses by college and university professors and by college and university film and media studies students;
ii. Documentary filmmaking; and
iii. Noncommercial videos.

When ICE freezes your bank account and website

artflaw — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:36:18 +0000

Late last month, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) announced the launch of Operation In Our Sites – an initiative aimed at Internet counterfeiting and piracy. Operating largely at the behest of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the first action carried out as part of the initiative led to the seizure of nine websites, including tvshack.net, movie-links.tv, filepump.com, now-movies.com, planetmoviez.com, thepiratecity.org, zml.com, and ninjavideo.com. According to CNET, more than a dozen bank, investment and advertising accounts were wrangled — in addition to the URLs themselves:

EFF celebrates 20th Anniversary with cartoon tribute by Nina Paley

artflaw — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:28:45 +0000

On July10th 2010, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) celebrated its 20th Anniversary. To commemorate the occasion, EFF released the following short animation by cartoonist and free culture activist Nina Paley:

ROUNDUP: Vampire Weekend sued for $2 million over Contra cover art; Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN leaves trail of carnage; Filmmaker may have to turn over ‘Crude’ footage for environmental investigation

artflaw — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:37:33 +0000

Vampire Weekend sued for $2 million over Contra cover art

Model Kirsten Kennis sued Vampire Weekend for unauthorized use of her image on the cover of Contra (2010). Apparently, the image was shot by photographer Tod Brody in 1983 and licensed to the band through a forged release. From TMZ.

Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN leaves trail of carnage

TorrentFreak reports that The Bescherming Rechten Entertainment Industrie Nederland (BREIN), a Dutch anti-piracy group working mainly on behalf of the entertainment industry, shut down a “staggering 422 illegal websites” during the first half of 2010. Takedowns include 5 Usenet indexers, 6 streaming sites, an FTP server, 29 sites linking to material, and 384 torrent sites – while the U.S. Government took down less than 10 sites this year, “BREIN was quietly showing them how it’s really done,” said TF. More here.

Filmmaker may have to turn over ‘Crude’ footage for environmental investigation

Filmmaker Joe Berlinger is likely going to have to turn over hours of footage from his documentary Crude. THR, Esq. reports that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a tentative ruling compelling Berlinger to turn over outtakes to Chevron Corp. for use in connection with the company’s protracted legal dispute over environmental policies in Ecuador. More from THR, Esq.

Larry Lessig: Creativity is being strangled by copyright

artflaw — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 04:23:03 +0000

At a 2007 TEDtalk, Lawrence Lessig discusses the shortcomings of the current copyright regime and how it stifles our creative culture. In response to the conflict of the law and creative freedom, he notes, there is a burgeoning extremism on both sides:

ROUNDUP: John Lennon memorabilia collector bilked for $100,000+; Record industry seeks damages from porn films

artflaw — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:38:59 +0000

John Lennon memorabilia collector bilked for $100,000+

The Chicago Tribune reports that David Petersen, a collector of John Lennon rarities, was duped in to purchasing over $100k worth of phony sketches supposedly drawn by the ex-Beatle. Petersen hired a forensic analyst to confirm that the 14 sketches purchased from Hawaii-based Celebrities Galleries were not created during the period claimed.

Record industry seeks damages from porn films

Some record industry heavyweights are filing suit against Florida-based RK Netmedia for copyright infringement. 11 record labels, including Warner Bros., are seeking damages that “could run in the tens of millions of dollars” for unathorized use of copyrighted music in porno soundtracks. More from THR, Esq.

Mark Hosler on Negativland’s contribution to the Creative Commons Sampling License

artflaw — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 04:50:26 +0000

Mark Hosler of Negativland talks about the band’s role as Creative Commons’ (CC) first Project Lead. In 2003 CC recruited the sound collage pioneers to oversee drafting of the Sampling License which allows people to “create collage art and “mash-ups” — as well as other art forms based on re-used materials — from licensed works.”

While he lauds CC for articulating the shortcomings of the copyright regime and its attempt to provide alternatives, Hosler describes his reluctance to contribute because of unwarranted licensing restrictions. “Part of the bargain of cultural production, is that you don’t get total control,” he says, “if you want total control [...] keep it in your bedroom — play it for your friends — that’s it.”

Creative Commons retired the Sampling License in 2007, opting to retain 2 licenses (SamplingPlus, and Noncommercial SamplingPlus) which permit noncommercial sharing of licensed work.

Read the 2003 press release announcing the Negativland/CC effort.

Piratbyrån, the Pirate Bay founding organization dissolves

artflaw — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 06:05:00 +0000

BBC news reports that the Swedish anti-copyright group which founded The Pirate Bay has disbanded. The Piracy Bureau, or Piratbyrån website states, “STÄNGT FÖR EFTERTANKE” which means “closed for reflection” in English.

The announcement follows the recent death of co-founder Ibi Kopimi Botani.

Apart from launching the infamous BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay in 2003, Piratbyrån was the creator and advocate of kopimi — a copyright alternative:

kopimi (copyme), symbol showing that you want to be copied. use kopimi in your own fancy. kopimi may be put on homepages or blogs, in books, in software, as sound logos in music or whatever.

Botani developed the kopimi concept and logo in 2005.