Is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act already passé?

Live, televised sporting events are popular with consumers and valuable to those owning the copyrights for the broadcasts. The Olympics is somehow more satisfying, if you can see the competition live, even if it means watching freestyle skiing at 3 o’clock in the morning. But, with great popularity comes the threat of piracy. A growing problem for content owners is the illegal streaming of their live events over the Internet in real-time. While the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) provides a mechanism for removing infringing material after it has been posted to a website, the DMCA does not contemplate notification prior to, or contemporaneous with, the transmission of infringing material. Content owners and legitimate website operators are attempting to develop solutions that make it easier for copyright owners to protect their intellectual property rights in live broadcasts.
One of the more promising solutions is video fingerprinting. Video fingerprinting takes advantage of the fact that every digital video exhibits a unique, characteristic pattern. Using various algorithms, there is software that can identify, extract and compress those patterns and create a unique identifier for any video. These unique fingerprints, usually bits of data much smaller than the actual video file, can then be uploaded into databases and compared against video that is being streamed on the Internet. A video stream that matches the fingerprint could be identified and shut down almost immediately or even filtered out by website operators, before it can be broadcast on the Internet.

source:http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=03438c73-689f-4f92-a3e8-eef0150bfa65

Website development contracts: The “handshake deal” can cost you.


Under U.S. copyright laws, the developer of a website owns the intellectual property and copyrightable elements of the website. The copyrightable elements of a website include the text, graphics, scripts, code, and the “look and feel.” Unless there is a contract to the contrary, the website developer’s client only obtains a non-exclusive license to utilize the intellectual property that it paid to develop. Even the copyright notice on the client’s website applies only to the contents that were developed by the client and not to the contents that were created by the developer.
This means that under the default scenario, your business’ website developer can create a very similar website for your competitors. Furthermore, at the end of your business’ relationship with the website developer, the website developer can also demand that you stop using its intellectual property and copyrightable contents. If you refuse, you may find yourself as the defendant in a copyright infringement lawsuit. Even worse, your website developer may refuse to facilitate your business’ transition to a new developer. If your business depends on its website, it may never recover from this website hijacking scheme commonly applied by some unscrupulous website developers.
You should be aware of the risks associated with the absence of a carefully drafted website development agreement and should consult with an Internet Attorney before hiring others to develop your website.

source:http://cyberlawyerblog.com/2007/07/22/website-development-contracts-the-handshake-deal-can-cost-you.aspx

When Copyright Goes Bad

did you know that even a pice of music you downloud from websites could be a kind of copyright infringement?

The Google Online Books

Since 2005, Google has digitally scanned over 10,000,000 books from various libraries, indexed them in its search database, and for those books under copyright and not part of its Partner Program, displaying so-called “snippets” of their content – up to three portions each no more than 8-12 lines in length – without permission from the copyright owners. As a result, a group of authors and publishers filed suit, now as a class action, for copyright infringement. Google has responded with several defenses, including the assertion that everything it is doing is a fair use under Section 107 of the Copyright Act.
Last October, the parties announced a proposed settlement of the case. The settlement agreement is over 300 pages and quite complex. It has many supporters as well as critics. Objections to the settlement can be filed up until September 4, 2009. On October 7, 2009, Judge Denny Chin will hold a hearing on whether the proposed settlement is “fair, reasonable, and adequate” to the class members.

Source: http://cyberlawcases.com

copyright law

copyright definition

Copyright is the set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. These rights can be licensed, transferred and/or assigned. Copyright lasts for a certain time period after which the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright applies to a wide range of works that are substantive and fixed in a medium. Some jurisdictions also recognize "moral rights" of the creator of a work, such as the right to be credited for the work.