surprise! more copyright stuff!
Friday, February 23rd, 2007People have called my attention to a few more copyright & related matters lately:
* Darren Barefoot, who did the project “GetAFirstLife.com“, received a
random quotes ... to amuse, inspire, enrage:
Media companies' concern with protecting copyright does not always include protecting authors. Film studios, recording companies, software firms, and book publishers cite the need to protect creators when they lobby against digital piracy, but rarely say that they are simultaneously demanding that those creators surrender copyright in an unprecedented fashion. Anecdotes about this practice are legion. When I was recently asked to write a television script, the studio insisted that I sign four copies of an affidavit giving it all rights to my writing 'throughout the Universe in perpetuity.' I telephoned a studio lawyer to see if I could keep a few moons of Jupiter. The lawyer became angry and pointed to the section of the affidavit in which I recognized that the studio 'becomes the Author of the Writer's Work.' 'We mean it,' the lawyer said.
tagged: copyright, work-for-hire, IP assignment, authors, writers, creators' rights, media, copyright industry
—Charles Mann, Sidebar to online version of 'Who Will Own Your Next Good Idea?', The Atlantic Online, Sept., 1998, http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98sep/copy.htm. Archive for February, 2007
universities and copyright
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007Suddenly there’s a lot of press about the rights enforcement companies and their P2P notices — this Washington Post article and this AP story are just two of the recent press.
How timely — I just finished a report on exactly this issue. I spoke with representatives from 25 different educational institutions and online service [...]
copyright in a baseball pitch (not)
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007In a NYT article on the alleged “gyroball” pitch, I saw this note:
Tezuka feels so strongly about the gyroball that he has tried to get it copyrighted. “I couldn’t get that,” he said through Masa Niwa, an interpreter.
In Japan, I presume? I wish I had more details on this.
US copyright lobby madness
Wednesday, February 21st, 2007The US copyright lobby (as represented by the “International Intellectual Property Alliance”, a confusingly named consortium of US copyright lobbying groups) has just done a report on the failures of the rest of the world to properly protect its members’ intellectual property. We care, because it submits this report (solicited? unsolicited?) to the US [...]
McDonald’s “coke spoon” C&D
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007One might think it would sometimes be in the best interests of a corporation to take the high road, but McDonald’s has chosen to go for the glory. McD’s slapped a cease and desist letter on an art gallery selling “Cokespoon #2″ — a gold-plated versions of a 1980s vintage McD’s coffee stirrer that was [...]
Introducing the book
Saturday, February 17th, 2007For the bibliophiles and geeks.
Credits posted on YouTube:
It’s from a show called Øystein & Meg (Øystein & I) produced by the Norwegian Broadcasting television channel (NRK) in 2001. The spoken language is Norwegian, the subs in Danish. It’s written by Knut Nærum and performed by Øystein Bache and Rune Gokstad.
