The Library Copyright Alliance filed a response to the U.S. Copyright Office’s Notice of Inquiry on Copyright Protection for Certain Visual Works, focusing largely on the importance of fair use and the detrimental effects of the current lengthy copyright term in the United States. The response opens by pointing out, In the past, the difficulty of identifying or locating the…

Today, Public Knowledge sent a letter to United States Trade Representative Michael Froman urging him to protect the rights of American consumers of intellectual property goods. Public Knowledge remains concerned that provisions in the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement could harm Americans by weakening exceptions and limitations available under U.S. law, including fair use. The following can be attributed to…

This post is the second installment of #CopyrightwithCourtney, a series from Courtney Duffy on the copyright challenges faced by artists in various disciplines. Courtney, who is the Robert W. Deutsch Arts & Technology Policy Fellow at Public Knowledge, focused on authorship in her first post. Today she begins a two-part post for the series on filmmaking. You’ll find her on…

Library Of Congress Could Help Lead Digital Revolution. Alan Inouye, who leads technology policy for the American Library Association, penned a column for Roll Call, “Who Should Be the Next Librarian of Congress? Wrong Question!” on July 20. In the column, he writes about how the attention surrounding who will replace the current librarian of Congress is misguided. Inouye raises…

Today, District Court Judge George Wu issued a preliminary decision finding that FilmOn, an online video service, is entitled to a compulsory copyright license. Public Knowledge has long advocated for regulatory parity for online video services, and applauds this decision. The following statement can be attributed to John Bergmayer, Senior Staff Attorney at Public Knowledge: “If upheld, this decision could…

Automakers Engaging In “Copyright Creep” Is Bad For Consumers. In his July 8 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, William Rand, Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business, takes on the assertion by automakers that consumers don’t really own their cars due to copyright law. Rand takes a look at auto copyright exemptions filed…

Even after you’ve learned the basics of U.S. copyright law, once you delve into music copyrights, you discover an even more complex—I like to say “fractally complex”—framework at the root of today’s music industry. At the first level, this complex framework is grounded in the compulsory mechanical license and other compulsory licenses, which set a baseline for private negotiations among…

In a plenary session, the European Parliament voted yesterday to adopt a report on “the harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society.” In a previous post, we applauded the report’s recognition of the importance of balanced copyright while lamenting over some the elements of the draft report that failed to make their way into…

Organization For Transformative Works Joins Re:Create To Defend Creator Rights. The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) announced on July 8 that they are joining the Re:Create coalition. OTW is a nonprofit organization established to preserve, protect and provide access to “fanworks” – new creative works such as fiction, video, art, games, and crafts created by fans based on existing media….

This post is the first installment in a new blog series from Courtney Duffy, the Robert W. Deutsch Arts & Technology Policy Fellow at Public Knowledge. It was originally posted on the Fractured Atlas blog. In each post, Courtney will look at copyright issues through the lens of a different art form. She begins with the world of authorship. Writing…