Today, the Ninth Circuit, in an en banc opinion in Google v. Garcia, reversed itself and upheld a lower court’s decision to deny actress Cindy Lee Garcia’s request for an injunction barring YouTube or any other Google website from hosting a trailer for the controversial film Innocence of Muslims, in which Garcia appears for five seconds. The following can be…

Fifteen months after it issued an extraordinary order requiring Google to take down a controversial video, based entirely on a specious copyright claim, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has seen the light and rescinded that order. Quick background: The video in question, called “Innocence of Muslims,” is an anti-Islam polemic that sparked outrage around the world. Actress Cindy Lee…

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned an order that YouTube take down the infamous video “Innocence of Muslims,” rejecting an actress’ claim that her brief and unwitting appearance in the film gave her a copyright in her performance that allowed her to prevent its distribution. The decision overturned a February 2014 ruling from a three-judge panel of…

Today, Sherwin Siy, Vice President for Legal Affairs at Public Knowledge, will testify before the Copyright Office in Los Angeles to request that the Library of Congress allow consumers to bypass digital locks on their DVDs for the purpose of shifting their movies from discs to their other devices. The following may be attributed to Sherwin Siy, VP of Legal…

Ninth Circuit strikes down order that YouTube take down ‘Innocence of Muslims’ The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned an order that YouTube take down the infamous video “Innocence of Muslims,” rejecting an actress’ claim that her brief and unwitting appearance in the film gave her a copyright in her performance that allowed her to prevent its distribution….

Imagine you could only play Call of Duty against someone sitting next to you, or were limited to only playing the single-player campaign of Starcraft II or against the AI in Civilization V.  Those games wouldn’t be nearly as fun – some of them wouldn’t be the same game! But the Entertainment Software Association doesn’t think it should matter. In…

Washington — As the Senate moves to consider Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation, the Finance Committee released a report today, explaining the legislation which gives the President authority to negotiate trade deals without additional tweaks from Congress.  In addition to acknowledging the importance of digital commerce, today’s Senate Report and the House of Representatives’ TPA Report both clarify that the…

Since 1998, U.S. policy has held that the Internet’s “IANA functions” — the technical functions collectively referred to as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, administered by ICANN.org— will ultimately belong to the world. In this context, “the world” has been understood to mean not merely the world’s governments, but also other “stakeholders.” These may include national and international business entities, nongovernmental…

Libraries have been on the front lines of the digital revolution since its beginning. 3-D printing is the latest wave of this revolution, which continues to fundamentally change the way we access, process, and produce information. This technology brings digitization to the physical marketplace for the first time, by allowing people of all ages to use digital processes to create…

The Re:Create Coalition brings together various groups from the technology, trade, and library industries. The alliance will advocate for less-stifling copyright laws that foster innovation. A group of library, technology, and trade organizations have joined together to advocate for simpler and more transparent copyright laws. In a statement, members of the Re:Create Coalition said that more balanced copyright policies that…