14 Amicus Briefs Filed In Support Of Google Petition In Oracle Case. Jonathan Band posted a Project Disco roundup of the 14 amicus briefs filed in support of Google’s petition to the Supreme Court in the ongoing copyright dispute with Oracle. The blog captured the leading arguments from some of the nation’s leading IP scholars, computer scientists and software firms. The amicus arguments focused on the importance of access to APIs to the development of interoperable software, the divergence between the panel’s decisions and earlier decisions by the Supreme Court and other circuits, and the disruption to competition and innovation.

Etsy Sellers Contribute $4.7 Billion To U.S. Economy. A Forbes column profiled how Etsy is “one of the world’s largest communities of female entrepreneurs.” Eighty-seven percent of Etsy entrepreneurs are women, most of whom work out of their homes. In an independent economic study, researchers found that American Etsy sellers contribute $4.7 billion to the U.S. economy, create $2.6 billion of indirect economic output and create 1.2 million jobs.

Wikimedia Voices Criticism As EU Copyright Directive Nears Vote. The Wikimedia Foundation’s Allison Davenport published a blog post opposing the final text of the EU Copyright Directive. Davenport warned the directive “will harm access to knowledge” because it “aims to radically control the sharing of information online.” The blog post further detailed why Articles 11 and 13 of the text are particularly damaging because “as content outside of Wikipedia shrinks, so will the depth, accuracy, and quality of Wikipedia’s content.” The directive is expected to face a final vote in Parliament in late March.

Fortnite Dance Lawsuits Are “Bad For Dance, Bad For Copyright.” As the number of dance copyright lawsuits against the video game Fortnite continues to grow, The Verge provided a multilevel argument for why this litigation is “bad for dance, bad for copyright, and bad for the culture these lawsuits are ostensibly trying to protect.” If a court rules against Fortnite, dance step copyright litigation could become a popular target for the copyright troll industry. “[U]ltimately, the history of copyright law suggests these policies probably won’t be used to help the communities whose work Epic is exploiting. They’ll just help other companies turn even more pieces of shared culture into private property,” argued The Verge.

Supreme Court Rules Copyright Registration Refers To An Act By The Copyright Office. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court made a unanimous decision that a copyright owner cannot sue for infringement if they merely have a pending application, reported Reuters. They must have a copyright registration from the U.S. Copyright Office before they can act. In upholding the 2017 appeals court ruling that Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp could not sue Wall-Street.com because its copyright had not yet been registered, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the court that the term “‘registration’ refers to an action by the U.S. Copyright Office, not the applicant.”

Save The Date: CTA Innovation Day On March 12. If you are heading to SXSW in Austin, TX next week, be sure to register for the Consumer Technology Association’s sixth annual Innovation Policy Day on Tuesday, March 12. The event will convene a diverse group of panelists to take on policies that impact new technologies changing the way we live. Visit the CTA website for more information.