No Hollywood Special Interest Left Behind In New Education Bill. In How Lobbyists Turned Big US Education Reform Bill Into The “No Copyright Propaganda Left Behind” Act, Techdirt’s Mike Masnick reports that Hollywood lobbyists successfully inserted copyright language into the recently-passed education bill, Every Student Succeeds Act. Specifically, the language added to the bill requires technology training to include education about the harms of copyright piracy, which Masnick writes is “hard to see what that has to do with education standards, or better educating people about the role of technology.”
Huge Implications For Hyperlink Case Before Highest European Court. This week, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held a hearing on a case that could fundamentally change the Internet. In EU’s Highest Court to Weigh Whether Hyperlinking Will Remain Legal in Europe, DisCo Project authors Matt Schruers and Jakob Kucharczyk examine the central question of the case: can someone hyperlink a communication that may contain unauthorized copyrighted elements? “Because the ruling would apply to any link accessible in Europe, the impact of the GS Media case will extend far beyond Europe. If the CJEU rules that every web user, in Europe and beyond, is expected to verify the copyright status of every item on a page before linking to that page, it could effectively destroy the web as we know it today.”
Commerce Department Examines Copyright Issues, Including Reforming Statutory Damages. Last week, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Internet Policy Task Force released their White Paper on Remixes, First Sale, and Statutory Damages with policy recommendations that would “ensure balanced and meaningful protection for intellectual property while preserving the dynamic innovation and growth that have made the Internet and digital technology so important to our economy and society.” The Re:Create Coalition released a statement calling the white paper a “positive step forward” even though “innovation would have been better supported by a recommendation to severely limit the availability of statutory damages.” Many of the coalition members also reacted to the white paper, including ARL, CCIA, CDT, Public Knowledge, and DisCo Project.
Copyright Case On LeBron James And Kobe Bryant’s Tattoos Is No Slam Dunk. NBA 2K video game makers are being sued in federal court over claims that their games violate copyrights by showing the actual tattoos of famous players, including LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. The plaintiff claims to have exclusive licenses to the stars’ tattoos. A legal expert told Bloomberg in LeBron, Kobe Tattoos in Video Games Trigger Copyright Suit that the tattoos “will be accorded legal recognition just as any other work of art would” though he predicts the case will likely be settled without a decisive ruling.
Courts, Copyright, Costumes And Cosplay. In late 2015, a decision in Star Athletica LLC v. Varsity Brands was handed down by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals–a decision that could potentially outlaw homemade costumes. The case addresses if certain designs on a cheerleading costume should be considered a part of the whole uniform and therefore eligible for copyright. In Cosplay and the Courts, R Street’s Emily Zanotti breaks down the fair use and financial aspects of the copyright case. Meredith Filak Rose of Public Knowledge also covered the court case and explains separability, a key theory in the court’s judgement.