NFL Shuts Down Deadspin And SB Nation Over GIFS. The NFL sent 18 takedown notices to Twitter this weekend regarding Deadspin’s alleged copyright violations while tweeting GIFS of NFL games. Meanwhile SB Nation’s Twitter account was similarly suspended for tweeting out GIFS of college football highlights. The NFL claimed exclusive rights to “intellectual property of the NFL and its Member Clubs, including, but not limited to, moving images and other audio/video content featuring NFL game action…” In The Verge article, Sports site’s Twitter account suspended after NFL complains about GIFs, Nick Statt raises serious questions about the future of fair use on social media and examines the ongoing debate over other copyright issues on Twitter.
Yoga Court Ruling A Victory For The Public Domain. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the sequence of Bikram yoga’s 26 postures cannot be protected by copyright law, citing the exercise’s physical and health benefits according to The Los Angeles Times’ Maura Dolan in Downward dog duplication? Relax, yoga poses can’t be copyrighted, court rules. Others expressed relief at the decision, which could have otherwise imposed “huge legal risks for all kinds of exercise instructors.” Cydney Tune, a lawyer for Yoga Alliance, noted: “If you were an instructor, you could be infringing copyrights if you had your push-ups follow your flys…Everybody would be afraid.”
House Judiciary Committee Announces Next Stops On Copyright Listening Tour. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Ranking Member John Conyers announced in an October 13 press release that the next stops on the listening tour for copyright review will be held in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles in early November. Similar to the September roundtable discussion in Nashville, the Committee is expected to meet with creators, innovators and users to help inform any future copyright reform legislation. In response to the announcement, Politico Pro reports that Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren criticized the tour for favoring “big content” and excluding technology representatives from the process.
How Internet Users Are Changing The Status Quo On The Silver Screen. Viola Davis’ historic Emmy win and increasing racial diversity on television can be credited to today’s Internet-driven society, argues Taylor Moore in the October 13 Medium op-ed, The Internet Is Changing The Status Quo on the Silver Screen. The op-ed notes the increasing power that Internet users wield, particularly through social media, to change and shape culture, policy and entire industries.
Sen. Ron Wyden: DMCA Should Not Hinder Researchers & Innovators. As the U.S. Copyright Office reviews exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Sen. Ron Wyden pens the October 13 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Regulatory Hardball About Software, urging the Office to grant exemptions to security researchers and software innovators. In an age when more and more everyday devices are controlled by software, he writes: “The Digital Millennium Copyright Act must not become the avenue for federal regulatory agencies to vastly expand their authority…” He urges the Copyright Office to “stand up to bureaucratic overreach and grant the exemptions that allow us to better understand and improve the devices we use every day.”
Careful Balance Of Copyright Protections Critical To Future Innovation. In the October 8 blog post, Imbalanced ‘Incentives’ Hurt Creativity More Than They Help, Zach Graves of R Street explains a careful balance is necessary to cultivate creation and innovation, while also establishing the proper protection of intellectual property. “As I’ve discussed, there’s great merit to having a system that provides legal protection for their creative products. But this must be carefully balanced against the limitations that system inevitably imposes on other forms of creative expression, as well as other uses of tangible property.”