The Canadian Archivist Blog

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2008/08/30/hariputtar-lawsuit-warner.html

Warner Brothers is less than amused by Hari Puttar, an Indian production featuring a precocious child in England who faces wacky challenges while growing up in England. There are no wizards involved, but Warner isn’t letting that stand in the way of the copyright lawsuit it’s just filed against Mirchi Movies Ltd.
Mirchi claims that their movie’s name is a coincidence and has been in production for some time. Mirchi head Munish Pirii says he is puzzled as to why Warner Bros. is suddenly so upset.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/07/25/tech-britain.html

British copyright-violating scofflaws can expect warning letters followed by disconnection from their internet access under a new agreement between the government, Britain's six biggest ISPs, and the film and music industries.

Throttling illegal downloaders may be considered as an option. In Canada, two of the biggest ISPs, Bell and Rogers, already throttle the speed of downloaders using programs like BitTorrent. The new copyright legislation pending in Canada will free ISPs from this duty while paving the way for copyright holders to sue downloaders.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25522070/

Google has been ordered to turn over YouTube user data to Viacom as part of discovery for Viacom's lawsuit. Privacy advocates cringed at the news, while copyright mavens applauded.

Viacom says it isn't interested in individual viewers' information, just in proving Google's violation of copyright. However, Google's request to redact personal information such as addresses was rejected.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/07/11/qc-quebectorrent0711.html

Quebec's own version of Kazaa has fallen to the copyright behemoth. Association québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo (ADISQ) took them to court and has won an injunction in Quebec Superior Court against the peer-to-peer sharing network.

The comments seem to be implying that this is an example of Quebec as a police state, but this has been happening all over to English websites for months. Anyone out there have an opinion: an example of Quebec as police state, or just status quo on copyright enforcement?

A coalition of artists known as Appropriation Art has published an amazing primer on the proposed new Canadian Copyright law, Bill C-61. They have produced a comicbook-style document filled with clickable links to the sources they quote (193 websites, blogs, films and papers and articles), both supporting the government's bill and those who vehemently oppose it. This is a concise but detailed introduction to the issues surrounding the copyright bill and the politics that has had a hand in shaping it.

You can get your own copy of "The 51st State" here. For more information on the issues click here.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/06/12/tech-copyright.html

After one false start and months of speculation, Jim Prentice unveiled his grand copyright bill today, to much criticism and anger. It will allow users to make one copy from a copyrighted work (so you better not borrow your boyfriend's CD if he already put that song on his iPod), but you have to own the original media (so if you break your CD afterward you're in violation). If you break a digital protection, though, that'll be in violation. Reusing your cell phone if you change carriers will also be impossible under this legislation.

As to penalties - if you download illegally, it'll be $500 per violation. If you upload illegally, though - $20,000. It'll also probably make the fees for iPods, computers and Tivos go up, because producers of material could demand extra fees under the law.

Critics like Michael Geist liken the new bill to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act in the United States. The changes are too superficial from the earlier version of the bill, Geist says.

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3025/1/

And here's a CBC in-depth article about the proposed changes.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/who-copyrightlaw/

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/technology/080606/z060608A.html

First up: a Missouri university is forcing students to pass a quiz on digital copyright law before it's allowing them to access peer-to-peer music sharing technology. I'm sure that will stop them...

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/technology/080605/z060506A.html

Next: a Wikipedia rewrite war has broken out on Industry Minister Jim Prentice's biography. Prentice's office is sitting on copyright legislation that's been highly criticized. It seems that magical elves on government computers (I'm sure they have no connection to Prentice) have been rewriting his biography on Wikipedia to delete any negative references to the copyright battle. The war was being monitored by copyright expert Michael Geist, and the entry has been locked for changes by Wikipedia staff for vandalism.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2008/06/02/imagine-lawsuit-ono.html

The makers of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, the anti-evolution/pro-intelligent design movie narrated by Ben Stein (of Ferris Bueller's Day Off fame) used John Lennon's song Imagine in the film.

The lyrics of Imagine feature the lines "Imagine there's no heaven" and "no religion too", a message in direct opposition to the message of the film. This has saved the filmmakers' behinds, because they didn't actually ask permission to use the song. However, the judge found that use of the song for criticism and commentary was allowed.

This is actually kind of amazing. Fair use is a legal defensible position, but this means you have to be sued to use it (i.e. you can't claim it in advance of a lawsuit). Many artists simply don't have the money or time to fight a copyright lawsuit into the ground and they cave, even when the use really does fall under fair use. (Some legal defense funds exist to fight this, though.) Even some big names (rappers mostly) who use samples don't bother to claim fair use but simply offer a settlement, and YouTube typically just pulls content without examination if a complaint comes from a copyright holder.

The filmmakers must have had some big cash behind them to fight Yoko Ono in court.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/technology/080526/z052619A.html

When Google isn't being sued by writers for copyright infringement on its book-scanning project (see previous entry today) it's usually being sued by someone over YouTube content. Today, Viacom is attacking Google's position in court filings. While Google is saying that it's upholding copyright law in its user policy, Viacom says that use of unauthorized clips from shows like SpongeBob Squarepants and The Daily Show are a part of Google's business plan for YouTube.

(I think my household can personally take the blame for about 1 billion of the 1.5 billion viewings Viacom's claiming SpongeBob gets.)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24394270/

On the one hand, I guess technically copyright would attach when a hacker creates a piece of software that enslaves other computers to turn them into spam zombies.

On the other hand, I'd love to see a hacker try and sue for copyright infringement...

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2008/03/22/beatles-hamburg-recordings.html

Bootleg tapes made at the Star Club in Germany may never see the light of day if Apple Corps Ltd. has its way. The tapes, which feature the first performances of Ringo Starr with the Beatles, were scheduled to be released as a CD. The owners of the bootlegs, Fuego Entertainment Inc., claim Apple is trying to strongarm the masters away from them. Apple contends that the tapes are illegal bootlegs made without permission of the band or the club's owners.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2008/03/23/marley-biopic-documentary.html

Late reggae artist Bob Marley's children are fighting against his widow in the battle over which of their respective film projects has the right to use Marley's music.

The kids, led by Ziggy, are behind a documentary about their father's life, while the widow Rita is helping with a biopic of the late artist. The Marley kids say the biopic is coming out in late 2009, which is too close to the early 2010 release date for the documentary. Martin Scorsese is behind the documentary, while the Weinstein Brothers are behind the biopic.

I don't know - seems to me that they're missing a great cross-marketing possibility here...

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/01/22/tech-stoddart-copyright.html

Business feels it's too restrictive, while the privacy commissioner feels the law's allowance for technology that will 'scoop up' information about users without their knowledge violates users' privacy rights.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/02/12/tech-copyright.html

Canada should be placed on the Most Wanted list of copyright offenders along with China and Russia, says the International Intellectual Property Alliance. The recent failure of Jim Prentice to introduce an amended Copyright Bill is being cited as the reason.

Critics like Michael Geist are saying this is so much gum-flapping on the part of the IIPA. It amounts to little more than an attempt to get the US to lean on Canada to pass copyright amendments, in Geist's opinion.

Geist anticipates that the only changes that Prentice will have made to the bill (which had been scheduled for December 2007 but was withdrawn due to public pressure) is the approach he will use to sell it - Geist says the other, high-profile bills like Afghanistan and the Crime Bill have been sucking up government attention, and there hasn't been enough time elapsed to make substantive changes to the original draft bill.

http://www.sweetney.com/index3.html

I don't know if anyone's heard of this, but you can almost taste the hypocrisy...

Sweetney is a blog run by a mom from the DC area. In addition to posts about her kid, she posts pictures of her cute little pug dog wearing dorky hats and sitting in cute poses.

Before Christmas, her husband was watching football on Fox. At a lull in the action, a picture of Sweetney's dog Truman from her online Flick'r account suddenly appeared on the screen. The photo had no credit given to her, and no money, obviously. Sweetney and her husband freaked out, then contacted Fox's legal department to express their distress over this. She details it all on her blog at the above link. It was also discussed a few weeks ago on CBC One.

This has been a trend lately in broadcasting. The same networks and companies that are suing YouTube for showing clips from TV shows or commercials without permission are stealing still images or other videos off YouTube, Flick'r and other video and picture-hosting sites. Essentially, these sites are being treated as stock image services by large corporations in spite of copyright warnings. This is part of an attempt to cash in on the cinema-verite style of hand-shot videos in commercials and in television.

(You've maybe seen the insurance commercial that features the giggling baby laughing his head off as he rips paper? That clip started on YouTube as something posted by proud parents. Although I believe the parents did get paid for use of that clip. See it here if you haven't seen it already - at least you'll get a laugh out of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXXm696UbKY)

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/01/30/qc-moviepirating0130.html

I guess the Montreal courts will remember this as the day they almost caught Jack Sparrow...er, Geremi Adam.

Alleged movie pirate Adam was scheduled to appear in court for arraignment on Wednesday, but he declined to show up. The development proved somewhat embarrassing to the crowd of 20 or so supporters calling themselves Hors-d-Ouevre, who had turned out in force to support Adam as he faced charges of pirating movies on the internet.

Adam was caught outside a multiplex in September 2006, and is alleged to have filmed something called How To Eat Fried Worms, which I'm sure is better than it sounds.

Hors-d-Ouevre's supporters have declared that they don't care about property rights of creators, only about getting a quality product (which the FBI allege Adam aka Maven provided) at a cheap price.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2008/01/29/tech-u2.html

Music is being ruined by ISPs, illegal downloading and digital device makers, says U2's long-time manager Paul McGuinness.

My favorite part of his screed is when he describes Silicon Valley as a bunch of people with "hippy values" who are all a bunch of Deadhead wasters. Because everyone knows that no other group has as many hippies as does the field of venture capitalists.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/entertainment/080124/e012411A.html

Well, that is: copyright on jokes. The writers of several volumes of joke collections are on the hook for violating the copyright of several writers such as Jay Leno, Rita Rudner and NBC Studios. The writers involved in the suit will donate the monies received to charity.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/01/24/world-music-sales.html

The decline in CD sales is not being made up by sales of digital music, says the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The difference is being made up by piracy, the industry group alleges.

The group cites France as a country that is trying to make a dent in piracy, while condemning Japanese music lovers as some of the worst offenders.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/01/17/illegal-recording.html

A 20-year old Calgary man has been busted for movie piracy after being caught in a theatre with a camcorder hidden in his clothes. This is Alberta's first movie piracy charge.