Other than involving their respective Web campaigns, these two tidbits are only semantically related—you can file them both under odds and ends. While artist stages the inaugural “Intellectual Property Asshole Competition,” fans of unfortunately named and since changed Butt Hole Road have waged an Internet campaign to change the name back to the rude original.
AP versus Shepard Fairy
The other day, Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave quite an inspirational speech at the University of Pennsylvania, in which he shared his interpretation of the meaning of life. He talked about technology and the importance of the organization of the world's information - Google's ultimate goal.
One of the biggest legal fights between the music industry and a file sharer is slated for this summer, and the outcome will determine more than just whether defense counsel is a genius or out of his flippin’ mind.
Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson made headlines by taking the case of peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharer Joel Tenenbaum, in a fight for his financial life against habitual copyright law abuser the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA—now with five former attorneys heading up your Department of Justice).
Some controversy stirred up earlier this week after the Electronic Frontier Foundation stepped in on behalf of the creators of Wikipediaart.org, a site dedicated to a Wikipedia-related art project. The EFF was responding to demands by a lawyer for the Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company of Wikipedia, that the artists turn over control of the domain.
These are rough times for the concept of fair use, especially when lawyers citing fair use as a defense don’t seem to quite understand it much more than those sending out cease and desist letters. The latest fair use kafuffle stems from the already ridiculous spat between Miss California, Carrie Prejean, and Perez Hilton.
Please don’t make me sum up what that was about; read about it at Wikipedia and come back.
Fair use is back in the news courtesy of a New York Times article on publishers being unhappy with the use of excerpts of their content. The main focal point of the article is Henry Blodget of Silicon Alley Insider, who recently quoted a WSJ columnist.
Well, if Google (or any number of other cost-conscious corporations) isn’t going to do something about overreaching copyright enforcement, it may be up to nonprofits and legal scholars at our best law schools. First up, a pair of acronyms, next Congress for encouraging them.
“This is what it’s come to,” writes the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Fred von Lohmann. “Teenagers singing ‘Winter Wonderland’ being censored on YouTube.
Though initially critical of the McCain campaign’s request for special treatment, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has echoed parts of a letter to YouTube by calling for immediate fair use review of videos uploaded to the site upon the receipt of a counter-notice to a DMCA takedown notice.
Earlier this week, general counsel for the McCain campaign petitioned YouTube to give special treatment to political ads scrubbed from the site because of DMCA take down notices. General counsel for YouTube roundly rejected that request.
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