The news this week has been dominated by discussions of the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, that had congressional hearings this week. I really liked the following discussions of SOPA:
Why I Oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)/E-PARASITES Act
Eric Goldman has a great summary of the bill and its problems. Well recommended reading.
At Web Censorship Hearing, Congress Guns for “Pro-Pirate” Google
Nate Anderson at Ars Technica had a good summary of the SOPA testimony before Congress.
In other news:
RIAA Wants ReDigi Out Of The Business of Selling “Used” iTunes Tracks
This was the most interesting new application of the First Sale doctrine in copyright this week. As I understand the business sells a copy and not the actually sold iTunes track, this one may not turn out in ReDigi’s favor. This dispute will be worth watching.
Vint Cerf: The Government Is Going Overboard in Internet Copyright Control
On November 14th, Vint Cerf spoke to the Atmosphere conference:
“He told the audience, “Remember, governance is a big word that includes human rights, freedom of speech, economic transactions on a worldwide basis — it touches everything. It’s everywhere, and that’s why Internet governance is topic A in many corners.”
This lawsuit over corporate Twitter followers as “property” is quite interesting. Kravitz left PhoneDog with 17,000 followers, and instead of turning over the account he changed the name from “Phonedog_Noah” to his personal name. On a Motion to Dismiss, the Court (Northern District of California) decided to deny Kravitz’s motion. Well worth reading.
Judge Rules Feds Can Have WikiLeaks Associates’ Twitter Data
On November 10th, Judge O’Grady of the Eastern District of Virgina ruled that government prosecutors can have access to information about three Wikileaks supporters’ Twitter accounts – not the content, but the metadata. This decision has been criticized by the EFF.
Finally, I’d like to note that if people are interested in my firm’s IP Webinar series, the next webinar I’m presenting will be on December 7, 2011 on “Online Works: Copyright Registration and Enforcement.” For more information, follow this link.
