News

The Library of Congress's DRM Exceptions: Not Just About Jailbreaking

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:30:21 -0400

By now, you’ve probably heard that the Library of Congress says you can jailbreak your iPhone. But there are other exceptions to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) that the Library of Congress created—and other people who are happy about these exceptions.

PK In the Know Podcast

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:21:14 -0400

In this week's edition of the In the Know Podcast, we discuss the Copyright Office's Section 1202 Anticircumvention Rulemaking Report, also known as the DMCA report. Then, we speak with the people behind Rock Your Phone, an alternative iPhone app store, about what an alternative iPhone app store is and why they think that Apple may be acting anticompetitively.

Required Intellectual Capital

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:07:48 -0400

By Simon Johnson

At one level, the pursuit of higher and more robust capital requirements for banks is not going well. The US Treasury insisted, throughout the year-long financial reform debate, that capital should be the focus – increasing the loss-absorbing buffers that banks must carry – and that they (and other regulators) needed to negotiate this is through the Basel Committee process.

Barbie v. Bratz Part I: What Does Copyright Protect?

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:51:59 -0400

Last Thursday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that toymaker Mattel did not own the trademarks and copyrights in the Bratz doll line, and that competitor MGA Entertainment was not liable for copyright infringement. This case properly distinguishes ideas, which cannot be copyrighted, from the protectable expression of these ideas.

New PK Intern!

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:33:33 -0400

Greetings!

My name is Anne Halsey and I am the newest of the PK summer interns. I started at the beginning of July and have been getting up to speed on a variety of issues, some of which I’ve worked with before and some of which are new to me. I’m looking forward to spending the rest of my summer in DC working on issues that are near and dear to PK and to me!

Blogging Service is Cut Off From the Internet: Weaknesses in Content Access are Illuminated

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:35:31 -0400

The blogging service Blogetery was recently cut off from the Internet by its web hosting service. As a result, blog creators and readers lost access to an estimated 73,000 blogs. Why Blogetery was cut off from the Internet is not clear. The New York Times’ Bits Blog originally reported that the cut off

Yet Another Reason to Like Elizabeth Warren

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:30:39 -0400

By James Kwak

Bob Lawless points me to this 2006 blog post by Elizabeth Warren. Warren describes a first-year contracts class on the case that upheld a fine-print forum selection clause (a clause saying that if you want to sue us, you have to sue us in X jurisdiction–Florida, in this case) on the back of a cruise ship ticket.

There's No "Third Way" on Copy Ownership

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:31:18 -0400

New Labour, the FCC, and G.K. Chesterton are known for third ways. But when it comes to “copy ownership,” there’s no such thing. The mostly-awesome Copyright Office 1201 report wishes there was, however.

Advice for Robert Dudley

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:50:02 -0400

Over at the Netlab, I posted a project by Caren Faye, a student in the fall 2009 “Evil” studio, for rebranding BP. Maybe it’ll prove useful for Robert Dudley, the incoming BP CEO.

Blizzard: StarCraft II tournaments are copyright infringement

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:07:44 -0400

Blizzard Entertainment has a history of making popular, well-regarded games, such as those in their long-running WarCraft, Diablo, and StarCraft franchises, and even games like The Lost Vikings back on Super NES. But Blizzard also has a recent history of expounding a rather broad theory of copyright liability, one which gives copyright owners wide discretion to unilaterally decide which of their customers’ should count as copyright infringement.