Copyright Resources and Current Issues

"The Chilling Effects Clearinghouse is a unique collaboration among law school clinics and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Conceived and developed at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society by Berkman Fellow Wendy Seltzer, the project is now supported by clinical programs at Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law clinics, and the EFF.

Chilling Effects aims to support lawful online activity against the chill of unwarranted legal threats. We are excited about the new opportunities the Internet offers individuals to express their views, parody politicians, celebrate favorite stars, or criticize businesses, but concerned that not everyone feels the same way. Anecdotal evidence suggests that cease and desist letters often silence Internet users, whether or not their claims have legal merit. The Chilling Effects project seeks to document that "chill" and inform C&D recipients of their legal rights in response.
"

http://www.chillingeffects.org/index.cgi

Posted by Lorre Smith at 01:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This abstract just arrived in a notice from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School

Haochen Sun - "Overcoming the Achilles Heel of Copyright Law"

Abstract:
With the recent proliferation of international, regional and bilateral treaties associated with copyright protection, the three-step test has been hailed as the panacea for measuring the legality of all limitations on copyright. I will challenge the legitimacy of the three-step test as a one-size-fits-all standard for copyright protection and puts forward a proposal to reshape this test. It further argues that the inquiry into the legitimacy of the three-step test necessitates a careful reexamination of the conventional wisdom of copyright law in general and the nature of copyright limitations in particular. Central to this scrutiny are the inquiries into how we could re-imagine the legal status of users in the field of copyright law and whether right holders should be imposed social responsibilities as the quid pro quo for being granted with exclusive rights. Drawing upon modern jurisprudence and political philosophy, this article explores legal indeterminacy, conflict of rights, and rights and responsibilities in the framework of copyright law.

* "Overcoming the Achilles Heel of Copyright Law" is available via SSRN:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1021027

* About former Berkman fellow Haochen Sun:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/haochen_sun

Posted by Lorre Smith at 07:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"This document was developed by representatives of the Association of American Universities (John
Vaughn), the Association of Research Libraries (Duane Webster and Mary Case), the Association of
American University Presses (Peter Givler), and the Association of American Publishers (Allan Adler).
These organizations represent sectors which play central roles within higher education in the creation,
use, and management of copyrighted works. The principal objective of this project was to bring together
these groups, which have differing perspectives and often conflicting views on the appropriate use of
copyrighted works, to produce a document that conveys their common understanding regarding the basic
meaning and practical significance of copyright for the higher education community. The association
representatives above gratefully acknowledge the invaluable advice and drafting assistance of Professor
Laura Gasaway (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and attorney Bruce Joseph (Wiley Rein &
Fielding LLP) in producing this document."

This 36 page document, produced in 2005, covers major topics of relevance to higher education.

http://www.publishers.org/about/campus_copyright_rights_responsibilities.pdf

Posted by Lorre Smith at 02:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The CIP Of the University of Maryland University College has a well constructed newsletter that deserves the attention of all who are interested in copyright issues in higher education. The Center is a hotbed of activities involving coyright, and their newsletter will keep us all informed of major issues and major players.

http://www.umuc.edu/distance/odell/cip/newsletter/index.shtml

Posted by Lorre Smith at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR) has compiled interesting pages regarding U.K and European information policy and the link below is to their intellectual property section. I have written to them about the lack of dates on most pages, which makes reading rather bewildering at times. However it is a good resource if you have the patience to figure out dates or if you're absolutely on top of things and already know all that's going on. Most of the pages seem to have been posted around 2002, however there are news items on the site that are much more recent.

http://www.fipr.org/intellectual.html

Posted by Lorre Smith at 02:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access posted the entire letter to the U.S. Congress regarding the NIH open access policy, signed by 26 Nobel Prize winners.

In case you might wish to use some of the language/ideas when you contact your Senator:
http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/bof.html

The ATA has an update regarding the Senate vote:
http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/nih/2007senatecalltoaction.html

Posted by Lorre Smith at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)