Strict copyright laws do not always benefit authors
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And they could even increase risk, study says A stricter, more author-friendly copyright regime does not guarantee higher pay for authors, according to a new study which surveyed the earnings of 25,000 writers.â¦
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Another book publisher makes inroads toward the digital side of content.
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Why haggle over writer residuals when fresh content could make you unbelievably rich?
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There's been a mostly fantastic discussion about fair use in this neighborhood for the last few days.  It started when a photograph of Lane Hartwell's was used in a video spoof of the Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire."  The first I heard of this was in a Twitter post of hers where she said she was turning off access to her entire Flickr collection because this picture was used without permission. A series of communications with the people who did the video resulted in the video being taken down. Later Mike Arrington, who is a lawyer, wrote a piece saying she didn't have right on her side, and that the video's use of her picture was probably fair use. I found Mike's piece compelling. Others took offense. It thought it was a useful part of the discussion. I understand Ms Hartwell's point of view. I hate it when people copy a whole post of mine and paste it into theirs. But then I grab bits of images and put them on my blog and people rarely complain. The blogosphere is built on being loose about copyright and fair use.  I'm doing a deal with a content company and all these issues are coming up. We haven't been able to write a contract that covers all the things they want covered and make it possible for me to do what I need to do, and they want my product to work. It's a real mess we're in. Bloggers are supposed to be radicals when it comes to fair use and copyright, but that generalization doesn't work with many creative people. Hartwell's position in some ways is like the RIAA or MPAA, who bloggers often dismiss as clueless. How can we have it both ways? How can some defend her position yet not defend the entertainment industry? There's a lot to discuss here, and a lot of the discussion on the blogs has been informative and respectful. Not all of it, but to an unusually high degree.  So, I am interested in doing an in person "flash conference" on the subject of fair use in a few weeks. I'd say next week if it weren't Christmas. Most conferences are so boring. I want to do a conf on a hot subject when it's still hot in the blogosphere. This may be a good subject for such a quickly organized conference. What do you think of the flash conference idea for this??
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Archivists who want to digitize 'orphan works' -- books, movies and films that are no longer commercially viable but remain under copyright -- lose a court battle. But they vow to continue the war to rebalance copyright law. By Katie Dean.
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The printer maker's courtroom setback may mean consumer electronics companies won't try to use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as an all-purpose competition shield anymore. By Katie Dean.
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Getting a book published isn't the rarefied literary feat it once was.
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The 108th Congress has been tough on the entertainment industry. Its broad legislative agenda aimed at protecting copyrights has so far failed to win approval, and its newly enacted tax loophole benefiting some of the studios has left some executives questioning the industry's leadership choices.
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The works can be almost impossible to sell, they can end up dumped in the strangest places, you can&#39;t trust anyone. It&#39;s enough to make a thief scream, writes Sarah Lyall.
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Internet law professor Michael Geist looks at a copyright clash that could re-write the laws of online life.
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For most public companies, patents donât pay off, say a couple of researchers who have crunched the numbers.
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Why do well-meaning laws backfire?
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To tame a strong personality, an author says, don't force it to play defense.
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Some of the recording industry's copyright arguments can easily be applied to popular food, and they still don't go down easy. Commentary by Jennifer Granick.
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What happened to the guts in mainstream publications? I recall back in the 80s InfoWorld pressured Lotus into ditching its copy protection scheme by docking Lotus 1-2-3 several points in reviews because of the inconvenience. I believe Lotus was the first to buckle, but other vendors jumped on the bandwagon and abandoned copy protection. Fast forward to today. Not only has copy protection come back from the grave, it has risen like a juggernaut zombie bent on eating everyone's brains. Worse, many consumers and writers alike seem to be unscrewing their scalps and willingly offering up the meal. "I want the latest iThing, it's so cool!" Sure, you'll find appropriate outrage in Linux Journal and a handful of renegade publications like the Register. But what happened to the mainstream journals with the guts of yesteryear?
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We knew P2P would get its day in court, but did we think it would go this far? The key issue to be decided is whether file-sharing networks should be held responsible when their users copy works protected by copyright without permission.
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Copyright officials recommended on Thursday that US law be amended so that companies that rely on copyright infringement to make a profit can be held liable for their actions.