Category: law

On Jan 20, the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) , the National Writers Union (NWU), and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and the Internet Society’s New York Chapter (ISOC-NY) jointly sponsored a workshop to discuss the implications for writers of the proposed Google Books Settlement (GBS), which is the result of a class action brought by the Authors Guild. There is some urgency, as writers only have until Jan 28 2010 to opt out or object. The three sponsoring writers organizations above all oppose the settlement. A fairness hearing has been set for 18 February.

With NWU President Larry Goldbetter moderating, the panel was

Paul Aiken – Authors Guild
James Grimmelmann – NY Law School
Lyn Chu – Writers’ Reps LLC

with additional input from:

Ed Hasbrouck – National Writers Union
Sally Shannon – American Society of Journalists and Authors
Michael Capobianco – Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Audio is here. Video is below.

The Internet Society – New York Chapter (ISOC-NY) was happy and interested to co-sponsor, with the Intellectual Property Law Society, a lunchtime lecture at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law on Monday Nov 2 2009. Eben Moglen, Chairman of the Software Freedom Law Center, spoke on the topic – “Patent Law at a Crossroads: Bilski and Beyond”.

Audio is available (ogg | mp3 ). Video is below.

ISOC-NY is a co-sponsor of Evan Korth’s Computers & Society speaker series at NYU this fall. The next talk is this Sunday. It will feature Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford University. His topic is “Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy.”

The content industry has convinced industry in general that extremism in copyright regulation is good for business and economic growth. In this talk, Professor Lessig describes the creative and profitable future that culture and industry could realize, if only we gave up IP extremism.

Date: Sun November 9 2008
Time: 6pm – 7pm
Location:
Warren Weaver Hall NYU
251 Mercer Street
Rm 109 New York, NY 10012

Members and public welcome. Enter via W. 4th St. Photo ID required.

We previously reported that the FCC plans to provide universal wireless broadband with content filtering. In a press release on Friday, June 20th they request comments on the plan to license access to the 2.1GHz Advanced Wireless Spectrum (AWS). The winning bidder must use 25% of the spectrum for free two-way broadband Internet service at a minimum rate of 768kps downstream. They must be able to provide the free service to 50% of the U.S in four years and at least 95% by the end of the 10-year license term.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has announced an agreement with Sprint, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon, that will see them block subscriber access to newsgroups that distribute child pornography, and act to purge any images from them that are stored on their servers.

Read Cuomo’s statement.

Who Owns This Image?

Art, Access, and the Public Domain after Bridgeman v. Corel

When:
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
6:30 – 8:00 pm

Where:
New York City Bar Association
42 W. 44th Street, New York City
The Great Hall

This program is free and open to the public; no reservation required. Seating is limited.

Copyright Clearance Center’s OnCopyright 2008 symposium will be held Thursday, May 1st at the Union League Club, 38 East 37th St., New York.

OnCopyright 2008 will bring together thought leaders and change agents to exchange ideas about where copyright is headed and what those changes mean for the future of written works, music, movies and other types of intellectual property. Registration is $395.

A US court has ruled that users have a “reasonable expectation of privacy” in their internet surfing records and that police must obtain warrants from higher than usual courts in order to force ISPs to hand over records. However there was no requirement to inform the subject of such a request that it had been carried out.

The Supreme Court of the state of New Jersey said that information about a person’s use of the internet was so private that police there cannot order ISPs to release surfing details of suspects with a municipal court subpoena. They must receive a grand jury subpoena, it said.

The Federal Communications Commission announced a public En Banc hearing to be held at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California on Thursday, April 17, 2008. The Commission will hear from expert panelists regarding broadband network management practices and Internet-related issues. The hearing scheduled at Stanford University is the second such hearing on broadband network management practices and Internet-related issues to be held by the FCC and follows a similar hearing held at Harvard Law School last month.

Today the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Antitrust Task Force will hold a Hearing on Net Neutrality and Free Speech on the Internet at 2pm. The hearing will be webcast live. (RealVideo)

DO TANK is shorthand for the Democracy Design Workshop of the Institute for Information Law & Policy at the New York Law School.

DO TANK contains a dazzling range of worthy projects from online access law to rethinking online conferencing

The Internet Corporation for the Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) made the plea in a lengthy report sent to the US Department of Commerce.

The report will be the focus of a meeting to consider ICANN’s progress on objectives the US government set it in preparation for independence.

Fortune reports on chatbots used in online stores to talk potential customers out of abandoning their virtual shopping carts. “…A startup called UpSellit is … using live chat to act as a sales assistant …. but here’s UpSellit’s twist: …

The anonymous blogger in question was a hospital employee in Paris, Texas who dished conditions at his workplace. Quoting from Public Citizen: “the requirement of presenting evidence provides an important measure of protection for employee whistleblowers and other anonymous critics …

A federal appeals court yesterday threw out a hard-fought agreement between publishers and freelance writers to pay the writers for electronic reproduction of their work. In a 2-to-1 decision, an appellate panel ruled that the courts had no jurisdiction over the copyright dispute and that a lower court erred in accepting the writers’ lawsuit and approving the settlement.