Copyright Law

Poland's prime minister says he is suspending the ratification process for an international copyright treaty after widespread protests and attacks on government websites. Donald Tusk said Friday that first a wider discussion must be held on the issue to include Internet users and privacy protection office. The government signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, late last month but it must still be approved. Tusk says Parliament may not do so if it conflicts with Polish law. The U.S., Japan and others say the treaty is needed to fight trade in pirated material.

A federal court jury is having a difficult time reaching a verdict in a complex copyright infringement trial pitting Oracle against Google. A question posed late Thursday in a note from one of the 12 jurors raised the specter of an impasse after lawyers on both sides spent two weeks trying to make their cases. The evidence included testimony from Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison and Google Inc. CEO Larry Page. Thursday's note asked U.S. District Judge William Alsup what would happen if jurors couldn't agree on a verdict.

A judge in Britain has ruled that a student accused of setting up a website that gave people access to films and TV shows for free can be extradited to the United States to face copyright violations. Richard O'Dwyer is alleged to have earned thousands of pounds (dollars) through advertising on the website. O'Dwyer's lawyer, Ben Cooper, said Friday that the site — TVShack— did not store copyrighted material itself, but pointed users to other sites. Cooper claims his 23-year-old client is being used as a "guinea pig" to test copyright law in the U.S. But District...

NEW YORK - Judge Robert R. Beezer - who brought a conservative voice to one of the more liberal federal appeals courts in the United States, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and who wrote influential opinions on capital punishment, copyright law on the Internet, and Anna Nicole Smith's claim to a huge inheritance - died Friday in Seattle. He was 83. The cause was lung cancer, his family said. Judge Beezer heard more than 10,000 cases in his 28 years on the nation's largest federal appeals court, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Music giant EMI Group Limited has filed a lawsuit against the Cambridge Internet start-up ReDigi, charging that the company's plans to enable the selling of "used" digital music constitutes copyright infringement. ReDigi was founded by Larry Rudolph, an MIT professor who is currently on leave. On its website, ReDigi claims that the marketplace that it created to resell digital music is as legal as someone reselling an album to a used-record store. "Once you sell a song, you no longer have access to it," the company says on the site.

NEW YORK - On buttons, posters, and websites, the image was everywhere during last year's presidential campaign: a pensive Barack Obama looking upward, as if to the future, splashed in a Warholesque red, white, and blue and underlined with the caption HOPE. Designed by Shepard Fairey, a Los-Angeles based street artist, the image has led to sales of hundreds of thousands of posters and stickers and has become so much in demand that copies signed by Fairey have been purchased for thousands of dollars on eBay . The image, Fairey has acknowledged, is based on an...

Viacom will try to persuade a federal appeals court Tuesday that Google should be liable for tens of thousands of pirated video clips appearing on its video site, YouTube. A lower court in New York last year sided with Google Inc., saying that the company can't be held responsible for the actions of its users under a 1998 copyright law. That law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, protects online service providers as long as they promptly remove copyright-protected content after being notified of a violation.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The state Democratic Committee yesterday removed re-edited AP articles from its website, a week after the party accused a GOP candidate of doctoring news stories for his website. Democratic officials called the edited Associated Press articles "excerpts. " It said the dust-up was the result of a misunderstanding in January after the committee issued a press release that included an AP story about GOP gubernatorial candidate William Weld. "Earlier this year, the AP called the state party and said they were unhappy with the fact that the state party was placing their stories...

A federal court jury is having a difficult time reaching a verdict in a complex copyright infringement trial pitting Oracle against Google. A question posed late Thursday in a note from one of the 12 jurors raised the specter of an impasse after lawyers on both sides spent two weeks trying to make their cases. The evidence included testimony from Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison and Google Inc. CEO Larry Page. Thursday's note asked U.S. District Judge William Alsup what would happen if jurors couldn't agree on a verdict.

NEW YORK - Judge Robert R. Beezer - who brought a conservative voice to one of the more liberal federal appeals courts in the United States, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and who wrote influential opinions on capital punishment, copyright law on the Internet, and Anna Nicole Smith's claim to a huge inheritance - died Friday in Seattle. He was 83. The cause was lung cancer, his family said. Judge Beezer heard more than 10,000 cases in his 28 years on the nation's largest federal appeals court, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Poland's prime minister says he is suspending the ratification process for an international copyright treaty after widespread protests and attacks on government websites. Donald Tusk said Friday that first a wider discussion must be held on the issue to include Internet users and privacy protection office. The government signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, late last month but it must still be approved. Tusk says Parliament may not do so if it conflicts with Polish law. The U.S., Japan and others say the treaty is needed to fight trade in pirated material.

A judge in Britain has ruled that a student accused of setting up a website that gave people access to films and TV shows for free can be extradited to the United States to face copyright violations. Richard O'Dwyer is alleged to have earned thousands of pounds (dollars) through advertising on the website. O'Dwyer's lawyer, Ben Cooper, said Friday that the site — TVShack— did not store copyrighted material itself, but pointed users to other sites. Cooper claims his 23-year-old client is being used as a "guinea pig" to test copyright law in the U.S. But District...

Music giant EMI Group Limited has filed a lawsuit against the Cambridge Internet start-up ReDigi, charging that the company's plans to enable the selling of "used" digital music constitutes copyright infringement. ReDigi was founded by Larry Rudolph, an MIT professor who is currently on leave. On its website, ReDigi claims that the marketplace that it created to resell digital music is as legal as someone reselling an album to a used-record store. "Once you sell a song, you no longer have access to it," the company says on the site.

Viacom will try to persuade a federal appeals court Tuesday that Google should be liable for tens of thousands of pirated video clips appearing on its video site, YouTube. A lower court in New York last year sided with Google Inc., saying that the company can't be held responsible for the actions of its users under a 1998 copyright law. That law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, protects online service providers as long as they promptly remove copyright-protected content after being notified of a violation.

NEW YORK - On buttons, posters, and websites, the image was everywhere during last year's presidential campaign: a pensive Barack Obama looking upward, as if to the future, splashed in a Warholesque red, white, and blue and underlined with the caption HOPE. Designed by Shepard Fairey, a Los-Angeles based street artist, the image has led to sales of hundreds of thousands of posters and stickers and has become so much in demand that copies signed by Fairey have been purchased for thousands of dollars on eBay . The image, Fairey has acknowledged, is based on an Associated Press...

NEW YORK - The Associated Press yesterday sued a company that aggregates and redistributes news online, saying it is making improper use of AP's copyright-protected headlines, stories, and photos. The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in New York, seeks unspecified damages from Moreover Technologies Inc. and its parent company, VeriSign Inc. It also seeks an end to the practices. AP says Moreover improperly displays AP's headlines and portions of stories as part of its free, ad-supported services.

NEW YORK - The Associated Press yesterday sued a company that aggregates and redistributes news online, saying it is making improper use of AP's copyright-protected headlines, stories, and photos. The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in New York, seeks unspecified damages from Moreover Technologies Inc. and its parent company, VeriSign Inc. It also seeks an end to the practices. AP says Moreover improperly displays AP's headlines and portions of stories as part of its free, ad-supported services.

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the appeal of a former graduate student who was sued by the recording industry on charges of illegally downloading music, letting stand a $675,000 judgment against him for violation of copyright laws. It was the first time the high court was asked to weigh in on whether the use of peer-to-peer networks constitutes a violation of copyright laws, and whether the application of those laws in deciding civil penalties is appropriate. But the trials for the defendant, Joel Tenenbaum, are far from over.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The state Democratic Committee yesterday removed re-edited AP articles from its website, a week after the party accused a GOP candidate of doctoring news stories for his website. Democratic officials called the edited Associated Press articles "excerpts. " It said the dust-up was the result of a misunderstanding in January after the committee issued a press release that included an AP story about GOP gubernatorial candidate William Weld. "Earlier this year, the AP called the state party and said they were unhappy with the fact that the state party was placing their stories...