Author Archives: Terry Hart

Terry Hart

Terry Hart created Copyhype in August 2010. See the about page for more information on him.

Misunderstanding DMCA

Terry Hart • October 25, 2010 • Posted in Secondary liability • Comments closed

Within the past 15 or so years, we’ve seen a large number of cases and laws addressing the issue of indirect liability — also referred to as secondary liability or third-party liability — for copyright infringement online. In 1998, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, providing conditional safe harbors for online service providers. There’s also [...]

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments closed

EMI Records v. UPC

Terry Hart • October 18, 2010 • Posted in Copyright news • Comments closed

On October 11, The Irish High Court ruled that it did not have the authority to order Irish internet service provider UPC to implement a graduated response solution – a so-called “three strikes” approach – to reduce online piracy. The four major record labels – Warner Music, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, and EMI – [...]

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments closed

Should Copyright be Treated Like Property?

Terry Hart • October 13, 2010 • Posted in Copyright reform • Comments closed

Many critics of current copyright doctrine believe its problems stem largely from an infusion of “property talk” into policy discussions. William Patry writes in Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars, “By describing copyright as a private property right, proponents of the description hope to get policy makers and courts to believe that only private, and [...]

Tagged , , , , ,
Comments closed

Is Copyright Infringement Theft? Part 2

Terry Hart • October 11, 2010 • Posted in Copyright Criticism • Comments closed

“They make me madder than a yak in heat.” – Marge Simpson A little over a month ago, I wrote a post titled Is Copyright Infringement Theft? The post sparked several other thoughtful articles and many comments – most notably a response by Mike Masnick at the popular TechDirt blog, Why It’s Important Not to [...]

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments closed

Fall of File-Sharing

Terry Hart • October 5, 2010 • Posted in Copyright news • Comments closed

Update: the title of this post refers to the season (as in “the summer of savings!”). I inexplicably hadn’t thought of the more common meaning of ‘fall’ when I wrote it (d’oh!), and this post is not meant to imply that I think file-sharing is going away anytime soon. This is the fall of file-sharing. [...]

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Comments closed

Does Length Matter

Terry Hart • October 4, 2010 • Posted in Copyright reform • Comments closed

Copyright protection vests automatically when a work is created and currently lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. The duration of copyright protection is frequently cited as one of the major problems in current law – one critic says “copyright protection lasts absurdly long,” a not uncommon view.1 Most commonly, arguments against [...]

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments closed

COICA Doodle Doom

Terry Hart • October 1, 2010 • Posted in Copyright reform • Comments closed

Proposed anti-piracy legislation is currently making its way through Congress and causing quite a stir online. Called the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), the bill, like nearly every proposed IP legislation in the last decade, will, according to its opponents, surely result in a 1984-style government where all of our rights are harshly [...]

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments closed

Supreme Court Watches Watches

Terry Hart • September 29, 2010 • Posted in Copyright news • Comments closed

The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in Costco v. Omega on November 8, 2010.1 The issue before the court is a rather narrow one – and probably boring to a good deal of the public – but the stakes are high, and a wide variety of interests are keeping a close eye [...]

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments closed

Can’t Believe It’s Already Autumn

Terry Hart • September 26, 2010 • Posted in Site • Comments closed

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been nearly two months since I began this blog! Today’s post will be brief. I want to welcome all the new readers and subscribers who have found this site over the last few weeks. I hope to continue to provide the same quality of content that brought you here in [...]

Tagged , , ,
Comments closed

Artistic Expression, the First Amendment, and Copyright

Terry Hart • September 24, 2010 • Posted in General • Comments closed

The First Amendment is perhaps the most famous part of the Constitution. Defending People’s blogger Mark Bennett ran a tally of how many times each article and amendment (of the ten included in the Bill of Rights) in the Constitution was specifically mentioned in the week leading up to Constitution Day; the First Amendment was [...]

Tagged , , , , , ,
Comments closed