Copyhype

Founders of The Pirate Bay launch new file sharing service — Displaying the kind of innovation that the dinosaurs of traditional industries lack, the inventive geniuses behind The Pirate Bay have launched an exciting new service. Called a “cyber-locker”, this revolutionary service allows users to actually store files on a web server. No more using hard drives like chumps! What’s next? Some kind of “engine” that lets you “search” through other web sites?

Fair-Weather Friends — Next week, Congress gets back to work, and one of the first things on their plate is the proposed PROTECT IP Act. The National Journal’s Sara Jerome notes, echoing a point made by Rob Levine in his upcoming book Free Ride, “tech giants such as Google, in part citing a need to protect free speech, have pledged to fight the transformative measure. Yet, in reality, the tech giants’ objections are economic, not ideological.” Highly recommended reading.

Terminating Music Copyright Licensing Agreements — Copyright termination has been in the news lately. Jess Robinson at the American University Intellectual Property Brief takes a look at what artists need for viable termination claims and what effects these terminations will have on the industry.

Property and Monopoly — Another great piece from Faza. The point he raises — how a copyright “monopoly” differs from the common meaning of “monopoly” — isn’t novel, but one worth repeating. As usual, the comments are as much worth reading as the article itself.

Getting it right with cyberlockers and safe harbours — James Gannon reports on the recent MP3Tunes decision. He uses it to draw lessons to keep in mind for Canada’s upcoming efforts to reform its copyright laws. “What this decision really demonstrates is the importance of having well-crafted, balanced copyright safe harbours for online intermediaries. Legally-savvy pirate website operators will always try to take advantage of any perceived loophole in copyright exemptions in attempt to shield themselves from liability.”

We have no budget for photos — Though I can imagine photographers hear this line more often, creative professionals in just about any field have probably heard some variation. Photographer Tony Sleep offers his brusque response to those who plead poverty or promise exposure in order to convince others to work for nothing.

Kirtsaeng asks for en banc review; let’s hope he gets it — Kirtsaeng, who recently lost his case in the 2nd Circuit, is asking the court to review the decision that held that the Copyright Act’s first sale doctrine doesn’t apply to goods manufactured abroad. Andrew Berger examines Kirtsaeng’s petition.

South Sudan: A little news on copyright and trade marks — Afro-IP has updates on the state of IP law in the world’s newest nation.

Proposed Indian Copyright Amendment — Nandita Saikia has been reporting on India’s efforts to amend its 1957 Copyright Act. A 2011 revision to the proposed 2010 amendment has recently been released; you can see more posts on the topic here.

Hulu Japan Launches With Movies, TV From CBS, Sony, Fox & More But No Ads — The TV and movie streaming service debuts in Japan with a slightly different service than US users are familiar with. Expect more expansion in the near future, as Hulu races with competitor Netflix to roll out around the world.

Scott Vener Q&A: Meet the Man Behind ‘Entourage’s’ Music — I’ve actually never seen an episode of Entourage, but this is an interesting (though short) interview of the show’s against-the-grain music supervisor.

Congestible Intellectual Property and Impure Public Goods — Copyright critics sometimes try to justify piracy by tossing around economic terms like “public goods” and “non-rivalrous”. This recent scholarly article by law professor David Barnes questions the conventional view that intellectual property is a public good, concluding that it is actually partially rivalrous and excludable. Barnes’s conclusions are focused primarily on this view’s implications for trademark law, but it’s worth a read for anyone interested in economic analysis of copyright law.