Copyhype

Anti-Counterfeit Friday — The Afro-IP blog, which covers IP news and issues in Africa, continues its ongoing series to raise awareness of the problem of counterfeiting on the continent. This week, counterfeit printing supplies in Ghana, and counterfeit drugs in east Africa. “For tuberculosis and malaria alone, up to 700,000 people die every year due to fake products.”

Copyright Reform 101 for the Cultural Sector — With Canada once again trying to pass a copyright reform bill, John Degen offers some “do’s and don’ts” in anticipation of the ramp up in rhetorical nastiness sure to follow. Example: “Do share.” “Don’t confuse actual sharing with forced sharing.”

More on Canada’s Copyright Modernization Act — Barry Sookman offers some comprehensive observations on Bill C-11. James Gannon looks at the bill’s TPM provisions and statutory damages provisions.

“In order to fight copyright infringements, ISPs may be asked to render specific websites inaccessible to their subscribers” — The Kluwer Copyright Blog examines last week’s decision by a Belgian court ordering two ISPs to block the Pirate Bay.

Good news to get good faster: Stageit brings it live — Chris Castle reviews StageIt, a music service started by Evan Lowenstein that lets musicians stream live performances and experiences directly from a laptop to their fans. Castle calls StageIt “a beautiful, beautiful thing.”

The World’s First “Plagiarism” Case — Jonathan Bailey offers this interesting historical story. It was a Roman poet named Martial in the first century A.D. who first used the Latin “plagiarus” to describe a literary thief.

Authors Groups From U.K., Canada, Norway and Sweden Join Authors Guild, Australian Society of Authors, and Quebec Writers Union in Suit Against HathiTrust — The Authors Guild has amended its complaint against the digital book depository, adding a number of plaintiffs. Included is author J.R. Salamanca, who had a book included on the HathiTrust’s list of orphan works until a month ago.

Parents and Kids Say They Appreciated Autism-Friendly ‘Lion King’ Matinee (via John August) — The NY Times reports on the performance, “the first time a Broadway show has sponsored an event specifically for autistic children and their families.”

The company of “The Lion King” and a panel of autism experts collaborated on ways to slightly modify the show to make sure autistic children did not have negative reactions to loud or sudden sound or light cues.  The volume in the opening number and other scenes, including the sound of a roar, was turned down. All strobe lights and  lighting that panned into the house were cut.  The sound and light reductions were done electronically so that neither the actors nor the orchestra had to tone down their performances.

Finally, be sure to check out This Week in Law. I’m appearing as a guest today — the live stream begins at 2pm EST, the show is archived afterward for later viewing.