By , July 25, 2014.

Garrett Brown: An Interview with a Visionary-Part 1 — Nick Friedman speaks with Garrett Brown, a cinematographer and inventor of the Steadicam, an innovation which, in the words of Stanley Kubrick (who famously used it in The Shining) “would revolutionize the way films are shot.”

Great Photos, Little Cash: The Problem of “Small Claims” in Copyright — Coinciding with the House Judiciary IP Subcommittee’s hearing on copyright remedies, attorney Tara Aaron highlights a recent default judgment against a website that had allegedly infringed a photographer’s copyrights. Though the court awarded the photographer statutory damages and attorney fees, because the award of attorney fees was limited by local rules, the photographer still ended up short. It’s a good case study for the need for a “small claims” procedure.

“Notice & Notice” does Not Contribute to a Balanced Copyright System — A comparison between the US notice-and-takedown system and Canada’s new notice-and-notice system and why the first is better for creators.

Disney’s corporate synergy, 1957 and today — Screenwriter John August shares an interesting chart from 1957 showing how “the various elements of the Walt Disney company fit together.” This holds true still today. “The company makes money in many ways, but feature films are still the key drivers. You don’t get Cars merchandise without the movie. The success of Frozen is an example of how Disney can capitalize on a hit film by using it in other divisions: Disneyland attractions, TV tie-ins (Once Upon a Time), music, books, merchandise, and possibly a Broadway musical.”

Report on the responses to the Public Consultation on the Review of the EU Copyright Rules — Like the US, the European Union is currently in the process of reviewing its copyright laws. Here is the result of a public consultation process that concluded earlier this year, generating nearly 10,000 responses. “The consultation covered a broad range of issues, identified in the Commission communication on content in the digital single market , i.e.: ‘territoriality in the Internal Market, harmonisation, limitations and exceptions to copyright in the digital age; fragmentation of the EU copyright market; and how to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of enforcement while underpinning its legitimacy in the wider context of copyright reform’.”

3 Comments

  1. If not Notice-Notice, there needs to be some kind of balance to the preemptive nature of Notice-Takedown. I like the idea of a Notice-Review-Takedown. Something where an unbiased third party reviews the content before it is taken down.

    • My argument is that the Take-down Notice has, and always was, abused by Google/YouTube, and a large number of other companies like eBay and Amazon (and specifically Michael Bloomberg and Bloomberg LP who do know this). The subdirectory of the same URL does not qualify for any take-down notice procedure, and any company that has such policy are catastrophically liable before any copies of content, legal and illegal, appear on their public display. Someday, this will be argued that way—–when the accurate computer science is known. he original URL (aka: a domain that ends with dot com, dot whatever without a forward-slash) is the last line of “innocence”. From that, any subdirectory of that same URL, the company allowing the display is categorically responsible. Google/YouTube have been collecting/stealing billions of dollars by not paying what they take, including punitive damages in treble, after every DMCA Takedown Notice has been initiated——they are in cahoots with the US Government so that raids never occur.

      But by the statutes and legislative material, no matter how “digital” is defined, every on-line file is a counterfeit of the previous — a falsified reproduction of the original material object. Just looking at Marc Zuckerberg and Eric Schmidt getting away with this, yet with numbered days when their “I never knew” becomes willful blindness for lawlessness among retroactive repercussions, feels good as it gets closer.

      Thanks.

  2. Garret Brown interview link is broken (at least from my tablet)
    http://www.thecredits.org/2014/07/garrett-brown-an-interview-with-a-visionary-part-i/

    search garret brown interview from landing Page.