Fair Use, Fairness and the Public Interest — Neil Turkewitz writes, “In honor of Fair Use Week, let’s begin by unmasking the false premise underlying much of the celebration of fair use — that is, that the basic objective of the copyright system is to achieve a balance between the ‘public interest’ on the one hand, and the interest of private copyright owners on the other.” Be sure to also check out part 2 of the article.
Google v. Oracle: Fair Use of a Copyrighted API — Last week, amici filed briefs in support of Oracle in its appeal against Google involving Google’s copying of Oracle’s Java platform. The Federal Circuit is set to review a jury verdict finding the copying was fair use. Dennis Crouch looks at the arguments made in each of the briefs.
What Would Judge Gorsuch Mean for Fair Use? — Kevin Madigan looks at the 10th Circuit decision in Meshwerks, authored by Supreme Court nominee Judge Gorsuch, to see what it might foretell of his approach to copyright issues.
The Myth of DRM-Free Music, Revisited — Bill Rosenblatt: “The fact is that sometime during 2015, digital music with some sort of encryption scheme became bigger than DRM-free — by consumer choice. Sales of downloads have been dropping since 2013 and are now essentially in free fall, while all forms of streaming and subscription downloads (a/k/a ‘offline listening mode’) are on the rise.”
Megaupload executives still eligible for extradition: summary of latest decision in Dotcom case — On Monday, the High Court of New Zealand held that Kim Dotcom and other Megaupload executives were eligible for extradition to the US to face charges of criminal copyright infringement. This article provides a full rundown of the decision.