How Google Book Search Got Lost — Scott Rosenberg writes about how the service has become almost dormant: “The Google Books ‘History’ page trails off in 2007, and its blog stopped updating in 2012, after which it got folded into the main Google Search blog, where information about Books is nearly impossible to find. As a functioning and useful service, Google Books remained a going concern. But as a living project, with plans and announcements and institutional visibility, it seemed to have pulled a vanishing act. All of which felt weird, given the legal victory it had finally won.”
Trump Taps Vishal J. Amin as New ‘IP Czar’ — The current senior counsel of the House Judiciary Committee has been tapped to succeed Danni Marti as Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator.
AFL-CIO supports H.R. 1695 — In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, the union writes in support of the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act, saying “On behalf of our more than 10 million members, the AFL-CIO strongly believes that working people in the arts and entertainment industry stand to benefit from a well-functioning, impartial Copyright Office. By finally making the Register of Copyrights a principal officer under the Constitution, nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, USCO will be able to fully exercise the various authorities granted in the U.S. Copyright Act. Furthermore, it will give the American people the opportunity to weigh in on the Register selection process every ten years through their elected officials.”
Indie Labels Report Struggle With ‘Whack-A-Mole’ Digital Takedowns, 30% Have Given Up Trying [SURVEY] — The American Association of Independent Music and the Future of Music Coalition teamed up to survey independent record labels about their experiences searching for and responding to online infringement. The results suggest they face significant challenges in doing so.
Comments on the ‘value gap’ provisions in the European Commission’s Proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (Article 13 and Recital 38) — Dr Silke von Lewinski of the Franklin Pierce Center for IP writes that the proposed “value gap” provisions do not modify EU law, as some critics have argued, but rather merely clarifies it.