SCOTUS Grants Government’s Request to Participate in Case Interpreting PRO IP Act Language on Copyright Invalidation — From IPWatchdog: “The U.S. Supreme Court today granted a motion made by the Acting U.S. Solicitor General to participate in oral argument as an amicus in the case of Unicolors v. H&M. The case asks the Court to decide whether the Ninth Circuit properly construed the language of 17 U.S.C. § 411 relating to whether courts must have evidence of intent to defraud before referring copyright registration validity questions to the Copyright Office. Oral argument is set for November 7.”
Copyright Office Initiates Study on Ancillary Copyright Protections for Publishers and Requests Public Comments — The US Copyright Office study is in response to a May 3, 2021 request from Senators Leahy, Tillis, Cornyn, Hirono, Coons, and Klobuchar to the US Copyright Office, and it follows upon international developments aimed at shoring up press publisher protections on digital platforms, including Article 15 of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Single Digital Market and a 2021 Australian law requiring Google and Facebook to negotiate with press publishers over compensation for the value the publishers’ stories generate on the two companies’ platforms. In particular, the Office invites written comments on three issues: (i) the effectiveness of current protections for press publishers under U.S. law; (ii) whether additional protections for press publishers are desirable and, if so, what the scope of any such protections should be; and (iii) how any new protections for press publishers in the United States would relate to existing rights, exceptions and limitations, and international treaty obligations.
Sinclair, photographer resolve copyright dispute over polar bear video — “Sinclair had argued that under the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ so-called ‘server test,’ simply embedding the video from social media without storing a copy on its server and displaying it didn’t infringe Nicklen’s copyright. But Rakoff had said in his July ruling that the server test is ‘contrary to the text and legislative history of the Copyright Act,’ becoming the second judge in the Manhattan court to reject it.”
The New York Times Company Selects Pixsy to Monitor Image Copyright Globally — “The New York Times Company has selected Pixsy, the legal-tech service for online image protection and copyright enforcement, to monitor the use of New York Times staff-produced images across the internet, ensuring images are correctly used and licensed, that copyrights are protected and enforced, and rights holders are fairly compensated for use of their work.”
IU is America’s Dictionary Destination — “When America’s top dictionary editors and language scholars find themselves at a loss for words, where do they turn? For decades the illustrious Dame of Dictionaries, Madeline Kripke, answered the call. Her stockpile of more than 20,000 linguistic books and ephemera was often referred to as the world’s largest and finest dictionary collection. In fact, Michael Adams, Provost Professor and Chair of the English Department at Indiana University Bloomington, says Kripke spent the last decades of her life dedicated to building the collection and amassed ‘the most important collection of dictionary and related materials that has ever been curated by anyone.'”