Category: Blogging
June 16th, 2008
Overly restrictive A.P. quoting guidelines risk winning battles at the war’s expense
Saul Hansell reports today that the Associated Press "will, for the first time, attempt to define clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt without infringing on The A.P.’s copyright."
The problem with “clear standards” is that as Tim Wu (quoted in the article) correctly points out, the legal standard is unclear, and subject to interpretation on a case by case basis. There are instances when reproducing the entire work (or large portions thereof — “Fisking” we used to call it, seems like eons ago) with sufficient commentary is fair use. The A.P.’s vague statement that it wants to police what appears to be reproduction for reproduction’s sake as opposed to commentary, thus is a fair representation of what it’s entitled to do by law; anything more specific might not hold up.
Given this, it’ll be interesting to see what the A.P. cobbles together with the Media Bloggers Association, which of course does not act for and can’t bind the whole blogosphere and Web. If, as the statements to Hansell suggest, it’s as restrictive as purporting to make brief direct quotations against A.P. policy, the A.P. will either have to backtrack or try to get judicial buy-in on a policy that in all likelihood would be deemed overbroad.
(Image by SideLong, CC Attribution-2.0)
Related: Mike Arrington, Here’s Our New Policy On A.P. stories: They’re Banned, and all stories and posts linked from there; Techmeme re same.
May 14th, 2008
A short, pointed list of ‘wonderful policies’
In putting together a list of what I consider to be relatively clueful site policies, terms, and guidelines, I just stumbled on BoingBoing’s List of Wonderful Policies. And it is.
January 30th, 2008
Docstoc for law school (a.k.a. today’s young whippersnappers don’t know how good they have it!)
My goodness. Check out the impressive array of law school outlines and other law school and bar exam resources being amassed at Docstoc. Aside from being incredibly useful, my favorite thing about this service is its built in Creative Commons licensing. A perfect place to share form legal (and other) documents — as Marc Canter discussed wishing to do on a recent episode of The Gang.
Bonus link: Are Cease-and-Desist Letters Subject to Copyright?
P.S. You know you’re becoming an elder-blogger when:
- you’re just as apt to think MSM refers to methylsulfonylmethane as mainstream media, and
- you’re just as apt to think Idoru is one of your dozens of daily nutritional supplements as a William Gibson novel.
P.P.S. Don’t get me started on the elder hottie thing; dragonlike, I might just aim a hot flash in your direction.
(Image of Docstoc’s CEO and Pepperdine law grad Jason Lawrence Nazar by Brian Solis, CC Attribution-2.0)
November 20th, 2007
Kindling a controversy
Ed Champion is investigating whether certain bloggers included in Amazon’s Kindle launch were made “Kindle Blogs” without authorization or licensing. He cites two examples (Daniel McGowan and Cork Gaines) of bloggers who apparently are included in the Kindle Store without their permission. This surprises me. My personal blog Bag and Baggage is there in the Kindle Store too (I’m also quoted in Ed’s post), but under an express agreement. It could be the Kindle team had some misunderstanding about the ramifications of the noncommercial use restriction in certain Creative Commons licenses; the initial email I received about participating did reference my Creative Commons license, but neither McGowan nor Gaines seem to use Creative Commons so I’m at a loss as to what’s going on. In my case, Amazon had lots of communication with me about including Bag and Baggage, and crossed its T’s and dotted its I’s on the legal front.
[Updated 10:08 p.m.] Ed Champion has unearthed two more bloggers who are less than pleased with being Kindleized.
[Updated 11/22, 9:36 a.m.] Engadget reports the Kindle gave Amazon plenty to be thankful for, selling out the first batch in just 5.5 hours.
October 8th, 2007
In the trenches with Live Web law at EFF’s Bootcamp
If you’re doing business on the Live Web, get thee this Wednesday, October 10, to EFF’s Bootcamp, “a one-day session for Web 2.0 workers on user generated content:”
Does your interactive company have to contend with the maze of laws dealing with user privacy and publishing user content? Want to do the right thing by the online community that gives your business value, and still fulfill your legal obligations?
EFF is hosting a one-day session for Web 2.0 workers who handle issues arising from users and user-generated content. From DMCA to CDA to ECPA, the law surrounding internet content can be confusing, especially for the folks who have to decide on the fly whether to let something stay up or take it down, or whether to give their customer’s name to the FBI agent on the phone. Let us help.
This is an incredible and cheap (between $100 - $200) opportunity to learn how to spot and avoid trouble from the best of the best in this field: EFF’s staff attorneys. (If the registration fee is still too rich for your blood, then apply for one of the 20 available Google-sponsored scholarships, explained here.)
I am hard pressed to conceive of a Web-based communication platform, community, or business model that doesn’t need this kind of overview. For nine examples of why, check out Rafe Needleman’s 9 fun ways Web 2.0 startups can commit legal suicide, gleaned from an interview with Fred von Lohmann in conjunction with the upcoming event:
Von Lohmann’s two big takeaways: First, be sure you know when you’re stepping into a danger zone. Music? Financial data? Private information? Kids? Don’t let yourself think you’re more clever than another industry’s legal machine. Second, realize that no matter how hard you try to stay clean, ‘You’re probably doing something wrong already. For the most part it doesn’t matter, but something just might.’
For yet more examples of the legal minefields Web businesses must daily navigate, you might want to eavesdrop on Fred von Lohmann’s IP and Innovation Policy class at Stanford by way of its blog. Bring your Aleve; plenty of brain teasers there.
Bootcamp starts at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday at Fenwick & West in Mountain View. (Brilliant move by the firm, hosting this. I’m sure plenty of Fenwick’s existing clients are thrilled for the opportunity, and once EFF’s staff has had the chance to terrify educate all the non-client attendees, the stampede to sign the firm’s retainer letter will leave some wondering how they wound up in Pamplona.)
(Image by A. www.viajar24h.com, CC Attribution-2.0)
August 27th, 2007
Lawgarithms Links for 8/27/07
iPhone hacking meets the DMCA, new ways to owe money to the RIAA, bad music and its aftermath, and more — now playing in my Google Reader Starred Items:
iPhone Unlocked; Legal Battle Looming?, from Ed Felten
Unlocking the iPhone could invite a lawsuit, from Computerworld Breaking News
Is Unlocking Apple’s iPhone Legal?, from Top Tech News
Providing legal advice information in a humorous way, from Ernie The Attorney by Ernest Svenson
Judge Says That Making Available Is Infringement… RIAA Pounces Immediately, from Techdirt by Mike Masnick
Judge says making files available is the same as distributing, from ZDNet Blogs by ZDNet Government
You Have To Mean It If You Set It To Music, from FurdLog by Frank Field
Nixon Peabody ThemeSongGate: A Synopsis, from Abovethelaw.com
Unauthorized Enjoyment of Song Irks Law Firm, from NYT > Business by MICHAEL J. de la MERCED
Lat itude for Fair Use?, from Concurring Opinions by Frank Pasquale (”think ‘Up With People’ meets Sheena Easton meets B of A’s version of U2’s One“)
Well, Maybe Not Everyone, from The Trademark Blog by Marty
The Seven-point Personal Information Technology Property Manifesto, from May it Please the Court
Blawg Review #123, from Texas Appellate Law Blog by Todd Smith (near and dear to my heart: in the form of an appellate opinion)
Mark Lemley’s One Safe Harbor to Rule Them All, from A Copyfighter’s Musings by Derek Slater
Seventh Circuit Affirms Rejection of Data Breach Claims, from Spam Notes by Venkat Balasubramani
Attention Economy: All You Need To Know, from Read/Write Web by Richard MacManus
August 25th, 2007
It’s all about the team, it’s all about respect…
Following up on the Nixon Peabody song story, it’s worth noting:
- One of David Lat’s related posts is now the
sixthfifth Google search result for Nixon Peabody; and - The saga of the song has been added to the firm’s Wikipedia entry.
Here are the lyrics in their entirety, by the way.
August 23rd, 2007
Blogger contends posting silly leaked law firm song is fair use
Over at Above The Law, David Lat provides irreverent coverage of the insular world of law firms and the judiciary. Today he posted a song produced by the Nixon Peabody law firm, forwarded by an unidentified tipster, that belongs in the bad business music hall of fame. The song was never intended for external consumption, and it’s not hard to see why:
Instead of laughing this off and embracing its inner freak as Microsoft embraces Steve Ballmer’s antics, the firm has been making saber-rattling, copyright-invoking phone calls to Mr. Lat, requesting among other things that he remove the audio he posted to YouTube. He has declined to do so:
They asserted copyright over the song and asked us to take it down, from our site and from YouTube. We stated our view that posting and commenting on the song constitutes fair use. It also falls within our newsgathering mission as a media organization.
We explained that our site is all about law firms and the legal profession. They said: “We know what you’re about.”
Nixon Peabody’s next logical step, given its difference of opinion with Mr. Lat on the copyright front, would be a DMCA takedown notice to Google/YouTube. This provides a good reason to revisit Wendy Seltzer’s go-round with the NFL, and the DMCA ping pong that ensued when she stuck to her fair use guns. Though the fair use analysis is different here, the same process could potentially follow, warranting another link to Chilling Effects’ Counter-Notification Generator.
Best of luck David, and thanks for the chuckles. (Note to musically aspiring firms and businesses everywhere: there is no such thing as “internal use only.” If you must go down this ill-advised road, think Eagles.)
[Update, 8/24/07:] Seems Nixon Peabody has fired its initial DMCA salvo at YouTube, though Above The Law is still making the “Everyone’s A Winner” audio available here.
[Update, 8/25/07:] Round III: the Internet, or more accurately a clever YouTuber named ChurchHatesTucker, stokes the fire (via Ed.):
August 22nd, 2007
Changing the way we find, reference, and talk about the law
Tim O’Reilly and John Markoff have good writeups on public.resource.org, which aims among other things to create “an unencumbered repository of all [U.S.] federal and state case law and codes.” In a letter to legal publisher Thomson/West, public.resource.org President and CEO Carl Malamud seeks clarity as to the extent of the copyrights the publisher will assert in these works. Thomson told John Markoff: “We have received the letter from Public Resource and Mr. Malamud raises a number of interesting but complex points. We are looking at them now and then will be in touch directly with Mr. Malamud.”
It’s expensive to hire a good lawyer, and big-ticket overhead items such as the high cost of commercial legal research databases have much to do with this. In his very rationally presented letter, Mr. Malamud attempts to assure Thomson that the market for its sophisticated commercial services is likely to grow, not shrink, as the source materials become more widely available. In the near term, he may be right. In the long term, when the successors of public.resource.org and Tim Wu’s AltLaw ultimately make public case and statutory law searchable and cut-and-pasteable, and things like pagination morph into things like URIs, that’s a wrap for services like Westlaw and Lexis. Unless they figure out ways to do it first, better, and for free — but I wouldn’t bet on it. As Markoff writes:
The unifying vision of all of the challengers to the current system is a Wikipedia-like effort to make the nation’s laws freely searchable by Internet search engines. They believe this will lead to a public system of annotation of the laws by legal scholars as well as bloggers, giving the American public much richer access to the nation’s laws.
See also: Everything is Miscellaneous
(Thanks, John Vaccaro!)
August 20th, 2007
Lawgarithms Links for 8/20/07
Remember that between entries here you can keep up with the Live Web (and other) issues I’m spotting by subscribing to my Google Reader Starred Items. Among the links now playing:
California court invalidates Alienware arbitration provision in online terms and conditions, from Internet Cases by Evan Brown
“Among other things, the memorandum suggests that the [U.S. Supreme] Court will begin making electronically-filed briefs available for access over the Court’s own web site“, from How Appealing
“A Quest To Get More Court Rulings, Online and Free”, from The Trademark Blog by Marty
Technophilia: Where to find public records online, from Lifehacker by Wendy Boswell
Drawing That Explains Patent Costs, from Clock Tower Law Group’s shared items in Google Reader by Erik J. Heels
Wired Piece on How to Run a Corporate Blog, from Micro Persuasion by Steve Rubel
American Airlines Sues Google Over Keyword Ads, from Technology & Marketing Law Blog by Eric Goldman
Burn the books, brave the blogs, from IP Law Daily by Jeremy
Joining OIN, from Official Google Blog by Karen
Documentary Tests Fair Use, from IP Law Daily by (author unknown)
Social Network Portability: Do We Need a Creative Commons-ish Campaign for Privacy?, from Like It Matters by Brian Oberkirch
Lyrics sites out of tune with copyrights, from ZDNet News - News Page One
Did You Violate Copyright Law Today?, from Law.com - Inside Opinions: Legal Blogs by Carolyn Elefant
Free MySpace Music Downloads?, from Mashable! by Kristen Nicole
State of the AmLaw 200 Blogosphere, August 2007, from Real Lawyers :: Have Blogs by kevin@lexblog.com (Kevin O’Keefe)
Linus on Subversion, GPL3, Microsoft and More, from Slashdot by CmdrTaco
Why watermarking is a bigger devil than DRM, from ZDNet Blogs by George Ou
Denise Howell is an appellate, intellectual property and technology lawyer who enjoys broad industry recognition for her expertise on the intersection of emerging technologies and law. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
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