Finnish parliament to consider crowdsourced copyright law…. sike!
Oh haha, Finland. You almost had us convinced you were serious about hearing your citizens’ ideas on copyright. When you announced your Citizen’s Initiative Act, where any proposed bill that… Read more »
Amazon is just straight up letting people steal audiobooks now
Amazon’s perverse definition of “customer service for books” has turned into new, previously uncharted territory; they’re doing away with the “paying” part of shopping and just letting you just have stuff… Read more »
German technical university defies German textbook publisher in a case with a surprising amount of drama
In a case that echoes Google’s unauthorized scanning of millions of copyrighted works, the European Union Court of Justice has ruled that libraries in EU member states may digitize books… Read more »
Court confirms that Sherlock Holmes is (mostly) in the public domain
A federal court ruled on Monday that the character Sherlock Holmes is, in fact, part of the public domain, Abby Abrams writes for Time. This comes in the wake of… Read more »
Authors Alliance launches, to the chagrin of the Authors Guild
Tomorrow’s launch of a new organization called the Authors Alliance—founded by Berkeley academics interested in providing support for authors interested in sharing their content for free—is causing some disruption at… Read more »
Sorry, internet, but there’s no problem with asserting copyright over translations of Marx
A radical British publisher is enforcing their copyright over the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The internet commentariat, predictably, finds this unjust and ironic. It’s neither. Sorry, internet, but… Read more »
Peter and Jane and Miriam and Penguin take on art, copyright, crucifixes, and dead rabbits
Peter and Jane are brother and sister. Miriam and Ezra are sister and brother. Peter and Jane’s mother loves art. Miriam and Ezra make art. Peter and Jane learn about… Read more »
Three Salinger stories “leaked” online
Three stories by J.D. Salinger, known but unpublished in accordance with the author’s wishes, were uploaded to What.cd last week. Within two hours, the news hit Reddit, and the “locked”… Read more »
New report on British Intellectual Property laws criticises UK government, hints at an ‘underlying agenda’ between Google and government
In a new report by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, entitled “Supporting the Creative Economy”, the committee has strongly criticized the Hargreaves Review’s proposed changes to copyright and condemned… Read more »
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in the Public Domain
A legal fight is brewing over ownership of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes character. In a lawsuit filed in February, Leslie Klinger, a Holmes scholar, argues that the entirety… Read more »