“Yankees Suck” Trademarked

… according to The Onion. If my calculations are correct, I owe the Evil Empire approximately $9268.65 plus statutory interest. Coincidentally, this is roughly the same amount as an order of nachos and a domestic beer costs at the new Yankee Stadium.

“Interactive media is the next wave,” Cashman said. “With our upcoming mobile phone apps [...]

The Fight to Free Subway Data

Chris Schoenfeld of StationStops has a post up about his battle to get the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority to let him use its schedule data in his iPhone app. Brooklyn’s Law Incubator and Policy Clinic (BLIP) played a big role in Chris’s successful battle, and I’m very proud of the work that the BLIP [...]

Rafal Rohozinski on Internet Surveillance and Monitoring

My former ONI colleague Rafal Rohozinski, now of Information Warfare Monitor, has a great interview where he discusses methodology and findings for both projects. Well worth a read!

Opening Government Data: Federal Register Goes XML

Great news today on the open-access (OA) front with the federal government’s announcement that the Federal Register, the daily compilation of proposed and final regulations to be issued by federal agencies, will now be available in XML format. (Want to see a sample? Here is today’s issue as an XML document.) This is great [...]

Invasion of the Copyright Parasites

I still subscribe to my local newspaper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, in dead-tree form. One evening in early August, just before my vacation, as I perused the ever-shrinking opinion page, my eye ran across this headline: “MEDIA, OLD AND NEW ‘FREE-RIDING’ AND COPYRIGHT.” The authors, Dan and David Marburger, argue that news [...]

Is $22,500 Per Song Unconstitutional?

The guns in RIAA v. Tenenbaum have gone temporarily silent; now, there’s post-game analysis and preparations for the next phase: challenging the jury’s award of $675,000 in damages ($22,500 per song, at 30 songs). Ben Sheffner’s Billboard column gives a great summary of the fight. Tenenbaum’s side will claim that the Copyright Act’s statutory damages [...]

Did the Tenenbaum Judge Botch It?

As you know, Joel Tenenbaum lost against the RIAA and is now on the hook for $675,000, pending a hearing on the constitutionality of those damages. Several lawyers I’ve talked with have suggested that Judge Nancy Gertner, who presided over the trial, committed reversible error by issuing a directed verdict on the question of infringement. [...]

Tenenbaum Liable for Copyright Infringement

Update [31 July 6:50PM]: $22,500 per work; $675,000 total. More than I expected. Props to Wendy Seltzer and Mark Lemley for the update. Link is to Ben Sheffner’s write-up in Ars Technica…
The judge in the copyright infringement lawsuit against Joel Tenenbaum has issued a directed verdict on the issue of infringement liability. The only remaining [...]

@LibelGirl: Call yr atty ASAP

In an astonishing overreaction, Horizon Realty Group, a large Chicago landlord, has filed a defamation lawsuit against a former tenant, Amanda Bonnen, over this tweet sent on her (now defunct) Twitter account:
@JessB123 You should just come anyway. Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s ok.
Assuming the [...]

Fair Use Out in Tenenbaum Case

Copyrights and Campaigns has the breaking story. Wow. My initial take is that the outcome is correct – fair use just doesn’t cover what Tenenbaum did – but I need to read the summary judgment order for a more thoughtful analysis. This is fascinating stuff.

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