copyright-czar
Copyright Czar Vote Heads to Full Senate
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved Victoria Espinel’s nomination Thursday, paving the way for a full Senate vote to confirm the nation’s first copyright czar. No Senate vote date was set immediately for a nominee who was applauded by both the “copyleft” and the “copyright.” Espinel is expected to have a key role for the United States as it and several other countries secretly negotiate an intellectual property treaty, known as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. That treaty could fundamentally alter copyright law to require ISPs to adopt “graduated response” policies to terminate internet service of repeat, copyright offenders.
Continue reading »Google’s Patry Returns to Blogosphere
Google’s chief copyright officer, considered one of the nation’s leading authorities on intellectual property, has resumed personal blogging following a year-long hiatus. Patry’s latest copyright blog commenced Thursday and is named after his new book, Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars . He stopped blogging last year amid concerns that “the current state of copyright law is too depressing.” He also said the public was confused, that he was often accused of writing on behalf of Google rather than himself.
Continue reading »Biden to MPAA: you’ll like Obama’s pick for copyright czar
The Obama administration’s stance on copyright enforcement has already attracted an open letter in which a variety of public advocacy groups voiced concerns that there seemed to be a bias towards content owners in the initial round of appointments. Those worries are unlikely to go away any time soon, if this week’s events are any indication. The Motion Picture Association of America came to town, armed with lobbyists and figures that suggest it functions as a one-industry, nationwide job stimulus, and it heard exactly what it was looking for from Vice President Biden.
Continue reading »UK rejects privacy group’s gripes about Google Street View
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK has once again given the thumbs-up to Google’s Street View after reviewing complaints from a UK privacy group. The office stated that Street View does not violate the country’s Data Protection Act, and that the small risk of privacy burps are not worth the removal of an entire service. Privacy International originally filed a complaint with the ICO about Street View in March, alleging that Google had not yet taken the appropriate steps to ensure citizens’ privacy and that the service has created “numerous instances of embarrassment and distress.” PI argued that Google should remove all of its images until it’s clear that the service operates within the UK’s Data Protection Act, and asked the ICO to take a hard look at its own reasoning for approving the service in the first place.
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