Out with the Acting, in with the Doing

The news is a few days old, but it hasn’t appeared here yet and it should.  This past week the United States got a new Register of Copyrights: Maria Pallente.

Maria has been serving as the Acting Register since the previous Register, Marybeth Peters, retired at the end of the last year.  As of the first of this month, Maria is now the full, official, not-just-acting-but-being, Register.

The US Register of Copyrights works under the Librarian of Congress and does a lot more than just registering things.  Her role does includes developing procedures within the Copyright office for registering works, researching registrations and other such things.  But her increasingly more important role is to provide input and analysis on copyright law and issues relating to copyright, both domestic and international.

Already Maria has testified before Congress about potential changes to the US copyright regime.  Her first day as Register, she appeared before the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet to discuss various types of online infringement.  She had testified about similar issues before the same subcommittee has Acting Register in March.

Marybeth Peters is often hailed for her many achievements as Register of Copyrights, and I’ve often heard her spoken of fondly by both sides of the great copyright debates.  Maria has some big shoes to fill, but it looks like she’s jumped right in and is ready for the challenge.  Welcome to Maria!

For a full description of the US Register of Copyrights duties: 17 U.S.C. §701

Crown copyright and protection for the crown

The March 2010 issue of Informa Law's Copyright World has now been published. It contains, among other things, a review by Navin Katyal (from public sector body Infrastructure Ontario) of the need to reform the Crown copyright provisions that still, perhaps somewhat anachronistically, linger under Canadian law. He argues that, while Crown copyright should not be undermined simply because Government has a regulatory role, consultation should lead to clearer guidance as to what should remain protected: prime source materials, such as legislative acts and government regulations, should be left to the public domain.

On the subject of crowns (as in "Jack fell down and broke his crown ...") here's also a summary by Simon Clark of Berwin Leighton Paisner which explains last December's Court of Appeal decision in the 'Star Wars helmet' case, Lucasfilm Ltd v Andrew Ainsworth and another.

The full contents of this issue can be seen here.

Latest Copyright World

The February 2010 issue of Copyright World, published 10 times a year by Informa Law, came shimmying through my letterbox this morning. Among its contents are the following items of note:

* "Beware of the blog", by Rita L. Berardino and Jessica M. Kiser, who explore the spectrum of content and infringement liability risk associated with corporate blogging;

* "The case of the copied photograph", claiming that "a landmark Italian decision has established that producing a painting of a photograph may result in copyright infringement". The authors are Edith Van den Eede and Luca Trevisan (Trevisan & Cuonzo Avvocati);

* "How litigation changed peer-to-peer file sharing", penned (as if anyone uses a pen these days ...) by the Arnold & Porter duo of Richard Dickinson and Alex Watt.

Latest Copyright World

The rather slender September 2009 issue of Informa's 10-times-a-year Copyright World leads with an article on the theme of "carrot and stick", though the cover illustration, viewed at full size, appears to depict a carrot that has been hanged by the neck for some unspecified misdemeanour (unlawful file-sharing, perhaps?)

The cover story, it transpires, is a piece by Nigel Gilroy (Davenport Lyons) on how to best protect and monetise online rights. According to the abstract,

"Consumers and businesses around the world have undoubtedly enjoyed the benefits of the internet over recent years. However, these benefits have come at a price for rights owners, who find themselves in a constant battle with those who are happy to exploit intellectual property rights (IPRs) yet are unwilling to pay for the privilege".

Familiar story? Yes but, while the basic plot remains the same, each new court decision, lobby poturing and business plan provides a fresh new twist and provides a factual prism through which the 'where's the money?' and 'where's the enforcement?' issues can be reviewed/

Further details of Copyright World are available here.

Latest Copyright World

The July-August issue of Informa's ten-times a year Copyright World has now been published. The cover article, "Soul Stealers" by Nabarro's Ian Lowe and Camilla Waite, looks at the sorry state of copyright in photographs that have ended up online, asking "what control do you have over your online images?" In "A Shift Away from Three Stripes", Gregory Tulquois, Patrick Boiron and Duncan Calow (DLA Piper) compares and contrasts some current British and French positions as to the best way to deal with serial file sharers. There's also the usual news of appointments, recent judicial decisions and professional moves.

You can see the full contents of this issue here.