THE COPYKAT

USPTO brings in the all-important question of whether AI can create or infringe Copyrighted “Works”

Artificial Intelligence is a well discussed and debated topic in the realms of Copyright - since the advent of the concept of “Computer-generated works”, but with the recent advancement in the role of AI in curation of art-based copyrightable works, this debate has gained even more importance and is now the  subject of a number of major academic conferences and seminars, with the question surrounding the most appropriate path to be taken by lawmakers and courts.

The US Patent and Trademark Office has now launched a public consultation in this matter and The USPTO has issued a request for comments on IP protection of AI based innovation, on or before 16^th December. The notice reads: “Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are increasingly becoming important across a diverse spectrum of technologies and businesses. AI poses unique challenges in the sphere of intellectual property law. At a January 31, 2019 conference on ‘‘Artificial Intelligence: Intellectual Property Policy Considerations,’’ USPTO explored a number of those challenges. On August 27, 2019, the USPTO published a request for comment regarding AI’s impacts on patent law and policy. As a continuation of this work, the USPTO is also considering the impact of AI on other intellectual property rights.” 

In lieu of the same, 13 specific question have been posed by the USPTO including concerns around a work produced by an AI, without the involvement of a natural person contribution expression, constituting a protectable work of authorship or not, kind of involvement of human which would be regarded as authorial, state of existing law in lieu of evolving AI technology, AI getting authorship as a separate legal entity or not etc. The whole list of questions posed can be found herein. Even in the UK, while evaluating a claim to inventorship, and identifying an inventor, the UK government has herein gone on to specify that “An AI inventor is not acceptable as this does not identify a “person” which is required by law.” Further, and importantly, as reported by the IPKAT, even in China, the Beijing internet Court in its decision in th case of Feilin v. Baidu has gone on to hold that for it to be a copyrightable “work”, it must be created by a natural person, which is a fundamental tenet of Copyright law. The court even held that neither the software developer nor the user and not even the software could be the Author of the work. The court further pointed towards the establishment of a sui generis right system (although indirectly) to protect the investment in the generation of the production. This is a core academic debate, and will be interesting to see how it takes shape in other jurisdictions.

Musicians urge for a similar regime to the EU Copyright Directive in the United States, to protect them against digital exploitation

CISAC recently saluted the EU Copyright system for its reform and fight against digital upload based services and has urged other jurisdictions including the United States to follow its example. With the digital market taking over the means of “communication” of content, the CISAC has urged for fairer norms, in light of a higher contribution of the digital market to these authorial royalties and revenues. The income from digital sources has substantially increased and is EUR 653 million more in 2018 than in 2014. Of course the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers has at its core the aim to protect the rights and promote the interests of creators worldwide and is a known advocate for strong legal protection of copyright and authors' rights.  The EU Copyright Directive offers a stronger negotiating position for authors and composers against these distributing agencies and tech giants which display content and further holds them completely responsible for the content uploaded on their platform, in order to rapidly curb piracy. As reported by CISAC newsroom, Jean-Michel Jarre, CISAC President, said: “Digital is our future and revenues to creators are rising fast, but there is a dark side to digital, and it is caused by a fundamental flaw in the legal environment that continues to devalue creators and their works. That is why the European Copyright Directive is so momentous for creators everywhere. The Directive has sent an amazing, positive signal around the world, building a fairer balance between creators and the tech platforms.” A few highlights of this report as well as the full report released by CISAC can be accessed here. But a number of major tech companies, including Google, Facebook and Twitter are concerned about harmful copyright legislation being created around the world. 

Meanwhile TechDirt reports that tech industry groups are warning that these developments, including the EU Copyright Directive, will harm the interests of US companies, while conflicting with various free trade agreement. The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and Internet Association have registered their unhappiness in submissions to the US Trade Representative in response to a call for opinions on foreign trade barriers. According to the CCIA, whose members include Amazon, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Pandora and Samsung, the EU’s directive “poses an immediate threat to Internet services and the obligations set out in the final text depart significantly from global norms”.

Important question of Jurisdiction in Copyright Infringement cases, resolved by the US Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit

In a lawsuit involving a lack of proximity or territorial nexus of the infringing action to the venue wherein the suit was instituted, the court in the US dismissed a claim of Copyright infringement, This is the case of Parker v. Winwood (6^th Circuit Sept. 17, 2019). The main question is this case was around the taking of a bass line from the plaintiff’s song “(Aint that) A lot of love” in their song “Gimme Some Lovin’” Due to Mervyn Winwood’s residence in the UK and his conduct of the subject matter of the suit (and the alleged infringement) taking place in the UK, the sixth circuit relying on the Supreme Court decision in Walden v Fiore where the forum of the act was given prominence, held that there is no personal jurisdiction to bring in the suit at Tennessee. Further, due to lack of evidence showing distribution of the infringing work in Tennessee, the steam of commerce argument was also rejected.  In the dissenting opinion however, justice Donald stated that “Plaintiffs could not properly assert personal jurisdiction over Mervyn because Plaintiffs did not set forth evidence or affidavits establishing jurisdiction . . . is incorrect, as Plaintiffs have submitted evidence supporting the district court’s ability to exercise personal jurisdiction over Mervyn.” Further, an evidence related to a nationwide distribution agreement was also accounted for, in support of personal jurisdiction, however the majority rejected the same. This judgment seems fallacious in relying on Walden v Fiore as this judgment doesn’t cover situations where the defendant has minimum contacts with the United States and any of the states within itself.  Read more here. The judgment can be accessed here.

Nigeria declares no tolerance policy on issues surrounding acts of Piracy

The West African Country has emphasized, via its Copyright Commission, a will to stamp out Piracy in totality. In a declaration by Vincent Oyefeso, the commision’s director of public affairs, as reported by Music in Africa. the Director said:

"The NCC is not just a compliance agency, it has the power to arrest and prosecute anybody caught pirating other people’s intellectual properties.” and “Copyright owners could institute civil suit against copyright offenders, apart from the criminal suit the commission normally institutes against such offenders.”

Further, there has also been a call to update Nigerian Copyright laws to come in line with the digital era. And to combat piracy, the commission has adopted surveillance, inspections, raids, investigations and diligent prosecutions of alleged and suspected offenders and infringers. This is all the more keeping in mind the agenda to bolster economic growth through the creative industries.

Even in South Africa, there have been concerns around the amendments surrounding authors and performers rights and the impact of the bill on rights of creators. There has been a formulation of a tribunal to address these issues concerning the same. The general consensus as reported by Music in Africa, is that the amendment bill supports users and multinational streaming company by providing them free content and going against the economic concerns of the rightful authors and composers including performers.  There is no punitive clause which provides for a remedy against infringing use. Read more here.

Claim against the Constitutionality of the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act, 1990 (United States), being heard in the Supreme Court

The case of Allen v. Cooper where the US Supreme Court is looking at a modern-day dispute involving the pirate Blackbeard's ship that went down off North Carolina's coast more than 300 years ago discusses the question of whether a limitation on state sovereign immunity in copyright claims via a statute (CRTA,1990) is constitutional. This case highlights the statute which abrogates sovereign immunity in claims of copyright infringement. The Supreme Court, in a similar claim to unconstitutionality concerning Sovereign Immunity being abrogated in Patent and Trademark cases, has already held it to be unconstitutional (Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board v. College Savings Bank), which is generally used as a precedent by the lower courts even in Copyright Cases (concerning CRTA) to hold sovereign immunity applicable. 

The SC has peculiarly started hearing these claims with respect to this particular act since November 5, 2019, as reported by the Disruptive Competition Project. The core issue is whether there can be a distinction drawn from the treatment of this act with respect to the other ones which have already been held to be unconstitutional. In the Florida case, the core reasoning against such immunity being removed was that there needs to be a pattern of cases showing infringement by the State or constitutional violations, which weren’t established. The focus of the plaintiff in this case is on distinguishing the factual scenario and establishing that infringement by states is a growing problem which has also been identified in the study by the Copyright office and in the amicus brief filed by Ralph Oman, ex registrar of Copyrights, in favour of the plaintiff, .North Carolina-based Nautilus Productions who had for nearly two decades documented the ship's salvage. In the process, the company copyrighted photos and videos - which were then published by the state.  Nautilus sued in federal court, but the federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, ruled North Carolina could not be sued despite using the materials without permission. 

The plaintiff has also relied upon the dissenting opinions of Justice Ginsburg and Breyer and has firstly argued to overturn the Florida Prepaid case, but later in a second argument has also gone on to establish as to how the Florida prepaid case is not a valid precedent for the CRTA. States generally are protected from lawsuits in federal courts, and the justices in 1999 ruled out federal court cases against states over patent infringements. Patent and copyright protections come from the same constitutional provision that outlines Congress' powers.

As reported by Disruptive Competition Project, Justices Alito and Kagan questioned the adequacy of the evidence of widespread copyright infringement when Congress adopted the CRCA. Florida Prepaid found the eight instances of patent infringement considered by Congress to be insufficient. Here, the Copyright Office study had identified sixteen instances of copyright infringement by state entities. So are sixteen infringements by 50 states enough to constitute a widespread pattern of constitutional harm, while eight are not?  Read more on this case here. 

"All that would be very persuasive if we didn't have the patent decision" Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said during the legal arguments.  Ginsburg dissented in the patent case.

This CopyKat from Akshat Agrawal 

THE COPYKAT spins around the world of copyright

Alibaba.com, the massive Chinese e-commerce company that provides consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer and business-to-business sales services via web portals, has been hit with a class action lawsuit claiming that its network of e-commerce websites is home to rampant copyright infringement of visual artwork.The lawsuit has been brought at the instigation of professional Indiana artist Michel Keck who is seeking to certify a class of copyright holders who have seen their work copied and sold on Alibaba’s network of websites. The 81-page complaint, filed  in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, outines the frustration Keck faced as she attempted to get dozens of China-based sellers to stop selling cheap copies of her work, primarily modern abstract canvas prints that feature dog portraits and religious themes.Keck claims that she repeatedly filled out online forms to report the alleged infringement to Alibaba, only to run into error messages, requests for documentation, or messages in Chinese. Often, she claims, she simply received no response. Alibaba has just announced that it will invest more than $15 billion over the next three years in a global research and development programme.

The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a decision to dismiss a class action lawsuit against Teranet Inc., which is the company that manages the province’s electronic land registration system (ELRS). In Teresa Scassa, University of OttawaIn Keatley Surveying Ltd. v. Teranet Inc., 2007 ONCA 748, the court heard that the plaintiff, Keatley Surveying Ltd., had brought action in 2007 on behalf of all land surveyors in Ontario who registered their plans of survey in the provincial land registry offices. Keatley claimed that Teranet Inc., the defendant, infringed their rights. The plaintiff, representing the class of surveyors, objected to what it saw as Teranet profiting from the commercial reproduction and dissemination of their copyright-protected works. Finding against the surveyors, the appellate court said it agreed "with the motion judge that copyright in the registered or deposited plans of survey belong to the Province. ... In summary, I would hold that the extensive property-related rights bestowed on the Crown by the land registration scheme in Ontario compel the conclusion that the publishing of those plans, by making copies of the plans available to the public, is done under the “direction or control of Her Majesty.” Section 12 of the Copyright Act declares that the copyright in the registered or deposited plans of survey belongs to the Crown." Read more here Crown copyright alive and well in new decision from the Ontario Court of Appeal. 


In the US, it seems web blocking is now on the cards for copyright owners whose rights have been infringed, after Magistrate Judge John Anderson in the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia recommended a ruling in favour of the American Chemical Society in their action against Sci-Hub (sometimes dubbed the “Pirate Bay of science” whom the ACS accused of copyright infringement for making available online copies of the former’s academic papers without licence. Sci-Hub lost its sci-hub.org domain during an earlier (and separate) legal action against the site by science publisher Elsevier. More on CMU Daily here


And continuing with acaedemia, and the same to claimants, and copyright alleged infringement: scholarly publishing giant Elsevier and the American Chemical Society (ACS) have filed a lawsuit in Germany against ResearchGate, a popular academic networking site, alleging copyright infringement on a mass scale. The move comes after a larger group of publishers became dissatisfied with ResearchGate’s response to a request to alter its article-sharing practices. Sciencemag explains that ResearchGate, a for-profit firm based in Berlin that was founded in 2008, is one of the largest social networking sites aimed at the academic community. It claims more than 13 million users, who can use their personal pages to upload and share a wide range of material, including published papers, book chapters, and meeting presentations. Science funders and investors have put substantial funds into the firm; it has raised more than $87 million from the Wellcome Trust charity, Goldman Sachs, and Bill Gates personally - but the claimants say that published papers now include copyrighted papers whch are usually accessible only behind subscription paywalls. Initially, the International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers wrote to ResearchGate on behalf of more than 140 publishers, expressing concerns about its article-sharing policies, and proposed that ResearchGate implement a “seamless and easy” automated system to stop their copyrighted works appearing on the site. This was rejected and a 'take down' system suggested by ReserachGate - which the publishers are not happy with, saying  hat the company’s “business model depends on the distribution of these in-copyright articles to generate traffic to its site, which is then commercialised through the sale of targeted advertising" Two coalition members, ACS and Elsevier, have now opted to go to court.


A small claims procedure for IP in the USA? Congressmen Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Tom Marino (R-PA), along with Representatives Doug Collins (R-GA), Judy Chu (D-CA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), and Lamar Smith (R-TX)  have introduced a new bill in the House of Representatives that photographers and others involved in the visual atrts say will be a valuable tool to complement the current “ one-size-fits-all copyright system" which "leaves out most visual artists.” The Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act is intended to give creators a cost-effective way to enforce their rights. The idea of a copyright small-claims court, which has been discussed in Washington D.C. for several years, could make it easier for small companies and independent creators to enforce their rights,  And Billboard says it could be a game-changer for photographers and visual artists, especially where merchandise is concerned.


Nigeria has presented four key Copyright ratified Treaties to the Assembly of member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the presentation was made at a 57th WIPO General Assembly meeting in Geneva.  Ambassador Audu Kadiri, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva, whopresented the treaties to the Director General of WIPO, Dr. Francis Gurry said, Nigeria was committed to the implementation of the treaties in support of the country’s drive to revatilise its economy. The treaties were listed as the WIPO Copyright Treaty, the Performances and Phonograms Treaty, the Beijing Treaty on Audio Visual Performances, and the Marrakesh Treaty.

There has been another delay by the EU's Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) on EU copyright reforms set out in the Draft Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (COM 2016(593). It was anticipated that JURI would have its final vote on the amended wording on the 10th October 2017. However, the draft Copyright Directive had been removed from the agenda for that date. For now, it seems that we will all have to wait until JURI’s next session on 7th December 2017 to see how the bill progressing. Axel Voss assumed the role of the rapporteur in June this year. More on Lexology here.

The CopyKat - snippets of copy writes from around the globe

Russia’s State Duma, the parliament’s lower house, has approved a package of amendments to the anti-piracy law, which will cover video, books, music and software, but not photos.  Tass reports that rights’ owners can now demand suspension of Internet sources, which violate authors’ rights, for a period of court proceedings. Two couyrt defeats will lead to an closure of the offending website and the court will decide on a permanent blocking of a Web site. Among the amendments there is an initiative under which a Web site owner must delete during 24 hours any content, rather than limit access to it, upon an electronic request from a rights’ owner. “Our fundamental aim was to protect rights’ owners from professional pirates without creating serious problems for Web’s users, who may not be familiar with details of the law on authors’ rights and are authorized to use the whole content that is available,” Duma deputy speaker Sergey Zheleznyak said in his Facebook account.

The Turtles - happy again?

The Turtles, the 1960s pop band,  have  won a second victory against SiriusXM Holdings Inc. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan rejected Sirius' request to dismiss the lawsuit accusing the satellite radio company of playing pre-1972 songs from the band, best known for the hit "Happy Together" without permission or paying royalties. She said that unless Sirius raises any factual issues requiring a trial by December 5th, she will rule outright for the plaintiff, Flo & Eddie Inc, a company controlled by founding Turtles members Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, and begin to assess damages. The Judge said "Of course, the conspicuous lack of any jurisprudential history confirms that not paying royalties for public performances of sound recordings was an accepted fact of life in the broadcasting industry for the last century. So does certain testimony cited by Sirius from record industry executives, artists and others, who argued vociferously before Congress that it was unfair for them to operate in an environment in which they were paid nothing when their sound recordings were publicly performed.... That they were paid no royalties was a matter of statutory exemption under federal law; that they demanded no royalties under the common law when their product as ineligible for federal copyright protection is, in many ways, inexplicable.  But acquiescence by participants in the recording industry in a status quo where recording artists and producers were not paid royalties while songwriters were does not show that they lacked an enforceable right under the common law - only that they failed to act on it  and Modern federal law supports the notion that an express carve-out is required in order to circumscribe the bundle of rights appurtenant to copyright.  More here and here. Digital Music News opines that based on Judge McMahon's comments  " Although the defendant in the case is a digital service, the ruling would appear to apply to any radio station, nightclub, or any other venue that plays recorded music in New York". So, traditionally free from paying royaties for recorded music in the USA  - is broadcast radio next???

Oracle's 2007 case against SAP, alleging that the latter’s Texas-based subsidiary TomorrowNow had illegally downloaded millions of copyrighted documents and programs from its customer connection website has finally bee settled. In 2010, a jury awarded Oracle $1.3 billion in damages based on the value of a hypothetical license that SAP should have negotiated for using Oracle’s copyrighted software. In response SAP filed a suit claiming that the amount should not be based on hypothetical licenses but on facts. In 2011, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton rejected the previous claim and settled the amount at $272 million.
Oracle then appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to revert the amount to the original $1.3 billion. The court considered Oracle’s appeal and agreed that the second amount was too low. However, earlier this year, Oracle was ordered to either accept $356.7 million or file for another claim and Oracle has now settled the case for $359 million ($356.7 million plus $2.5 million in interest). 


The Federal High Court in Lagos has thrown out a case brought before it by the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN) seeking to restrain the Copyright Society of Nigeria, Coson, from declaring that it is Nigeria’s sole collective management organization for musical works and sound recordings. Justice O.E. Abang ruled against the MCSN In its battle for legitimacy against Coson and the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC). In the suit, MCSN had asked the court to declare that Coson fraudulently misrepresented particulars of its membership to the NCC, which particulars the NCC relied upon to grant approval to Coson. MCSN asked the court to revoke the approval and to declare that the approval of Coson as a sole collective management organization deprived MCSN, its members, assignors and affiliates of their fundamental and constitutional rights to freedom of association, freedom to own and enjoy property in copyright and access to justice and as such is unconstitutional, null and void.   Suit No. FHC/L/CS/377/2013. More on the Premium Times here.

The Brisbane Times reports that websites that host or link to copyright infringing movies and TV shows could soon be blocked if the Australian cabinet approves a government submission to tackle online copyright infringement. It seems Attorney-General George Brandis and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull are canvassing a range of options put forward in response to their online copyright infringement discussion paper released in late July and intend to present cabinet with their own submission before Christmas. The ministers will likely recommend government put a requirement on internet service providers to forward letters about alleged copyright infringement from movie and TV studios to their customers. It's also likely they will recommend making it possible for rights holders to seek an injunction in court to require multiple internet providers block websites hosting infringing content.

In New Zealand MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom is facing a number of new temporary conditions to his bail over allegatiuons of multile breaches of previous conditions an an assessment that he may be a 'flight risk' Dotcom's full extradition hearing to the US on criminal copyright charges has been long long delayed - it's nearly three years since his controversial file-transfer business was shut down by the US authorities - and this will be subject to further delays after Dotcom's US lawyer confirmed that he and co-defendat Finn Batato had lost their legal team with New Zealand law firm Simpson Grierson and barrister Paul Davison QC withdrawing from the case. The new restrictions on Dotcom imposed by Judge Nevin Dawson in the Auckland District Court bans Dotcom from travelling more than 80km from his home, and from using helicopters or boats and he must hreport to police on a daily basis. Reports say that prosecutors have  called for Dotcom to be jailed again pending extradition, a proposal that will be considered by a judge next week.

And finally from China comes news that the Government is planning to create 3 Special IP Courts in Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai, where, according to a new update on the IPKat, the majority of Chinese IP cases are filed.  This is ostensibly to handle the growing backlog of cases in these jurisdictions and to address the special technical requirements and intricacies of IP cases. The new IP courts would be trial as well as appeal courts and it seems the Beijing IP court may focus more on administrative cases, while the other twocourts would  focus predominantly on civil infringement cases

Friday's CopyKat is a snappy Katty

We have recently posted a couple of blogs looking at the position of hardworking professional photographers who feel somewhat let down by the current copyright regime. No, not the Getty Iamages of this world, but the likes of inspect photographer Alex Wild who takes brillant shots and just wants to make an honest living. Well, now we have Pixsy, a new automated copyright infingement software that looks to help photographers around the globe tackle an issue that plagues the industry and for the most part goes unresolved - "Fighting copyright infringement can be a long and costly ordeal and Pixsy hopes to be your one stop solution for fair compensation.". For a disfferent perspective, TechDirt have more to say on this.

A U.S. judge has thrown out a screenwriter's copyright suit accusing Academy Award-nominated director Neill Blomkamp of stealing his screenplay and turning it into the 2013 movie “Elysium.”. U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton granted Blomkamp and co-defendants Sony Pictures, TriStar Pictures and others a summary judgment against writer Steve Wilson Briggs, who claimed that Blomkamp read his screenplay called “Butterfly Driver” online and turned it into his film starring Matt Damon. Both stories are set in a futuristic world in which the protagonists leave Earth for a satellite space city, but the shared aspects are only abstract, Hamilton wrote in her decision. More here. 

In Nigeria a group of copyright owners under the auspices of Concerned Copyright and Intellectual Property Owners (CCIPO) have decried "the monopoly imposed on the business of collecting societies in the copyright sector of the economy" by "a cabal in the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC)". CCIPO says this negates the spirit of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda, which centres on the observance of the rule of law and opening up of the nation’s economy to enable all Nigerians participate. The group also called for the implementation of the December 18, 2013, House of Representatives’ resolution directing the NCC to immediately de-monopolise the collective administration of copyright, particularly the business of royalty collection in the entertainment industry.

And more from Nigeria - Linda Ikeji, owner of one of the top ten most visited websites in Nigeria, is seemingly facing being taken offline by Google because her site allegedly contains infringing images and recycled text.  A social commentator on Twitter (@MrAyeDee) tweeted that Google had responded to his complaints about  Ikeji using his content without compensating him or giving recognition to the original author. Ikeji responded to the news in a blog post titled "To the guys that want to take down LIB, here's a message to you...lol"  saying "I admit that I take content from other sites. Plenty of it sef, but the question is, which website in the world doesn't?" before adding "So Mr Aye Dee, Mr EE, Mr #bringmedown or whoever you are and Jeremy Weate (look who is talking ..lol) and all the others talking, I am not afraid of you! You didn't bring me this far and you're not enough to bring me down" and commenting that the reason she was being attacked was because of the success of her blog - which earns her an estimated $900,000 per annum (N140M).


Rights holders could lose even more control over their content if they take cases to court to test new copyright exceptions, Professor Ian Hargreaves, the Cardiff Ubiversity academic whose proposals prompted the new laws has exclusively told Out-Law.com. As this theor exclusive why not head over to thier website to see more. 

In Canada it seems that the Conservative government is planning to change Canada’s copyright law to allow political parties to use content published and broadcast by news organisations for free in their own political ads. An internal Conservative cabinet document obtained by CTV News details an amendment to the Copyright Act which would allow “free use of ‘news’ content in political advertisement intended to promote or oppose a politician or political party.” The amendment would also remove “the need for broadcasters to authorize the use of their news content.” And it would force media outlets to run political ads even if their own footage and content was used in a negative message to voters. More from CTV News here and CBC here. Heritage Minister Shelly Glover was reported as saying "There is a public interest in ensuring that politicians are accountable for their actions and accountable for what they say in public settings" and "Major television networks should not be able to censor what can and cannot be broadcast to Canadians. We believe this has always been protected under the fair dealings provisions of the law, and if greater certainty is necessary, we will provide it." Comments from Michael Geist and video footage from both sides of the argument here.

Reuters report that Google has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to wade into the contentious litigation against Oracle Corp, arguing that the court must act to protect innovation in techology. Google is seeking to overturn an appeals court ruling that found Oracle could copyright parts of the Java programming language, which Google used to design its Android smartphone. The three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington reversed this decision of Judge William Alsup in the District Court saying "We conclude that a set of commands to instruct a computer to carry out desired operations may contain expression that is eligible for copyright protection". The EFF had previously gathered together 32 computer scientists and tech industry leaders to support an amicus brief  to the appellate court arguing that  APIs should not be copyrightable because they are critical to spurring innovation and inter-operability in the tech world. In its filing this week, Google said the company would never been able to innovate had the Federal Circuit's reasoning been in place when the company was formed.  More on this here.

And finally: the citizens' initiative in Finland to amend laws regarding copyright violations, which was partly spurred on by the 2012 police raid on the home of a young girl who had illegally downloaded music onto her 'winnie-the-pooh' computer is likely to fail. The 'Common sense for copyright' proposal, which 50,00 citizens signed up to,  would water down sanctions for illegal downloading of both music and movies by private individuals (although penalties for 'commercial' sharing and wholesale downloading would be retained). Format shifting woulld be legalised and other exceptions to copyright rewritten, and these would include a 'fair use'exceptionThe Finnish Parliament's Education and Culture Committee is proposing that a citizens' initiative on making copyright laws more lenient be rejected.  More here.