The CopyKat - global copytreats - with a distinct lack of divine inspiration

A German court has ruled that an American psychologist — and not Jesus Christ — is the author of a book that she said Christ dictated to her in a "waking dream." Well, at least for the purposes of authorship in copyright law. The late Helen Schucman said she was a vessel for the words of Christ in her book A Course in Miracles, and a German Christian group called the New Christian Endeavour Academy argued that they were therefore free to put text from the book up on their website without permission or payment, saying "For many there is no doubt that Jesus of Nazareth is the author of the course and that copyright law therefore doesn't apply to his work." The Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt  disagreed and ruled that the rights go to the actual writer of the book regardless of "divine inspiration".

Its evolution Charles,
but not as we know it

This from the Guardian: "There were some funkybeats at Imperial College London at its annual science festival. As well as opportunities to create bogeys, see robots dance and try to get physics PhD students to explain their wacky world, this fascinating event included the chance to participate in a public game-like experiment called DarwinTunes. Participants select tunes and "mate" them with other tunes to create musical offspring: if the offspring are in turn selected by other players, they "survive" and get the chance to reproduce their musical DNA". The experiment is online: http://darwintunes.org/  - and should it be repeated with music that is in copyright would raise all sorts of interesting challenges for copyright lawyers as the music 'evolves'. 

In New Zealand a summary of the FBI's case against Kim Dotcom has been made public. It alleges the German millionaire knowingly infringed copyright, monetarily rewarded other people for doing so and made more than $175 million in the process. Judge Nevin Dawson in the District Court lifted the prohibition order on publicising the FBI's case against Dotcom, which the Megaupload founder "had hoped to keep secret. Stuff explains that Dotcom's has issues with a document called the "Record of Case", a summary document from more than 22 million emails obtained by the FBI. The summary of the FBI's case was released by a United States district judge to potential victims at the end of last year. The summary is now no longer subject to prohibition orders in New Zealand.

The Bookseller reports that the International Publishers’ Association (IPA) and the Federation of European Publishers (FEP) have warned that Europe's creative industries risk being "severely" prejudiced by measures taken by the World Intellectual Property Organisation's (WIPO) committee on copyright: How so? Well WIPO's Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) is currently looking at limitations and exceptions to copyright internationally, with a particular focus on educational activities, libraries and archives, and on people with disabilities, particularly those with visually impairments - and the trade groups 
have joined others including the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers and the European Grouping of Societies of Authors and Composers, in calling for the European Union to clarify the mandate of the SCCR before it commits to further work on copyright limitations and exceptions. An open letter signed by the organisations stated that a "broad range of divergent views" exists among WIPO member states. The “future direction of the SCCR may have far-reaching implications for the international copyright framework”, especially in relation to topics including the limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives, it said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has given the daughter of deceased screenwriter Frank Petrella a second chance to fight movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc over her claim it infringed the copyright of an early screenplay for what became the iconic boxing movie "Raging Bull." MGM had invoked "laches", the doctrine that an unreasonable delay in pursuing a claim is a defence against that claim. MGM moved for summary judgment, asserting the equitable defence of laches based upon the long and unreasonable delay in bringing suit. The District Court agreed, then the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote on behalf of the majority (6-3) of the Supreme Court that the Copyright Act bar on lawsuits more than three years after a claim arises did not bar the lawsuit because Petrella has argued that  there was an ongoing infringement and Petrella was only claiming damages for the three years preceding the filing of her lawsuit saying " Laches, we hold, cannot be invoked to preclude adjudication of a claim for damages brought within the three-year window. As to equitable relief, in extraordinary circumstances, laches may bar at the very threshold the particular relief requested by the plaintiff. And a plaintiff’s delay can always be brought to bear at the remedial stage." The court was clear that equitable estoppel may also apply, but that generally requires some affirmative act by the rights-holder. More on Laches and as Jeremy explains on the IPKat - laches cannot bar legal claims for actual damages or profits arising out of copyright infringement

Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor has told Billboard that the video streaming service is launching a "Content ID" system which will allow the company to be "a little more controlled" in terms of making sure that copyrighted material is not infringed. Simply referred to as Copyright Match, Vimeo’s system subjects uploaded content to a scanning algorithm that attempts to pick up on any conflicts of interest, like clips of movies or songs not intended for free use. Vimeo said “Over the last nine years, Vimeo has grown into one of the most visited video destinations in the world. We now have more than 26 million registered members, with over 170 million people swinging by monthly to watch awesome videos. At our size, we need a semi-automated system to help us enforce those beloved guidelines.”

The South China Morning Post says that one of China's most popular online platforms, Qvod, will be fined 260 million yuan (or a rather large £24.7 million or US $41.6 million
as I make it) by the Shenzhen Market Supervision and Administration Bureau for linking to pornographic material and copyright infringement. Qvod, founded in 2007, has been accused of allowing users to watch pirated material and pornographic content on the company's peer-to-peer video-player technology. Early last month, Qvod was compelled to shut down its servers after the National Copyright Administration said it continued to violate copyrights. On April 22nd Shenzhen police raided Qvod's headquarters and seized computers and equipment.

Rightscorp Inc  the "provider of monetisation services for artists and holders of copyrighted Intellectual Property" has announced  the addition of 500,000 new copyrights to it's representation catalogue, bringing its total ownership portfolio to over 1.5 million copyrights. According to Rightscorp, it has been actively increasing the number of copyrights that it can protect and monetise by constantly adding new copyrights into its system.

In France it seems that the French record industry is following its UK counterpart in seeking a web-block injunction against The Pirate Bay, which would force internet service providers in the country to stop their customers from accessing the controversial file-sharing site via its principle (albeit ever changing) domains. According to NextINpact, a lawsuit filed by the French Civil Society Of Phonographic Producers back in February is now being shared with France's net sector at large and the suit names over a hundred Pirate Bay proxies which would otherwise be used to avoid primary blocks.

And finally, Music Week reports that new copyright amendments are being prepared by the Ministry of Communications in Russia that could lead to entire websites being blocked by court order - even if they comply with takedown requests. With many feeling that some sites pay lip service to take down requests and indeed are turning a blind eye to a mass of infringing content elsewhere on their domains, Ministry of Communications deputy Alexei Volin said: “Unscrupulous illegal sites should be blocked entirely.”

The CopyKat, balancing on that narrow fence between copyrights and copywrongs

The Delhi High Court has held.that exclusive rights over yoga and pranic exercises, which are derivatives of ancient technique of yoga in India, cannot be claimed under the Copyright Act. Business Standard reports that the Court made the observations while rejecting the plea of Philippines-based Institute for Inner Studies seeking to restrain persons from teaching the 'asanas' (postures) claimed to be developed by the founder of the Institute.  The court relied upon the position of law on the matter in the US and noted that the court there had denied protection to Yoga asanas in case of Bikram Choudhary who is also teaching modern yoga techniques in the US.  Justice Manmohan Singh also held that the expression 'Pranic Healing' cannot be monopolised as trademark by the Institute. More on yoga and copyright here. 

The California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals - aka the "Hollywood Circuit" - has been accused of routinely siding with the home-turf entertainment industry in the past. Critics say that judges sided with film studios in the early 1980s when the studios sued Sony for infringing their copyrights by selling the Betamax video recorders (the Supreme Court reversed that decision), and a majority sided with "Wheel of Fortune" TV personality Vanna White when she claimed her "right to publicity" had been violated by a commercial spoof featuring a robot with a blond wig who stood next to big block letters. Now, the court's alleged pro-Hollywood slant is being cited again by a the daughter of Frank Petrella, who, along with boxer Jake LaMotta, wrote a 1963 screenplay that was said to be the basis for the Oscar-winning film Raging Bull - and again the Supreme Court has been asked to overturn a 9th Circuit decision that blocked her copyright claim against Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in a dispute over the 1980 movie. Whilst Chief Judge Alex Kozinski has criticised the court in the past for being overprotective of the entertainment industry, he "bristles" at the suggestion that the 9th Circuit takes sides saying "We get a lot of cases, but we go every which way" adding "I don't think we are particularly protective of studios." An update on the 'sparring' Supreme Court judges can be found here.

An excellent update on the right to control a 're-transmission' by  journalist and Mediabeak blogmeister Edgar Forbes appears on the IPKat here - looking at differing approaches taken by the UK, European and then US courts in Cablevision, MPS v Murphy, TVCatchup and now Aero. Edgar is as clear as can be in this muddled and confused landscape! Why does anyone bother? In the USA JVC estimated that retransmission fees would grow rapidly from $1.4 billion in 2011 to an estimated $3.6 billion in 2017, with full service HD News/ENG TV stations poised to get the lion’s share. More in JVC's  Pro HD Report here.

Sarah Palin has lost bid to move copyright lawsuit against her to her home turf of Alaska. The claim was brought by newspaper publisher North Jersey Media Group who sued the former darling of the Tea Party and vice presidential candidate, and her political action committee, last September, claiming copyright infringement over the use of an iconic 9/11 photograph. The photo depicts three New York City firefighters hoisting an American flag amid the rubble at the World Trade Center hours after the attacks - Palin’s Sarah PAC posted a copy of the photo on its fundraising website and Facebook page without permission. The case was moved to New Jersey. More on Mondaq here.

The shift away from collective licensing in the digital domain stepped forward again as Universal Music's publishing business in America announced it had entered into a direct licensing agreement with US-based streaming service Pandora which had previously licensed content through collective licensing - having had deals with ASCAP and BMI (both of which were challenged in court at the end of 2013). Universal's Zach Horowitz rather marvellously told reporters: "Our deal with Pandora is another step toward reaching our goal of ensuring that there is a vibrant digital marketplace where both music services and the songwriters and composers who make those services possible can thrive. This arrangement will allow music fans to enjoy our music on Pandora while protecting our songwriters and composers".

The Conan Doyle Estate Ltd., owned and run by the family of writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, has appealed to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals from the lower court decision in Klinger v Conan Doyle Estate Ltd. It's not unexpected - the District Court's ruling that all but ten of Coinan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories were in the public domain would prevent the Estate from licensing all but those ten works - as well as potentially profitable spin offs, and new stories based on the characters of Holmes and Dr Watson. The Estate had argued that the characters of Holmes and Watson was not fully developed until the final ten short stories - still in copyright - were published and so should remain under copyright protection - but the Court disagreed and although noting that writers using character developments from these last ten stories would require the Estate’s permission, held that the public may use the Pre-1923 Elements without obtaining a license from the Conan Doyle Estate.

And finally, both Fight Copyright Trolls and TorrentFreak have noted the District Court ruling from Seattle, where Judge Robert Lansik noted that the producers of the movie Elf Man failed to state a claim for relief, since the only evidence they had was an IP address - which wasn't enough to actually implicate any particular person in copyright infringement - and that that IP address-only evidence fails to meet the pleading standards required to pursue for copyright infringement Judge Lansik said  “Simply identifying the account holder associated with an IP address tells us very little about who actually downloaded ‘Elf-Man’ using that IP address”.