Recent Articles

Golan v. Holder gets a second wind

April 08, 2009 19:40

As Lessig described it, “from the there’s-no-way-in-hell-you’ll-win-that-one department,” the case challenging the US roll-back of public domain status for foreign works that entered the pd here because their copyright owners failed to comply with US formalities at a time we...

Air and Simple Gifts: Public domain shines within latest compositions

January 23, 2009 20:17

I was so happy all day long on Tuesday, watching the country, indeed the world, watch us welcome a new administration. One of the high-points was the fabulous rendering by four of the world’s finest musicians (even if they recorded it in the warmth) of John Williams’ composition,...

Ah, is the public in for a treat!

January 16, 2009 14:09

A little off-topic, about the public interest in access to the goings on of the justice system more so than the public interest in access to the works the public is entitled to use as it sees fit when coyright has done its job already — Harvard’s Berkman Center founder, Charles Nesson,...

GBS is a worrisome development…

January 09, 2009 02:05

The buzz about Google Book Search (GBS) seemed to be dying down but then suddenly there are four articles in a week. Regardless of their numbers, behind the news stories work no doubt continues full tilt to realize the settlement’s potential. I just want to find out how the story ends. If...

Jamie Boyle’s case for believing in the possibility of legislative change

December 17, 2008 03:24

Well, I just wrapped up Jamie Boyle’s book, The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind. Cory Doctorow has a nice review at Boing-Boing, so I want to talk about something a bit more specific. I am struck by how forcefully he makes the point in his last chapter that communicating...

Building on the corpus of the free and digital public domain !

December 08, 2008 20:38

Lessig links to a very cool new application that builds on the corpus of freely available public domain materials about our government representatives. It’s called apture, and there’s a little video that shows how it works on other people’s sites to allow you to see lots of...

Woo-hoo! Jamie Boyle’s new book is out with a CC license!!

November 29, 2008 19:52

Go right now! The Public Domain – Enclosing the Commons of the Mind is out, it’s for sale and for free pdf download, with explanations of why downloading the whole book makes sense, not just to Jamie (well, duh), but to Yale University Press too. Go go go. We’ll talk about it...

Orphan Works Bill Died as House Adjourned

October 08, 2008 14:36

The following post appeared yesterday in the Public Policy Connections blog of the Special Libraries  Association (SLA).  ”After passing in the Senate on 26 September, the Orphan Works bill, which limits remedies in copyright infringement cases involving orphan works, died in the House on 3...

Symposium on Copyright Laws and Intellectual Monopolies

April 30, 2008 21:28

From Wednesday, May 28 through Friday, May 30th, the Center for Intellectual Property at the University of Maryland  will be hosting the 8th Annual Intellectual Property Symposium at the UMUC Inn and Conference Center in Adelphi, Maryland. This year’s symposium is titled MONOPOLY: PLAYING THE...

Another go at Orphan Works legislation

March 31, 2008 02:58

As I have indicated on many occasions, our work to determine public domain status of our digitized Benson volumes merges seamlessly into work to determine orphan work status. We pursue this inquiry even in the absence of legislative relief from the draconian penalties copyright law provides for...