Category Archives: Public Domain

Who Has Your Back – Digitally Speaking?

04 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by in 1986 Electronic Communications Act, Computer Forensics, Cybersecurity, Intellectual Property, Internet, Legal Technology, Public Domain

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Report – Who Has Your Digital Back? by Sabrina I. Pacifici, BeSpacific Blog

http://www.bespacific.com/report-who-has-your-back/

Technology is changing literally all the time. Unfortunately, the law does not. Congress has yet to update the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act. For example, there is no law that emails stored longer than 6 months has the same protection emails stored less than 6 months.

To date, there are no NSA reforms for surveillance of online communication. It is possible that Congress will go farther and mandate “back doors” to allow government to access more digital information. Reports of hackers accessing our financial and private information are no longer surprising. Although companies assure us that our information is secure, is it?

These matters go the heart of digital privacy issues for companies and individuals and FOIA requests. Some of you will be surprised how vulnerable we are. -CCE

Is The Bluebook Protected By Copyright?

31 Sunday May 2015

Posted by in Citations, Copyright, Intellectual Property, Legal Writing, Public Domain, The Bluebook

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Legal Minds Differ On Whether The Bluebook Is Subject To Copyright Protection, by Leslie A. Gordon, ABA Journal

http://tinyurl.com/o228qkc

Controversy is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of The Bluebook, but the bible of legal citation is at the center of an increasingly nasty dispute over whether it is subject to copyright protection.

Open-source advocates are contending that the style and citation manual is an essential piece of legal infrastructure and can’t be preserved as private property under copyright law. The book’s publishers say otherwise. . . .

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Copyright Infringement and Fair Use.

11 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by in Copyright, Fair Use, Intellectual Property, Public Domain

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Law Firm Copying and Fair Use: An Examination of Different Purpose and Fair Use Markets, by Sabrina I. Pacifici, BeSpacific Blog

http://tinyurl.com/lfs2g9v

Jones, D. R., Law Firm Copying and Fair Use: An Examination of Different Purpose and Fair Use Markets (September 29, 2014). South Texas Law Review, Vol. 56, No. 2, 2014 – Forthcoming; University of Memphis Legal Studies Research Paper No. 144. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2503089

‘In several recent lawsuits, publishers sued law firms for copyright infringement. The lawsuits focused on making unlicensed copies of scholarly articles to file with patent applications, including copies for the firms’ internal use and for the firms’ clients. In two of these cases, lower court judges determined that the making of unlicensed copies was fair use. The decisions hinged on transformative use, focusing on the defendant’s purpose for using the works. There was no alteration or change in the works. The judges found fair use, despite the possible availability of licensing. These patent application cases fit within a larger category of cases involving the use of copyrighted works in judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings. This article uses these cases as a vehicle to review the use of purpose in fair use analysis. It advocates that the review of the character and purpose of a use should include a deeper examination of the policies and societal interests underlying the use. This broader consideration is especially important if a plaintiff asserts the presence of a ready market for the payment of fees for use of a copyrighted work. This article explores the determination of a fair use market as a way to support the unlicensed use of copyrighted works although a ready market exists for the payment of fees. These cases offer an excellent model for the analysis necessary to determine a fair use market.’

Judge Posner Ends Copyright Protection for Sherlock Holmes.

29 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by in Copyright, Intellectual Property, Public Domain

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Judge Posner Solves Sherlock Holmes Copyright Case, by Sabrina I. Pacifici, BeSpacific Blog

http://tinyurl.com/qgtgmbz

Rita Yoon, McDermott Will & Emery: ‘The original character of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, along with his sidekick, Dr. John H. Watson, are no longer subject to copyright protection.  In an opinion by Judge Richard A. Posner, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that copyright protection in these century-old literary characters cannot be extended simply by changing their features in later stories.  When the original story expires, the characters covered by the expired copyright are ‘fair game’ for follow-on authors.  Klinger v. Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd., Case No. 14-1128 (7th Cir., Jun. 16, 2014) (Posner, J.).’

 

Forget Me – Europe Rules On Removing Google Links.

17 Saturday May 2014

Posted by in Copyright, Google, Intellectual Property, Internet, Legal Technology, Privacy, Public Domain

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European Ruling On Removing Google Links May Leave A Mess, by Aarti Shanani, All Tech Considered, NPR

http://tinyurl.com/k747wvt

Google’s lawyers are trying to make sense of a ruling they did not expect.

This week, Europe’s highest court decided that people have a right to have search results about them deleted from online databases. So Google has to remove links to certain pages. Legal experts in Europe are torn about what, exactly, that means.

What Prompted The Ruling

There’s a man in Spain who doesn’t like his search results. I ask a fellow Spaniard, Cristina de la Serna in Madrid, to show us why.

She goes to Google.es, Spain’s version of the search engine, and types in the name Mario Costeja Gonzalez. The second result she gets for Gonzalez is a link to a 1998 Spanish newspaper clip. It shows his home was repossessed because of debt.

Google Must Delete Personal Data When Asked, European Court Says

Gonzalez wants the old blemish to go away, and de la Serna thinks he’s got a point. Searching people isn’t the same as searching for shoes, cars or books. . . .

Is Sherlock Holmes in the Public Domain?

17 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by in Copyright, Intellectual Property, Public Domain

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Federal Judge Declares Sherlock Holmes Characters in Public Domain. Sort of., by Dan Nabel, LawLawLand Blog

http://tinyurl.com/lqx7vda

Comedian Dmitri Martin has a great joke about the expression ‘sort of.’  Although normally a fairly meaningless expression, saying ‘sort of’ after certain things suddenly becomes very important.  Such as after the phrase ‘I love you,’ or ‘You’re going to live,’ or ‘It’s a boy.’  I immediately thought of this joke after reading a recent order issued by a federal court in Illinois.  The order declared that Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, 221B Baker Street, the evil Professor Moriarty, and other elements of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved works have fallen into the public domain.

Sort of.