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        <title>ZDNet Blogs</title>
        <link>http://blogs.zdnet.com</link>
        <description>ZDNet Blogs Focus: Intellectual Property</description>
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<title>Six things to know if your Facebook username has been squatted</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=278</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 13 Jun 2009 08:34:01 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=278</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Here are some things to bear in mind about username squatting on Facebook. I'm guessing Mike Arrington can get this fixed with a phone call or two.  (via Dave Winer)  If you're not him... You may have missed the fact there was, before username registration opened up, a form to complete for "preventing [your] trademarks from being registered as usernames."  That form is now closed, and links off instead to Facebook's non-copyright IP Infringement Form.  (Given its wording and stated purpose, I doubt it would have helped with non-trademark-registered individual names anyway.) Facebook (like Twitter, etc.) is not ICANN, and the UDRP has no application to its vanity URLs.  Facebook's terms of service, however, mandate that users not ... ]]>
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<title>Napster and the &quot;The more things change&quot; rule</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=267</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:05:24 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=267</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Drew Wilson at Zero Paid points out that Napster celebrates its 10th birthday this month.  The Globe and Mail takes a deeper look in its Download Decade series.  In the last decade, iTunes, Amazon, and various subscription music services have demonstrated there's a vast audience more than willing to pay for entertainment downloads given the right mix of value and convenience, though pricing and freedom from DRM remain sticking points.  At the same time, lawsuits against individual alleged file sharers march forward, and the entertainment industry has not relented in its pursuit of what it perceives as Napster's successors (e.g., Pirate Bay, Real DVD).  Which prompts me to wonder:  in the ten years since Napster ... ]]>
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<title>Microsoft's Bing playing fast and loose with fair use?</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=245</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:53:57 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=245</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Beet.TV's Andy Plesser asks:  is Microsoft's Bing search playing fast and loose with fair use?  Specifically, Andy points out that Bing displays "live," or perhaps more accurately "dynamic," thumbnails in its video search results, and users can "watch the entire video an extended excerpt [see below] as a thumbnail, with sound."  Andy notes Bing "appears to pull a media RSS feed which is stripped of advertising overlays," but "does provide a link to the original source."  "This is the broadest implementation of 'universal video search' by a major company we have seen," he says. Since 2002 it has been pretty well accepted in the U.S. that search engines can properly display thumbnails of images in search results ... ]]>
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<title>Video helps to quantify &quot;fair&quot;</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=239</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 30 May 2009 08:46:29 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=239</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Did you know that American University has a Center for Social Media? (Part of its School of Communications.) They have a great collection of fair use resources, including "Remix Culture: Fair Use Is Your Friend," a video that goes along with the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video, released last July by the Center for Social Media and AU's Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property. As Professor Mike Madison puts it: Among other things, the best practices approach is one way of rendering concrete an emerging sense that fair use in copyright law is neither as radically indeterminate nor as toothless in operation as the conventional wisdom might suggest.... The best practices approach is not a panacea, and ... ]]>
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<title>Barack Obama is male, taken, and CC licensed</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=237</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:13:12 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=237</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I've been following Obama's tweets for awhile, but had neglected the President-elect's Flickr account until this morning when the Today Show featured some of the great behind-the-scenes election night shots posted there.  A lot of these look like they were snapped on a staffer's camera phone (digital SLR, actually).  The U.S. will soon swear in its first President ever who is fluent in online communications, and that does indeed fill me with hope.  As does the fact the President-elect's Flickr photos are Creative Commons licensed.  (If you haven't already done so, you can peruse Obama's savvy technology policy positions here.) (Image by Barack Obama, CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic) ]]>
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<title>Mail Goggles:  an idea that goes well beyond drunk emails</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=235</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:43:38 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=235</guid>
<description><![CDATA[There's a new GMail Labs app:  Mail Goggles, by GMail engineer Jon Perlow:   When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind? ... Hopefully Mail Goggles will prevent many of you out there from sending messages you wish you hadn't. Like that late night memo -- I mean mission statement -- to the entire firm. Jon's idea is lighthearted and fun, but when you look past the humor and consider it more broadly it's quite brilliant.  The ... ]]>
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<title>Jennifer Leggio unpacks demand letter over &quot;branded community&quot;</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=233</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:39:33 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=233</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Over at ZDNet's Feeds,  Jennifer Leggio walks us through a cease and desist email she recently received.  The email suggested her blog's use of the term "branded community" might constitute trademark infringement.  It's a good object lesson about paying attention to cease and desist letters but not always accepting them at face value.  All too often, their legal weight is less than substantial.  (Image by Carolyn Coles, CC Attribution-2.0) ]]>
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<title>Overly restrictive A.P. quoting guidelines risk winning battles at the war's expense</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=229</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:44:20 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=229</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Saul Hansell reports today that the Associated Press "will, for the first time, attempt to define clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt without infringing on The A.P.   s copyright." The problem with "clear standards" is that as Tim Wu (quoted in the article) correctly points out, the legal standard is unclear, and subject to interpretation on a case by case basis.  There are instances when reproducing the entire work (or large portions thereof &mdash; "Fisking" we used to call it, seems like eons ago) with sufficient commentary is fair use.  The A.P.'s vague statement that it wants to police what appears to be reproduction for reproduction's sake as opposed ... ]]>
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<title>Stanford Information Law Symposium</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=225</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 21 May 2008 10:14:31 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=225</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Though it could scarcely be more cumbersomely named &mdash; the Transatlantic Information Law Symposium &mdash; this upcoming (and free) program at Stanford Law School looks excellent, featuring such big thinkers as Mark Lemley and Stefan Bechtold, and such big topics as privacy, free speech, the future of Internet regulation, and one that looks particularly intriguing from the standpoint of social media and attention:  property vs. contract to govern online behavior.  I'd like to go, though the timing's not great for me; if you're going, blog the wealth. (Image by Maveric2003, CC Attribution-2.0) ]]>
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<title>A short, pointed list of 'wonderful policies'</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=223</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 14 May 2008 10:38:09 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=223</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In putting together a list of what I consider to be relatively clueful site policies, terms, and guidelines, I just stumbled on BoingBoing's List of Wonderful Policies.  And it is. ]]>
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<title>Sparks fly over copyright at Tech Policy Summit</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=220</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:09:27 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=220</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The group of copyright scholars and advocates gathered Wednesday at the Tech Policy Summit in Hollywood demonstrated that while copyright must function in a converged world, opinions on how it should function are as divergent as ever.  The panel (pictured from left to right) consisted of Patrick Ross (Executive Director, Copyright Alliance), Fred von Lohmann (Senior Staff Attorney, EFF), Matt Zinn (VP and general counsel, TiVo), and moderator Doug Lichtman of UCLA Law School.   I.  Copyright Policy The primary bone of contention was the extent to which copyright law does and should leave room for permissionless innovation.  Matt Zinn and Fred von Lohmann discussed the benefits of such a system: Zinn:  Fortunately, the Constitution got it right. ... ]]>
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<title>Lawrence Lessig, congresscritter nominee</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=215</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:49:29 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=215</guid>
<description><![CDATA[TWiL regular John Palfrey announced a great idea last week while we were recording the forthcoming episode:  a Facebook group drafting Professor Lessig for a recently vacated Congressional seat.  Says John, "It   s high time we had our first true Free Culture candidate for public office."           The Facebook group is about to hit 2,000 members, and there's an official Web site as well (get your badges here).  Seems appropriate in an election season so unusually filled with promise for needed change. For his part, Professor Lessig isn't ruling anything out, telling Ars Technica, "At this point, I'm not really able to say anything.  I've been kind of stunned ... ]]>
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<title>Docstoc for law school (a.k.a. today's young whippersnappers don't know how good they have it!)</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=213</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:38:51 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=213</guid>
<description><![CDATA[My goodness.  Check out the impressive array of law school outlines and other law school and bar exam resources being amassed at Docstoc.  Aside from being incredibly useful, my favorite thing about this service is its built in Creative Commons licensing.  A perfect place to share form legal (and other) documents &mdash; as Marc Canter discussed wishing to do on a recent episode of The Gang.   Bonus link:  Are Cease-and-Desist Letters Subject to Copyright? P.S.  You know you're becoming an elder-blogger when: you're just as apt to think MSM refers to methylsulfonylmethane as mainstream media, and you're just as apt to think Idoru is one of your dozens of daily nutritional supplements as a William Gibson novel. P.P.S. ... ]]>
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<title>Christmas is a time for mashups</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=205</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 24 Dec 2007 10:54:05 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=205</guid>
<description><![CDATA[As I inevitably download "new" holiday music each year, it's painfully apparent we wouldn't *have* much new holiday music if it weren't for sampling, remixes, remakes, and mashups.  The iTunes List of 44 Holiday Songs for 2007 is testament to this fact, as are the many Christmas remixes and dubs dotting the 'Net and the digital download inventory. But all this Christmas cheer does not come cheap, especially for those who mix, mash, clip, and copy without jumping through Byzantine (if not impossible) licensing hurdles.  Such artists may find their stockings stuffed only with costly lawsuits and astronomical damages liability.  As Professor Patry wrote of the Bridgeport decision, "[I]n the end, it is creators of new sound recordings ... ]]>
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<title>Kindling a controversy</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=202</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:29:11 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=202</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Ed Champion is investigating whether certain bloggers included in Amazon's Kindle launch were made "Kindle Blogs" without authorization or licensing.  He cites two examples (Daniel McGowan and Cork Gaines) of bloggers who apparently are included in the Kindle Store without their permission.  This surprises me.  My personal blog Bag and Baggage is there in the Kindle Store too (I'm also quoted in Ed's post), but under an express agreement.  It could be the Kindle team had some misunderstanding about the ramifications of the noncommercial use restriction in certain Creative Commons licenses; the initial email I received about participating did reference my Creative Commons license, but neither McGowan nor Gaines seem to use Creative Commons so I'm ... ]]>
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<title>Want to know what over 7,500 ZDNet readers think about copying digital media?</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=195</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Oct 2007 12:28:12 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=195</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Then get on over to Ed Bott's Microsoft Report, where his poll on digital media ethics has garnered an overwhelming, and highly educational, response. ]]>
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<title>WikiPatents:  1 year old and 10 million entries</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=194</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Oct 2007 12:12:51 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=194</guid>
<description><![CDATA[WikiPatents, "a public community that reviews US patents and pending patent applications," is one year old and now home to information and commentary about over 10 million patents and patent applications.  It also is as far as I know the only place you can sort patent data by whether the invention in question is amusing, clever, complex, efficient, historic, important, innovative, interesting, practical or simple. ]]>
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<title>In the trenches with Live Web law at EFF's Bootcamp</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=192</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:56:57 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=192</guid>
<description><![CDATA[If you're doing business on the Live Web, get thee this Wednesday, October 10, to EFF's Bootcamp, "a one-day session for Web 2.0 workers on user generated content:"    Does your interactive company have to contend with the maze of laws dealing with user privacy and publishing user content? Want to do the right thing by the online community that gives your business value, and still fulfill your legal obligations?    EFF is hosting a one-day session for Web 2.0 workers who handle issues arising from users and user-generated content. From DMCA to CDA to ECPA, the law surrounding internet content can be confusing, especially for the folks who have to decide on the fly whether to let something stay up or take it ... ]]>
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<title>Creative Commons, the Live Web, and quickie divorce info centers</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=190</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:59:21 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=190</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Dennis Kennedy pointed me to Shelley Powers, who pointed me in turn to Slashdot and Professor Lessig.  All concern a lawsuit pending in Dallas, TX against Virgin Mobile and Creative Commons concerning Virgin's advertising use of a minor's picture posted by the girl's youth counselor to Flickr under a CC-Attribution license (which permits commercial use).  The Flickr user/youth counselor/photographer is a plaintiff in the suit, contending Creative Commons failed "to adequately educate and warn him ... of the meaning of commercial use and the ramifications and effects of entering into a license allowing such use."    Creative Commons has been sued for negligence, the catch-all of tort law.  Someone is negligent when s/he fails "to act with the prudence ... ]]>
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<title>IP and the user generated economy at TechCrunch40</title>
<link>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=186</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 17 Sep 2007 05:07:24 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Denise Howell</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howell/?p=186</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Some very competitively interesting Web companies are being launched and/or featured today and tomorrow at TechCrunch40.  In the wrap-up portion of the Community Collaboration session, former Napster executive Don Dodge was quick to note that many of these companies depend on user submissions and uploads to populate their services, and they need to be managing the IP considerations on the front end.    StoryBlender (a project from the creators of Cyworld) provides an online editing tool for collaborative video production.  When pressed on the related IP issues, the presenters said they have learned from YouTube's experiences and will have rigid policies (and presumably technology) in place to block uploading of copyrighted, unlicensed works.    It will be interesting to see whether AOL's ... ]]>
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