Storified by Andrew Ó Baoill

Mon, Feb 06 2012 01:43:55 ·
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1. Many scholars of copyright stress the importance of a permissive approach to appropriation and reuse, if we are to continue to have space for the emergence of new creative voices. From Lawrence Lessig, who has written on the importance of Remix, to Patricia Aufderheide’s work on strengthening Fair Use, there is a strong intellectual current pushing for a copyright regime that facilitates and protects new ways of using and exploring the act of remix, collage, and creative appropriation. That current is at odds with the strong lobby of the industries founded on intellectual property, on maintaining control of libraries of creative work, locking it up like De Beer’s diamonds, to create an artificial scarcity, and releasing it in drip-feed fashion, in a time and manner that maximizes financial return.
2. EU leaders have approved the ACTA treaty – which implements SOPA-style provisions, but implementation may be challenged by the European Parliament, with leaders there charging the European Commission with ‘bad faith’ in the negotiation process. The protests and challenges have attracted the attention of the EU Observer – chronicler of activities in the EU institutions – and the New York Times.
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   EUobserver.com / Creative Industries / Battle lines drawn up in EU row on Acta

   BRUSSELS – The European Commission has stepped into the growing row over the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement, Acta, as leading MEPs r…

   

   Euobserver
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   A New Question of Internet Freedoms

   PARIS – European activists who participated in American Internet protests last month learned that there was political power to be harness…

   

   Nytimes
5. It can be amusing to see professional politicians shot down over copyright violations, particularly the use of popular music in their events and promotional materials, but for a proponent of permissive copyright laws, the legal issues at play can be unclear. Where a politician simply doesn’t bother to license music, the situation is clear – just as when any event organizer doesn’t pay licensing fees. But what professional operator is going to overlook that detail these days? This piece from the NY Times illustrates that the legal dispute usually involves not copyright law (which, in the US, is primarily focused on the market for a work, and the revenue accrued) but issues of reputation and endorsement, which are bundled with copyright law (under author rights) in some other countries, but in the US involves use of trademark law and, in some cases, charges that the association with the politician (even if they have paid a blanket licensing fee) can damage the original market for the work. (In this case, then, you have someone who falls foul of an element of the Fair Use test, without having asserted Fair Use!).
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   “

   Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Mr. Romney, said the campaign had stopped using K’naan’s song out of respect for his political views, even though the campaign bought blanket licenses from two public-performance societies — Ascap and BMI — which pay royalties to members.

   Experts on copyright law said such licenses, usually bought by restaurants and other businesses that play recorded music, do protect the campaign from many copyright complaints, but a politician can still be sued under the federal trademark law for false advertising if the use of the song implies that the musician has endorsed the candidate.

   

   Romney and Gingrich Pull Songs After …

   Wed, Feb 01 2012 17:25:08

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