Category «Copyright»

Fastcase and Casemaker Settle Copyright Litigation over Georgia Regs

Robert Ambrogi – LawSites:  The two legal research companies Fastcase and Casemaker have settled their three-year legal battle over Casemaker’s claims of copyright in Georgia administrative regulations. “In federal court in Atlanta, the two companies jointly filed a stipulated dismissal of the matter. The request did not not reveal the terms of the settlement, but …

Subjects: Copyright, Courts, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Justices debate allowing state law to be “hidden behind a pay wall”

Ars Technica – “The courts have long held that laws can’t be copyrighted. But if the state mixes the text of the law together with supporting information, things get trickier. In Monday oral arguments, the US Supreme Court wrestled with the copyright status of Georgia’s official legal code, which includes annotations written by LexisNexis. The …

Subjects: Copyright, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research, Libraries

A blog about apples

An  A-Z exploration of varieties available in some states and regions, and not others, from a Massachusetts blogger who really knows his apples – hence the name of the blog, Adam’s Apples. Postings include his photos of the wonderful examples of each apple by name, information on its provenance, taste, appearance, trademarks and patents (yup …

Subjects: Copyright, Food and Nutrition, Patent and Trademark

Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property

Via Kris Kasianovitz, Government Information Librarian for International, State and Local Documents, Head, Social Sciences Resource Group, Green Library, 123E, Stanford, CA 94305 – “For those who work with State and Local government information (legal, regulatory, legislative, executive, etc. – that’s most of us, yea?) – you might want to tune in to this webcast or if …

Subjects: Copyright, Courts, Government Documents, Intellectual Property, Legal Research

How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results

WSJ.com: “More than 100 interviews and the Journal’s own testing of Google’s search results reveal: Google made algorithmic changes to its search results that favor big businesses over smaller ones, and in at least one case made changes on behalf of a major advertiser, eBay Inc., contrary to its public position that it never takes …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Copyright, E-Commerce, Health Care, Intellectual Property, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Search Engines, Social Media

USPTO wants to know if artificial intelligence can own the content it creates

The Verge: “The US office responsible for patents and trademarks is trying to figure out how AI might call for changes to copyright law, and it’s asking the public for opinions on the topic. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a notice in the Federal Register last month saying it’s seeking comments, …

Subjects: AI, Copyright, Government Documents, Intellectual Property, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

National Library of Israel uploads 120,000 historic books online

The Jerusalem Post: “The National Library of Israel (NLI) and Google have announced that 120,000 books from the library’s collection will be uploaded to Google Books for the first time as part of their collaboration. The books that are expected to be uploaded will, according to NLI, include all of the library’s out-of-copyright, royalty-free books …

Subjects: Copyright, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Libraries

Don’t Let Science Publisher Elsevier Hold Knowledge for Ransom

EFF: “…An academic publisher should widely disseminate the knowledge produced by scholars, not hold it for ransom. But ransoming scientific research back to the academic community is essentially the business model of the world’s largest publisher of scientific journals: Elsevier. In February of this year, after drawn-out negotiations broke down, the University of California terminated …

Subjects: Copyright, Education, Intellectual Property, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

The Misadventure of Copyrighting State Law

Johnson, Eric E., The Misadventure of Copyrighting State Law (2019). Kentucky Law Journal, Vol. 107, No. 4, 2019. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3446229 – “Many states have asserted copyright over their own official state legal texts, limiting access to those materials and attempting to monetize them. This Article aims to provide helpful analysis for state officials deciding …

Subjects: Copyright, Courts, Government Documents, Intellectual Property, Legal Research

AAP Suit Seeks to Block Implementation of Audible Captions

Publishers Weekly – “The Association of American Publishers filed suit on August 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in a bid to stop Audible from moving ahead with its plans to implement its Audible Captions program. Under Captions, Audible will transcribe a book’s audio in order to create …

Subjects: Copyright, Courts, Education, Intellectual Property, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries