Since 2015 Blasty has been offering an anti-piracy service where they automatically scanned the web for pirated copies of an author's work and gave authors the option of automatically...
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Category: Intellectual Property
US Supreme Court Rules Copyright Holders Must Complete Registration Before Filing Suit
It has long been established that you had to register a copyright before you could file an infringement lawsuit, but some courts had accepted merely filing the paperwork with...
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Could The Movie “Yesterday” be Based on the Book “Enormity”? (Maybe, but Probably Not)
The publishing industry's current controversy of the week for this week revolves around an upcoming movie, and an author who is claiming implies that the movie's plot is based on...
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The Writers’ Union of Canada Condemns The Internet Archive’s Pirate Site, “The Open Library”
Hard on the heels of news that the UK Society of Authors condemning the Internet Archive for piracy comes an announcement from The Writers’ Union of Canada expressing a similar...
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The Authors Guild Calls for a “Public Lending Right”
The Authors Guild looked at the survey report on author income that they released a couple weeks ago, and they have come up with a solution that won't actually...
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For the First Time in Over 20 years, Copyrights Will Expire in the US
The problem with copyright law - particularly in the US - is that people keep wanting to profit off of that which they did not create. This is why...
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EU Screws Up Copyright Ruling on Student’s Presentation
One of the few bright spots in US copyright law (along with DMCA Safe Harbors) is the legal principle of fair use - the idea that under certain conditions...
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Someone Filed a Trademark on the “Guy Holding Axe” Book Cover Design
If you found Faleena Hopkins's attempt to trademark the word "cocky" infuriating then this next trademark could give you a stroke. An author in the SPF Community FB group...
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Dutch Authors Association “Fights” Piracy By Making False Analogies to Theft (video)
Remember that silly anti-piracy video from the UK (or perhaps the parody video made by The IT Crowd)? Dutch authors are getting into the act. De Telegraaf reports that that...
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Big Content’s Lobbyists Say They Aren’t Going to Try for Another Copyright Extension This Year, But I Wouldn’t Count On It
Earlier this week Ars Technica expressed the hope that Congress won't pass another extension to the term of copyright in 2018. Citing public opinion and internet activism, Timothy Lee...
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SFWA Finally Notices Internet Archive’s Decade Old Open Library, Decides It’s Piracy
I like to stay on top of relevant news and development in the publishing industry, but sometimes I might miss a story and only find out weeks or months...
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Register for Copyright and Technology 2018, and Get $100 Off
Copyright and Technology 2018 is coming up next week on Tuesday in New York City. The one-day conference will feature panels on digital watermarks, anti-piracy efforts, AI and copyright, and...
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Can Autonomously-Generated Content be Copyrighted, Redux
Back in 2013 I was one of the first to try to answer the question of whether works generated by AIs were covered by copyright law. The answer back then...
Continue readingWhat Won’t Enter the Public Domain in the USA in January 2018
The public domain is the term given to a body of copyright free works that major corporations both pillage for source material and spend millions in bribes to Congress...
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Graffiti Artists Triumph Over NY Developer Who Destroyed Their Work
The only branch of law that is more obtuse and arcane than copyright is property law, so when the two intersect there is no easy way to predict what...
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