>>> LEH-Letter <[log in to unmask]> 12/20/00 01:03PM >>>
FROM THE OFFICES OF LESLEY ELLEN HARRIS

Copyright, New Media Law & E-Commerce News

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Vol. 4, No. 8, December 18, 2000

ISSN 1489-954X 

Contents: 

Studies, Legislation and Conventions:

    U.S. Commission Rejects Mandatory Internet Filters in Schools

    Diplomatic Conference on the Protection of Audiovisual
     Performances 

Legal Cases: 

    Web Infringement in China
    Supreme Court to Hear Tasini Case
    U.S. Anti-circumvention Ruling Against Libraries

Canadian Napster-like Suit

    Hate Web Site Hearing Continues
    Universal Sued by Songwriters
    Mural Artists Sue Corbis
    Australian Hate Site Challenged
    Record Companies Entitled to Royalties from Internet
     Programming 

E-Commerce: 

    Mymp3.com Services Resumes
    .ca Domain Registry Transfer

Of Interest: 

    Independent Contractors Own Copyright
    Online Intellectual Property Survey

Seminars: 

    Digital Licensing and Fair Use Seminars
    
Publications:

    E-LAM Reports 

The Copyright & New Media Law Newsletter
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Copyright, New Media & E-Commerce News is distributed for free by
the office of Lesley Ellen Harris. Information contained herein
should not be relied upon or considered as legal advice.
Copyright 2000 Lesley Ellen Harris. This newsletter may be
forwarded, downloaded or reproduced in whole in any print or
electronic format for non-commercial purposes provided that its
author is acknowledged and that you cc:
[log in to unmask]

This newsletter is archived with the National Library of Canada
at: 
http://collection.nlc-bnc.ca/100/201/300/copyright/index.html 

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STUDIES, LEGISLATION AND CONVENTIONS:

U.S. COMMISSION REJECTS MANDATORY INTERNET FILTERS IN SCHOOLS -- A U.S. commission established under the Child Online Protection Act has rejected the use of mandatory filtering software in schools and libraries. The filtering software is designed to filter out
such things as pornographic material while searching for information on the Internet. Although the commission did not recommend mandatory use of filtering software, it did recommend that the technology could be improved and that government should encourage the use of filters to protect children using the Internet. 

DIPLOMATIC CONFERENCE ON THE PROTECTION OF AUDIOVISUAL PERFORMANCES -- The World Intellectual Property Organization diplomatic conference on the protection of audiovisual
performances is currently being held in Geneva, until December
20. The aim of the international negotiations is to conclude a
treaty to safeguard the rights of performers against unauthorized
use of their work in audiovisual media. The conference is
considering issues such as reproduction, distribution and moral
rights of performers. See: http://www.wipo.org 
<http://www.wipo.org/>.
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LEGAL CASES: 

WEB INFRINGEMENT IN CHINA -- A graduate student in China was fined by a Beijing court for posting copyright infringing materials on
his personal Web site. See: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cover/storydb/2000/11/29/it-cnipiracy.html.


SUPREME COURT TO HEAR TASINI CASE  --  On November 6, 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it has agreed to hear the September 24th, 1999 landmark decision by the Court of Appeals (2nd
Circuit), Tasini v. The New York Times. In April 2000, the U.S.
Appeals Court had decided that it is an infringement of copyright
for a publisher to put the work of freelancers online without explicit permission. Defendant-publishers include Newsday, Time Incorporated, Lexis-Nexus, and The New York Times. The lead plaintiff is Jonathan Tasini, President of the National Writers Union. 

U.S. ANTI-CIRCUMVENTION RULING AGAINST LIBRARIES -- The
anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act ("DMCA") prohibits circumvention of access control
technologies employed by or on behalf of copyright owners to
protect their works. Specifically, subsection 1201(a)(1)(A)
provides that "No person shall circumvent a technological measure
that effectively controls access to a work protected under this
title". This provision became effective on October 28, 2000.
However, before becoming effective, the Librarian of Congress
conducted a rulemaking proceeding to determine whether there are
particular classes of copyright works to be exempt from the
prohibition. This determination is effective for three years. The
Librarian of Congress ruled that only two kinds of exceptions
from this provision would be allowed, one for malfunctions and
one to determine which sites are blocked by filtering software.
The library community feels that this determination is misguided
and results in an unwarranted narrowing of fair use to digital
media. See: http://www.loc.gov/copyright/fedreg/65fr64555.html 
and http://www.ala.org/washoff/Rulemaking.PDF.

CANADIAN NAPSTER-LIKE SUIT -- A Canadian Web site operator,
Lyricfind.com, who posts thousands of music lyrics online, has
temporarily removed the lyrics from the site until he receives
permission to post them from their publishers. The Web site
operator has submitted a proposal ? which would allow him to
continue to publish his database of music lyrics ? to the
Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency, which represents
most Canadian music publishers.

HATE WEB SITE HEARING CONTINUES -- Ernst Zundel has decided to abandon his defense in a hate crime case before the Canadian
Human Rights Commission. Zundel, a holocaust denier who is
alleged to have used the Internet to promote hate crime, believes
that after five years and an estimated $140,000, the CHRC is
unlikely to rule in his favor. Instead, Zundel intends to appeal
the CHRC ruling when it comes out. See
http://www.globetechnology.com/archive/gam/News/20001128/UZUNDN.html.


UNIVERSAL SUED BY SONGWRITERS -- A group of music publishers and songwriters is suing Universal Music. The group argues that their
music was posted on the companyˆs Web site without their
permission. 

MURAL ARTISTS SUE CORBIS -- The painters of United Farm Workers murals in San Francisco are suing Corbis, a digital image
licensing company owned by Bill Gates. Corbis' Web site contains
millions of digital images, which users can email, print or license. Among these images are photographs of the UFW murals, which the artists claim are being posted without permission.

AUSTRALIAN HATE SITE CHALLENGED -- The Executive Council of
Australian Jewry is seeking to remove Holocaust-denial material
from the Web site of the Adelaide Institute in an Australian
Federal Court case. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity
Commission found that the site's anti-Jewish material breached
the Racial Discrimination Act, but the Web site owner has so far
failed to remove the controversial material.

RECORD COMPANIES ENTITLED TO ROYALTIES FROM INTERNET PROGRAMMING -- The U.S. Copyright Office has ruled that record companies are entitled to royalties when a radio station also transmits its music programming on the Internet. The final ruling was published
on December 11, 2000 in the Federal Register. The amount to be paid will be determined through an ongoing arbitration panel. For further information, see: http://www.copyright.gov 

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E-COMMERCE: 

MYMP3.COM SERVICE RESUMES -- MP3.com re-launched its MyMP3.com service earlier this month, once again allowing users to listen to CDs online. MP3.com now has license agreements with the five
major record companies. Users will pay an annual fee in return for unlimited access to CDs online, although they will have to prove that they own copies of the CD. The company also plans to sell user data to help pay royalty fees. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/05/technology/05MUSI.html, and
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB975977068428906513.htm.

.CA DOMAIN REGISTRY TRANSFER -- On 1 December 2000, responsibility for the operation and registration of all .ca domain names was transferred to the Canadian Internet Registry Authority
(http://www.cira.ca ). All .ca domain names must be re-registered with CIRA. Those domain names that have not been re-registered have been de-activated, and these domain names will become available for registration by others after 31 January 2001. See
http://www.nationalpost.com/tech/story.html?f=/stories/20001130/387726.html.

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OF INTEREST 

INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS OWN COPYRIGHT -- The Treasury Board of Canada has released an amended policy regarding intellectual
property rights ("IPR") under government procurement contracts.
Under the revised policy, an independent contractor will own the
IPR in work done for the government, subject to certain
exceptions, thereby allowing the contractor the opportunity to
commercially exploit his or her intellectual property.

ONLINE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY SURVEY -- A recent online survey conducted by survey.net reveals interesting data about attitudes to online copyright. Over 78% of respondents have downloaded an image from the Internet without knowing whether or not the image was copyrighted, 54% have downloaded a MP3 file of a popular song without paying a fee, and 60% have allowed a friend to borrow their program disks to install software. Respondents were divided on whether copyright afforded to online images and audio files
should be the same as offline images and audio files ? around 50%
agreed, and 50% disagreed. The survey is available at
http://www.survey.net/ip0r.html.

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SEMINARS 

DIGITAL LICENSING AND FAIR USE SEMINARS -- Materials for the
seminars on Digital Licensing and Fair Use offered by Copyrightlaws.com are now available for sale in an electronic
format at
http://store.publishone.com/store/sample.asp?account_id=AAECA/sCA/s.

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PUBLICATIONS

E-LAM REPORTS -- All four of the e-reports on online and e-commerce issues specifically for libraries, archives and museums are now available. For more information about the E-LAM Reports, see http://www.copyrightlaws.com; to place an order, see
http://www.acteva.com/go/handshake.

THE COPYRIGHT & NEW MEDIA LAW NEWSLETTER -- The Copyright & New Media Law Newsletter: For Libraries, Archives & Museums is now in its fifth year of publication, with contributors from around the world and subscribers from 20 countries. The newsletter helps you to keep abreast of important copyright issues and news, and to ensure practical solutions in your everyday activities. 2001
subscriptions are now available from http://copyrightlaws.com 
or email [log in to unmask] . The subscription price includes
four print issues, as well as free timely and frequent email alerts. 

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This newsletter is prepared by Lesley Ellen Harris, a Copyright
and New Media Lawyer and Consultant. Lesley is the author of the
books Canadian Copyright Law (McGrawHill) and Digital Property:
Currency of the 21st Century (McGrawHill ? see
www.mcgrawhill.ca/digitalproperty.  Lesley can be
reached at [log in to unmask], and at http://copyrightlaws.com.

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This LEH-Letter issue was prepared with the help of Beth Davies.

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