The internet’s domain names have become potentially trademarkable following a decision by the US Supreme Court today that Booking.com can in fact be registered with America’s Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) – against officials’ objections. The near-unanimous decision [PDF] – Justice Stephen Breyer was the sole rebel – went against the PTO’s legal arguments that Read more about The internet becomes trademarkable, sort of, with near-unanimous Supreme Court ruling on Booking.com[…]

A popular website with a comprehensive database of repair manuals for ventilators and other medical devices has received a letter from a medical equipment company saying that its copyrights are being infringed. Kyle Wiens, CEO of the repair website iFixit—which posts guides on how to repair anything from sewing machines to video game consoles—shared the Read more about Steris, Medical Device Maker Threatens iFixit Over Ventilator Repair Project, publishing manuals[…]

Back in March, the Internet Archive launched its National Emergency Library, a program that made roughly 1.4 million books available to the public without the usual waitlists. But on Wednesday, the organization announced it was ending the program two weeks early after four major publishers decided to sue Internet Archive for copyright infringement. Internet Archive Read more about Internet Archive Ends Free Ebook Program Early due to money grubbing copyright enforcers suing them for being a library[…]

Fed up with the DRM in a General Electric refrigerator that pushed the owner to buy expensive manufacturer-approved replacement water filters, an anonymous hacker went to the trouble of buying a domain name and setting up a website at gefiltergate.com to pen a screed about appliance digital rights restriction management (DRM) and how to bypass Read more about Someone got so fed up with GE fridge DRM – yes, fridge DRM – they made a whole website on how to bypass it[…]

The real Space Force may be going down in flames against the fictional Space Force: According to the Hollywood Reporter, the newly founded military branch appears to be losing a trademark battle with the Netflix comedy show of the same name. Netflix “has outmaneuvered the U.S. government to secure trademark rights to ‘Space Force’ in Read more about Space Force Losing Trademark Battle With Netflix’s Space Force[…]

In one fell swoop, Facebook may have changed its mind about how the online news media will operate from here on out. Undermining a now age-old assumption, Facebook told Ars Technica on Thursday that embedding from Instagram may not shield news organizations from freely cross-posting on their sites. A spokesperson said: While our terms allow Read more about Did Instagram Just Say It’s Rewriting Online Copyright? Use their embedded API at your peril[…]

Today, member companies [Note only four members – ed] of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Internet Archive (“IA”) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The suit asks the Court to enjoin IA’s mass scanning, public display, and distribution of entire literary Read more about Publishers bizarrely File Suit Against Internet Archive for Systematic Mass Scanning and Distribution of Literary Works[…]

There are a variety of opinions concerning the Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library in response to the pandemic. I’ve made it clear in multiple posts why I believe the freakout from some publishers and authors is misguided, and that the details of the program are very different than those crying about it have led you Read more about Libraries Have Never Needed Permission To Lend Books, And The Move To Change That Is A Big Problem[…]

For those of us of a certain age, MTV defined culture. It was where we learned about not just music, but wider pop culture. Of course, MTV lost its cultural place atop the mountaintop with the rise of the internet, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a key source of culture in the 1980s. Read more about Copyright Making Sure That MTV Remains An Irrelevant Relic, Rather Than A Cultural Icon[…]

Much of the fun of internet drama comes from its frivolousness, but sometimes an online shitfest points to something bigger. Last week, the AI-powered furry art site thisfursonadoesnotexist did just that, igniting a fandom firestorm while also highlighting an important debate about digital art. Trained on more than 55,000 images pulled (without permission) from a Read more about The Internet Furry Drama Raising Big Questions About Artificial Intelligence and Copyright[…]

The question of whether you own your digital purchases, or whether you’re simply licensing that content from whatever tech giant du jour hosts it, has always been a bit of a black box for consumers. Recently, this lack of transparency has prompted one California user to file a lawsuit against Amazon for saying customers can Read more about Amazon Sued for Acting Like Users Own “Purchased” Movies (Spoiler Alert: You Don’t)[…]

Last year, Apple accused a cybersecurity startup based in Florida of infringing its copyright by developing and selling software that allows customers to create virtual iPhone replicas. Critics have called the Apple’s lawsuit against the company, called Corellium, “dangerous” as it may shape how security researchers and software makers can tinker with Apple’s products and Read more about Apple sues Corellium for copyright – and sues everybody who talks about Corellium or is / was their customer. Strong arm much?[…]

Law professor Brian Frye has spent the last month or so making a really important point regarding the never-ending “is copyright property” debate — saying that if copyright is property, then copyright holders should be seen and treated as landlords. This whole approach can be summed up in the slightly snarky and trollish phrase: “OK, Read more about OK, Landlord: If Copyright Supporters Are Going To Insist Copyright Is Property, Why Are They So Mad About Being Called Landlords?[…]

Yes, we’ve seen lots of folks using COVID-19 to push their specific agendas forward, but this one is just bizarre. UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is an organization that is supposed to be focused on developing education and culture around the globe. From any objective standpoint, you’d think it would be Read more about UNESCO Suggests COVID-19 Is A Reason To Create… Eternal Copyright[…]

Update: The full video is now back up and it’s even worse than the original clip we posted. It’s unclear if it went back up thanks to YouTube deciding it was fair use, or Pinsky removing the bogus takedown. Either way, watch it here: Copyright system supporters keep insisting to me that copyright is never Read more about Dr. Drew Pinsky Played Down COVID-19, Then Tries To DMCA Away The Evidence[…]

In 2018, Target wrote an article about Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron who some credit as being the world’s first computer programmer, despite being born in 1815. Unfortunately, however, those who search for that article today using Google won’t find it. As the image below shows, the original Tweet announcing the article is Read more about Google allows random company to DMCA sites with the word ‘Did’ in it, de-indexes (deletes) them without warning or recourse.[…]

It’s a really good expose on copyright and why it’s a bad, bad thing in the music business.

A YouTuber who used a royalty-free track supplied by YouTube itself has had all of his videos copyright claimed by companies including SonyATV and Warner Chappell. According to the music outfits, Matt Lownes’ use the use of the track ‘Dreams’ by Joakim Karud means that they are now entitled to all of his revenue. […] Read more about ‘Royalty-Free’ Music Supplied By YouTube Audio Library Results in Mass Copyright claims to all YouTube income by Sony – for using a sample from a 1956(!!!!) song[…]

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, as spotted Read more about The USPTO wants to know if artificial intelligence can own the content it creates[…]

Startup insurance provider Lemonade is trying to make the best of a sour situation after T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom claimed it owns the exclusive rights to the color magenta. New York-based Lemonade is a 3-year-old company that lives completely online and mostly focuses on homeowners and renter’s insurance. The company uses a similar color to magenta — Read more about T-Mobile says it owns exclusive rights to the color magenta and the letter T. German court agrees.[…]

There are lots of reasons to patent something. The most obvious one is that you’ve come up with a brilliant invention, and you want to protect your idea so that nobody can steal it from you. But that’s just the tip of the patent strategy iceberg. It turns out there is a whole host of Read more about Why do tech companies file so many weird patents?[…]

YouTube is suing a Nebraska man the company says has blatantly abused its copyright takedown process. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act offers online platforms like YouTube legal protections if they promptly take down content flagged by copyright holders. However, this process can be abused—and boy did defendant Christopher L. Brady abuse it, according to YouTube’s legal Read more about Man sued for using bogus YouTube takedowns to get address for swatting – so copyright is not only inane, it’s also physically dangerous[…]

Going forward, copyright owners will no longer be able to monetize creator videos with very short or unintentional uses of music via YouTube’s “Manual Claiming” tool. Instead, they can choose to prevent the other party from monetizing the video or they can block the content. However, YouTube expects that by removing the option to monetize Read more about YouTube shuts down music companies’ use of manual copyright claims to steal creator revenue, troll block videos[…]