Free Republic

President Trump just abruptly fired top copyright official Shira Perlmutter via email. This comes just a few days after he fired the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. The U.S. Copyright Office, which Perlmutter was in charge of, is a branch of the Library of Congress.

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Whatever you call it, it's killing the cable tv business. It’s no secret that young people like to consume entertainment they don’t necessarily pay for. But when business and tech types talk about this reality, they tend to use neutral or even flattering language: Millennials, they say, like to “swap” files and “share” subscription passwords. After all, super-earnest, bike-commuting, coffee-sipping twenty-somethings don’t look like dangerous criminals. And let’s face it, no business wants to alienate the work-force’s largest generational cohort, with billions, if not trillions, worth of spending ahead of it. But now some Wall Street analysts have decided to...

Monkey business — or legitimate copyright claim? In Indonesia in 2011 a female crested black macaque hijacked the camera of British nature photographer David Slater and proceeded to snap hundreds of photos — among them several selfies, photos of himself, one of which made worldwide headlines and the animal’s Wikipedia page. Slater, citing royalty losses, has tried to have the photograph removed from the site. The Telegraph reports: The Gloucestershire-based photographer now claims that the decision is jeopardising his income as anyone can take the image and publish it for free, without having to pay him a royalty. He complained...

SOPA is legislation designed to regulate how digital communication is used. SOPA will be voted on this month.

Up in the AirWill America lose its dominance of the skies? There were a number of reasons last week to look up to the sky and wonder about the future of airpower. In a world in which the United States will have smaller ground and naval forces, we will likely become more dependent on land- and sea-based airpower to deter or defeat enemies. The proper employment of air assets as part of a joint force allows for nearly instantaneous response to crises, saves American lives, and can bring pinpoint devastation to an enemy’s forces and command-and-control systems. Yet along with...

Every so often I want to watch some TV program in my PC. Ok, it usually is football! When I google "this game lifestream" I usually get lots of sites from where I can download something for free that will allow me to watch the game. But I don't know anything about that site, how safe it is... Does any body have any recommendations? At least, does someone know how I can watch the Denver-New England game tomorrow? Thanks

Las Vegas copyright infringement lawsuit filer Righthaven LLC’s financial problems grew Tuesday when the federal court in Las Vegas commanded the U.S. Marshals Service to seize more than $63,000 in Righthaven assets to satisfy a creditor’s judgment and costs. Lance Wilson, clerk of the court, signed a writ of execution requested by attorneys for Wayne Hoehn, who was sued for copyright infringement by Righthaven —but then defeated Righthaven in court when his case was dismissed this summer. Righthaven since March 2010 has filed 275 lawsuits against websites, bloggers and message board posters claiming they infringed on material from the Las...

The time has come to add copyright lawsuits—alongside casinos—as one of the things Las Vegas is best known for nationally. Copyright lawsuits? Yes, in national legal and media circles, Las Vegas is also now known as the epicenter of newspaper copyright infringement lawsuits. Who would’ve thought? Well, say hello to Las Vegas’ own Righthaven LLC, the entity behind the curious notoriety. Since March 2010, Righthaven has teamed with the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post to file a whopping 275 federal lawsuits alleging copyright infringement and seeking damages of $150,000 apiece. These lawsuits are filed in retroactive fashion, meaning...

ExcerptThe AP recently sent a letter to WTNQ-FM in Tennessee--an affiliate of the Associated Press, by the way--accusing the country music radio station of copyright violation for embedding videos from the AP's official YouTube channel on its Web site, according to a station employee's blog. The AP channel includes embed code for its videos, which allows any Web site or blog to embed the videos on their sites--a feature that can be turned off.

"Yes we can,'' the Obama campaign proclaimed. "No you can't,'' says the Obama White House of the varied attempts to cash in on the brand Obama built. Or maybe they can, or can't. The lawyers are looking into it, Bloomberg News reports" ### President-elect Barack Obama has created his own brand - represented both by the iconic images of the candidate who campaigned for "change'' and by the "Yes we can'' and "Change We Can Believe in" slogans generated by that campaign. Now the Obama White House, mindful of the "worldwide fascination'' about his election, First Amendment free-speech rights and...

A fantasy sports league is facing a very real lawsuit from Major League Baseball, and the U.S. Supreme Court is deciding right now whether it wants to play ball. At issue is a big case roiling the sports world: Can MLB and its players charge fantasy leagues for the right to use their names and statistics? Fantasy leagues are operated by players who manage imaginary teams based on the stats of real-life athletes. Depending on how their players perform, their fantasy teams thrive or dive in carefully monitored standings. A St. Louis-based company called CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc. says...

CAIRO (AFP) — In a potential blow to themed resorts from Vegas to Tokyo, Egypt is to pass a law requiring payment of royalties whenever its ancient monuments, from the pyramids to the sphinx, are reproduced. Zahi Hawass, the charismatic and controversial head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told AFP on Tuesday that the move was necessary to pay for the upkeep of the country's thousands of pharaonic sites. "The new law will completely prohibit the duplication of historic Egyptian monuments which the Supreme Council of Antiquities considers 100-percent copies," he said. "If the law is passed then it...

Copyrighted work like a news article or a picture can hop between Web sites as easily as a cut-and-paste command. But more than ever, as that material finds new audiences, the original sources might not get the direct financial benefit — in fact, they might have little idea where their work has spread. A young company called Attributor says it has an answer, and a number of big publishers of copyrighted material say Attributor just might be right. The company has developed software that identifies an electronic “fingerprint” for a particular piece of material — an article, a picture, a...

What do Columbia, Vanderbilt, Duke and UCLA have in common? Apparently, leaders in Congress think they aren't expelling enough students for illegally swapping music and movies. The House committees responsible for copyright and education wrote a joint letter May 1 scolding the presidents of 19 major American universities, demanding that each school respond to a six-page questionnaire detailing steps it has taken to curtail illegal music and movie file-sharing on campus. One of the questions - "Does your institution expel violating students?" - shows just how out-of-control the futile battle against campus downloading has become.

Hamas militants have enlisted the iconic Mickey Mouse to broadcast their message of Islamic dominion and armed resistance to their most impressionable audience—little kids. A giant black-and-white rodent—named "Farfour," or "butterfly," but unmistakably a Mickey ripoff—does his high-pitched preaching against the U.S. and Israel on a children's show run each Friday on Al-Aqsa TV, a station run by Hamas. The militant group, sworn to Israel's destruction, shares power in the Palestinian government. "You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists," Farfour squeaked on a recent episode of the show, which is titled, "Tomorrow's Pioneers." "We...

I am putting together a power point presentation and am having trouble trying to find out how to use music.

A Russian court on Thursday threw out the software piracy case against the head of a village school accused of installing pirated Microsoft software on school computers. Presiding Judge Vera Barakina of the Vereshchaginsky District Court in Perm dismissed the case against Alexander Ponosov on the grounds that it was "of little significance and no threat to the public." Ponosov, who had pled not guilty, said the ruling was a "big relief." "But something tells me the nightmare will continue," he said by telephone after the verdict Thursday. "I do not expect prosecutors to accept defeat without a fight." Ponosov...

A U.S. official leading a business delegation here called India's patent and copyright laws antiquated and unable to offer protections necessary for foreign companies to operate here. "Patent and copyright laws in India are old and back-dated and they no where match the world standards," said Franklin Lavin, undersecretary of Commerce for international trade. India and the U.S. "need to sit and work out a proper regulatory framework by identifying the weak areas. India needs to seek more participation by U.S. companies." Addressing a business seminar in New Delhi, Lavin said India needs to modernize its patent and copyright laws...

Digital archiving gains new tool The Labour Party website is among those being preserved A tool that makes it easier to gather and store digital archives has been developed by the National Library of New Zealand and the British Library.As more and more information goes online the race is on to create meaningful digital archives. The web curator tool automates the process of collecting and storing information. It will become a key part of the British Library's existing digital preservation programme. Web harvesting The libraries worked in partnership with technology firm Sytec under the auspices of the International Internet...