While cruising the interwebs for the perfect way to explain copyright myths and realities to a group of high school students, I cam across the following article by Brad Templeton.  Thanks for the summary!  

10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained.

“An attempt to answer common myths about copyright seen on the net and cover issues related to copyright and USENET/Internet publication.”

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The Center for Social Media has released a companion video to illustrate the concepts contained in its Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video.

Like the code, the video identifies six kinds of unlicensed uses of copyrighted material that may be considered fair, under certain limitations.  They are:

1. Commenting or critiquing of copyrighted material,
2. Use for illustration or example,
3. Incidental or accidental capture of copyrighted material,
4. Memorializing or rescuing of an experience or event,
5. Use to launch a discussion, and 
6. Recombining to make a new work, such as a mashup or a  remix, whose elements depend on relationships between existing works

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Artists in the U.S. have finally caught onto the fact that while you may have a copyright from the moment you fix your work in a “tangible medium of expression” (such as a CD, DVD, book, or painting), that copyright is fairly meaningless without a registration from the Library of Congress. 

However, Washington Post staff writer Lyndsey Layton reports that the Copyright Office is so far behind on processing applications, many authors won’t see a registration certificate for nearly 2 years. 

“Of the 10,000 applications that pour into the Copyright Office each week, the staff can process about 7,000, adding 3,000 untouched applications to a growing pile that currently totals about 523,000. Workers are now handling paper applications received in late 2007.”

Apparently, a lot of the problem stems from the Copyright Office’s move to the eCO (the Electronic Copyright Office) system, which was meant to speed up the registration of Copyright Applications.  Instead the eCO system has been plagued with problems, while an increase in paper applications has simply overwhelmed the Copyright Office staff. 

So, is it time for the United States to join the rest o the world and eliminate the requirment to register copyright to enjoy full protection?

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Microsoft has signed a 3-year agreement aimed at making the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou “a model for innovation and protection of intellectual property.”  Microsoft will set up a “center to focus on developing the local technology industry and for Microsoft to provide curriculum support, technology and training for teachers at Hangzhou Normal University through an institute set up to nurture local innovation.

Nice carrot, what about a stick?

Enter Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage program, which “turns the wallpaper of computers using pirated Windows software black and notifies users, urging them to get a legitimate copy.”  I can only imagine how annoying this would be and I have to wonder: would this sort of approach work with other content, such as DVDs?  Is guilt more powerful than threatened litigation?  It will be interesting to see what kind of results the Genuine Advantage program generates. 

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Whether its “Global warming” v. “Climate change” or “File sharing v. Piracy”, setting the vocabularly of the conversation can set the tone.  Here are two different views on the incomplete versions of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” that have been available on the Internet for the last month.

From the CNN point of view:
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By Lisa Respers France
(CNN) — When the highly anticipated movie “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” opened Friday in theaters, many fans had already seen it.

The pirating and distribution of “Wolverine,” starring Hugh Jackman, is being investigated by the FBI.

The online leak of a pirated, unfinished version of the 20th Century Fox film a month ago sent federal authorities springing into action and stoked a heated conversation within the entertainment industry about digital piracy.

Piracy of upcoming films is not new, but the theft of “Wolverine” is especially troubling for an industry concerned with a stalled economy and the financial bottom line.

Within a week of “Wolverine’s” March 31 leak, more than a million people had downloaded the movie, according to TorrentFreak, a blog devoted to the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol….(read full article at CNN.) 

(Underlines added.  Notice how “file-sharing” is mentioned only as an adjective to “protocol,” while “piracy” is repreated until it is replaced with “theft”.)

From the Media Blogging point of view:
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In another interesting look at the issue, Jason Kotke looks at what happens to mainstream columnists who review such pirated works.  Apparently, they never work in this town again.

“We’ve just been made aware that Roger Friedman, a freelance columnist who writes Fox 411 on Foxnews.com — an entirely separate company from 20th Century Fox — watched on the Internet and reviewed a stolen and unfinished version of ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine.’ This behavior is reprehensible and we condemn this act categorically — whether the review is good or bad.”

A tip to freelance columnists out there–don’t admit that you watch torrents and don’t get caught reviewing one!

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