Architectural overreaching
This recent post on the TechDirt blog drew my attention (and that of may others) to an earlier note on the Freakonomics blog about an artist who pays an annual fee plus a percentage of his earnings to...
View ArticleThe most dangerous place on the Web
The most dangerous place on the Internet may well be inside that little button that says “I Agree.” The opportunity to bind oneself to a contract almost unconsciously abounds on the Internet, and the...
View ArticleThe textbook world is getting flat
Earlier this month I was able, thanks to the organizing efforts of a colleague, to participate in a phone call with Jeff Shelstad, one of the founders of Flat World Knowledge. I wrote about Flat World...
View ArticleA lens on the digital challenge
On March 19th a fascinating symposium was held in Chapel Hill, NC in honor of Laura (Lolly) Gasaway. Lolly, for many years Professor & Law Librarian at UNC Chapel Hill and now Associate Dean for...
View ArticleFacing the Future of Social Media
By Will Cross As a scholarly communications librarian I am naturally excited when scholars embrace a promising new method of communication. As such, I was delighted to see this new study published in...
View ArticleTransformation and teaching
On Wednesday the Duke Libraries’ Instruction and Outreach department held a retreat on the topic of “Digital Literacies.” The excellent keynote speaker for the event was Ellysa Cahoy from Penn State...
View ArticlePirate Marketing?
Let me start with a confession; I have never seen the TV show Glee. But lately I have heard a lot about it, from the odd perspective of copyright law. In this blog post by Christina Mulligan, the...
View ArticleOne ring to rule them all?
How much control an author should have once a book leaves her hands is a fundamental question for copyright law. It arises in lots of contexts, but nowhere more directly than when a different author...
View ArticleGetting the whole picture
There has been a lot of attention paid to YouTube’s announcement of its “Copyright School,” which those accused of infringement will be forced to attend online. YouTube, of course, is trying to fend...
View ArticleCopyright gets under your skin
I was considering a post about copyright in tattoos even before I read about a recent case. This blog post raises some interesting questions about who owns the rights in a tattoo, and trying to answer...
View ArticleFair use for appropriation art
A new ruling came out last week in one of the most interesting cases involving appropriation art, the ongoing dispute between photographer Patrick Cariou and appropriation artist Richard Prince. I...
View ArticleMuseums can get copyright right
One type of question that I get over and over again from faculty and graduate students involves copyright and images of art works held in museums. In fact, question is probably the wrong name for...
View ArticleIgnore fair use at your peril!
One could be forgiven for thinking of the “Dancing Baby” case as a thing of the past. It seems a long time ago that a district court affirmed that the music heard in the background (for only 29...
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