Copyright Tutorial

Here is a wonderful tutorial on copyrights. Enjoy.

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Aggregation Aggravation: GateHouse sues NY Times over links and aggregation

Bloggers have for years been aggregating content, sometimes by way of taking the headline, other times the headline and lede and more often than not by taking the whole article. Content providers such as Reuters, AFP, The Associated Press, Getty Images have for years viewed some of this use of their content as a possible copyright infringement. Needless to say, the taking of a full news story or image is what constitutes copyright infringement and is prosecuted to the full extent of the law under the Copyright Act (Title 17, United States Code). All other use is not as straight forward and the argument of what is fair use has been going on for years.

On Monday, GateHouse Media filed a copyright infringement law suit in U.S. District Court of Massachusetts against New York Times Company over its Boston Globe local sites linking with headlines and ledes to another publisher’s articles. "GateHouse Media claims that the Boston Globe sites lifted headlines and ledes word-for-word and therefore infringed its copyright, even though the items were credited to and linked back to the Gatehouse pubs, according to Boston.com, which is owned by NYTCo (NYSE: NYT)."

The fact that the aggregated content linked back to the original source, Gatehouse stated, does not matter. Many content providers, including The Associated Press, have for years claimed that the headline and lede, even with attribution, is too much of a taking. GateHouse in its complaint "charges that Boston.com both through advertising and its direct aggregation is confusing readers about where the articles actually originated. And even though Boston.com does link back to GateHouse sites, the publisher is frustrated that the links do an end-run around the ads on its homepage. NYTCo rep Catherine Mathis tells Boston.com that its hyperlocal sites aren’t doing anything different from what blogs have been doing all along."

This is going to be an interesting case which I am sure the rest of the news media market will be watching very closely.

For the full story, visit paidContent.org

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Copyright Claim Nixed In Oracle Suit Against SAP

A judge has dismissed a copyright infringement claim in a suit filed by Oracle Corp. alleging that German software firm SAP AG illegally accessed and stole programming related to Oracle’s PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards lines, but has left standing several state claims.

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A bit about this blog!

Originally I wanted to combine writing about photography and intellectual property law on my photography blog. However, after starting my photography blog I quickly realized that each topic deserved it's own space. So, this is how I got here. Welcome to my Intellectual Property Blog! Here you will find IP information, recent industry developments, IP law, useful links and information as well as links to job postings that I find interesting.

I also would like to take the opportunity to tell you more about me and my IP experiences since the 'About Me' page contains little information. I have been working in the IP industry since 1998. I am not an attorney but have extensive IP knowledge. For the past ten years my focus has been patent prosecution and my positions varied between paralegal and manager levels. It is worth noting that in the past two years I have focused on Trademark and Copyright prosecution as well as IP enforcement rights. Luckily, I have had the opportunity to work for several IP boutiques in NY as well as some of the largest world wide known law firms within their IP departments. Currently, I work in the legal department for one of the largest news organizations.

Please note the disclosure on the bottom of the page. It is imperative for the readers of this site to know that the information found on this web page should not be taken as legal advice and that the opinions displayed here or comments left on other pages do not reflect those of my current or past employers.

If you would like to contribute to this blog, please drop me a line to irene.keselman at gmail dot com.

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