LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

There's a reason you don't hear much about international trade agreements. They are kind of dull, and they're usually not very controversial. But the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is different.

"One feels that you're almost in a bit of a twilight zone," says Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. "I mean, we're talking about a copyright treaty. And it's being treated as akin to nuclear secrets."

Full story at NPR - audio available 7pm et

On March 10, 2010 appropriations committees in the Florida House and Senate adopted positions eliminating all funding for Florida’s State Aid to Public Libraries program.

We are now looking for Volunteers to protest at the Florida State Capitol Building, 400 South Monroe Street in Tallahassee on Tuesday March 16, 2010. If you are interested in holding a sign in protest of the State Aid to Libraries being reduced to zero dollars please contact me at systemslibrarian@gmail.com.

On Tuesday the Committee (see below) that is in charge of determining library funding will meet. Meet them prepared with your picket signs!

Transportation & Economic Development Appropriations Committee
March 16, 2010 at the Morris Hall (17 HOB) 2:15 PM - 6:00 PM

Here's a Sample Picket Sign (Word 2007 Format)to download - Feel free to modify. Free Word 2007 Viewer

This week a federal judge heard arguments to determine whether to approve the settlement between Google and two major arms of the publishing industry over Google Books. Many groups used this week's hearings to air grievances with the project. Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig argues an unintended consequence of the settlement could alter print culture as we know it.

Transcript and MP3 file here

Do you think Amazon.com and other internet-only businesses have a right to sell product without collecting sales tax when brick & mortar businesses have been collecting and sending in taxes for years?

If so...skip to the next story...or add your comment below.

E-FACT provides independent businesses and booksellers in particular in the 42 states that collect sales tax but do not have e-fairness legislation state-specific templates to their state legislators and Governor calling for e-fairness. Businesses can simply go to E-FACT and navigate to their state, where they will find the relevant documents that can be adapted and then e-mailed to the appropriate person. We plan for E-FACT to grow over the next few weeks to include op-ed pieces, FAQs, relevant articles, and practical suggestions for advocating on behalf of e-fairness.

This article in O'Reilly Radar asks the hypothetical question: When all of the states have passed e-fairness laws, who will be left for Amazon to fire?

Universal Music failed to convince a federal judge in San Jose that a Pennsylvania homemaker knew she was infringing its copyrights when she posted a YouTube video of her toddler son dancing to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy."
Stephanie Lenz said Universal forced YouTube to remove her video, and then YouTube sent her a "takedown notice" saying subsequent copyright infringement activity would lead to the deletion of her account.
She sued the record label under a provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which states that a copyright holder "who knowingly materially misrepresents" that someone misused its material "shall be liable for any damages ... incurred by the alleged infringer."
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel denied Universal's motion to dismiss the complaint in an August 2008 ruling that some hailed as a victory for fair-use rights.

Full article

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated an $18 million settlement between publishers and freelance writers in a copyright case about work included in online databases.

The Supreme Court was unanimous in its decision, which overturned an appeals court ruling that threw out the settlement.

The publishers had appealed to the high court in an effort to reinstate the settlement, reached in 2005 after about four years of negotiations over writers’ assertions that their contracts did not allow for publication of their work electronically.

The publishers included Reed Elsevier, The New York Times Company, the Thomson Reuters Corporation, the News Corporation’s Dow Jones & Company and Knight Ridder, which was bought by the McClatchy Company in 2006.

Full article in the New York Times

Universities protest against government wi-fi plans
Libraries and universities are protesting about plans to make them police users of wireless networks.

The government's Digital Economy Bill includes plans to make them responsible for what is done over free wi-fi.

To photographer Mike Hipple, the claim is baseless. The photo he took about 10 years ago of a woman standing near the "Dance Steps on Broadway" sculpture in Seattle's Capitol Hill is an example of fair use. If it's not, he reasons, the right of all photographers to take pictures in public will be in jeopardy.

His photo was, after all, "taken on a public sidewalk, showing a woman interacting with a piece of public art, paid for by public funds. And it only depicts a small portion of the artwork at that," Hipple wrote. "Now if this doesn't qualify as fair use of the sculpture, I don't know what does."

Full article at Citizen Media Law Project

From the article:

Six book publishers have gained an injunction against file-hosting company, RapidShare. The Swiss-based ‘cyberlocker’ service must monitor user uploads to ensure that around 148 titles, many of them textbooks, are never made available to its users. Failure to do so could result in $339,000 fines, or even jail time for company bosses.

For those who don't know, RapidShare is site where one can upload files for off-site storage and distribution. It's that "distribution" that it's well known for as thousands of people upload larger files to the service with the intention of allowing others to download. Though it's well known in certain circles for hosting pirated content, it's strange that the first shot fired against it should come from the publishing industry rather than the recording or motion picture industries.

More from TorrentFreak.