Google Promises Faster Copyright Enforcement

Google, parent of YouTube, is promising to do a better job of policing and eliminating copyright violations, expecting to respond in 24 hours to complaints. That can be a tall order as the Google search engine indexes more than 1 trillion unique Web links and about 35 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube per minute. Viacom, the entertainment giant, is planning to appeal its suit against Google for copyright violations after a federal judge recently turned it down. While not revealing exactly how it is going to more quickly flag copyright violations, Google said the changes would be rolled out in the next month. Good news for parents is that violating copyright by uploading purloined materials to YouTube by anyone, including kids, is punishable only by having what you shared booted off the site with no legal ramification.

iTunes and Your Rights to the Music

On this site, we’ve explored in detail the perils of navigating what DRM-free (Digital Rights Management) really means now that music bought on iTunes and Amazon bear that label. In a nutshell, DRM-free means that there are no software restrictions on what you can do with a purchased song, but there still are copyright restrictions. You might also want to pass along to your kids before they share that favorite tune with the world that the name and e-mail address from the iTunes Store account used to buy a song are embedded in the purchased song file. You can see the information by selecting the track and pressing Control-I (Command-I on the Mac) and clicking on the Summary tab.

Copyright and the Web – No Clear Cut Answers Ahead

As we have discussed in this blog multiple times before, technology is evolving faster than the laws needed to regulate it and nowhere is that more evident than in the case of copyright. While that is a dilemma for parents who at least have some notion of copyright, it's even more confounding for kids who still don't seem to get why it is a crime to copy something offered seemingly for free online. All kinds of factors -the expanding variety of digital content, the growing ability of consumer electronics to handle multimedia data, increasing overlap between traditional and Internet media, and the expanding number of content distribution channels - all contribute to the chaos.

For parents this means staying abreast of what's new in the copyright world in hopes of at least giving kids some broad parameters of exactly what copyright means. It ain't easy, being a parents in the age of technology, but a new series of articles on TechNewsWorld can give you some background in plain English that you can use to help guide your kids without being a copyright lawyer. Take a look at Copyright Law and the Web, Part 1: A Hazy Intersection

Digital Piracy Now Targets Magazines

Newpapers and magazines certainly have taken a hit in the digital age as people gravitate online to get their news and updates of all kinds. But now they face a new threat - digital piracy.

A new website called Mygazines.com encourages people to copy and upload popular magazines that are currently on newsstands. Visitors can read high-quality digital copies of dozens of current titles, including People, Living and The Economist, in their entirety. The site, with thousands of users already is a "flagrant" violation of copyright laws, according to legal experts - but it is run by an offshore company, making it near impossible to shut down.

The company takes the view that it is no different than copies of magazines shared in a doctor's office or salon. Publishers say no way, arguing that just like when you purchase a magazine in print you have the right to read it, but not to copy it and distribute it. This will be an interesting issue to follow.

Yet Another Example of the Dangers of Online Research

It seems like the perils of using online sources, especially Wikipedia, keep cropping up all over and the thing that bothers me the most about them is that sometimes it seems like where the line is drawn on plagiarism is rather capricious. So it plays out in a recent article in the Washington Post entitled An Education in the Dangers of Online Research about students expelled from the Semester at Sea program for violating the University of Virginia's honor code. The expulsions raised questions about what plagiarism actually is, how it can be subjective, and how the enforcement of anti-plagiarism policy can vary from student to student even within the same class.

As we get ready to head back to school it is particularly important to bear in mind that schools are increasingly enforcing anti-plagiarism policies but without giving students, particularly high schools students, an education in the concept and control of plagiarism. Know what your school's policies are, make sure your children know what they are, and when in doubt, cite everything and ask lots of questions about proper form and substance.

(To read the link from this article you will need to register with the Washington Post. It's free.)

CopyCat Dos and Donts

You may not want to read this article on copying music. You may find that some things you assumed are legal, like copying your personal CD collection to your iPod, may not be as legal as you think. I find it fascinating what the Recording Industry Institute of America is willing to look the other way on and what they aren't when it comes to copyright. Just shows that adults and kids alike are at risk of not doing the right thing when it comes to copyright even when they are trying hard to be good. There is a parenting lesson in that.

Microsoft Surveys Teens on Intellectual Property

Microsoft Corp. announced recently the results of a new survey that found teenagers in grades seven to ten are less likely to illegally download content from the Internet when they know the laws for downloading and sharing content online. About half of those teens, however, said they were not familiar with these laws, and only 11 percent of them clearly understood the current rules for downloading images, literature, music, movies and software. Teens who were familiar with downloading rules credited their parents, TV or stories in magazines and newspapers, and Web sites - more so than their schools - as resources for information about illegal downloading.

Microsoft is also launching the pilot of a broad-based curriculum for middle school and high school educators titled "Intellectual Property Rights Education." The curriculum is focused on preparing students for the digital age, helping them understand, in a meaningful way, how intellectual property rights affect their lives and sparking discussion to clarify the "gray areas" in protected and shared content. To complement the curriculum and enhance the learning experience, Microsoft is also launching an interactive Web site, http://www.mybytes.com, where kids can develop their own intellectual property and assign usage rights by mixing music online to create a custom riff that they can download as a ringtone. (Kids may find it a bit lame if they are already familiar with programs like Apple's GarageBand.)

While I applaud Microsoft's efforts, there has been so much written lately about how teachers are not using digital materials in the classroom because they are anxious about copyright issues, I would urge Microsoft to also do something about educating educators!

Europe May Take DeFacto Control of How the World Uses the Internet

While the United States will still own much of the hardware that the Internet runs on, Europeans are taking a serious look at how we use it by harmonizing the copyright laws of its member countries related to creative content online. While some of what is being negotiated is legalese, for parents and kids there may be important changes in the wind. Here's short list and what it may mean:

1. Copyright owners are going to be encouraged to make content available online with the confidence that piracy will not cannibalize the economic value of the underlying works.
    
2. Procedures will be created to make clearing content easier and less expensive, including the ability of third parties to use works for whom the owner of the rights cannot be located (so-called orphan works).
    
3. A standard of conduct will be formalized between access/service providers, rights holders, and consumers to encourage legal use and access of creative content and to discourage unauthorized file sharing.

As the Europeans create a common copyright policy for its member countries, the European Union will have to tackle issues that are hampering the activities of entrepreneurs, creators, and consumers. The solutions the European Union creates will serve as a guide to other countries, and perhaps the de facto legal framework for the Internet as the digital frontier continues to develop. Should be an interesting ride...

Will Prince Sue Fans?

In a rather curious way to stir up fans for a set of concerts he is doing in Great Britain, Prince is threatening legal action against fan sites that display pictures of him, reports the BBC. But Web Sheriff, the group he has hired to enforce the ban says that it is "not an attack on fans." In September, Prince took action against video sharing website YouTube to remove clips of his London concerts. Wonder if this going to start a trend? An interesting discussion starter with your kids - do they think stars have a right to protect their image in this way?

Just Who Are You Trying To Take Down?

Recently we told you about the efforts of Google to use a new system called Video Identification on YouTube to initiate efforts to take down videos that may infringe on copyrights. Well as the takedown notices have gone out, the backlash of users is beginning to rise. Take the case of Stephanie Lenz. who decided to show her family and friends what her bouncing baby boy could do. She plopped 13-month-old Holden, then learning to walk, on the floor, cranked up Prince's song "Let's Go Crazy" and whipped out her digital camera. In the 29-second YouTube video that resulted, Holden smiles and bobs up and down to the music. According to Universal Music Publishing Group, Holden also unwittingly helped his mom commit a federal crime: copyright infringement.

In June, Universal, which owns the rights to Prince's song, sent a notice to YouTube requesting the video be taken down but did not take action against Lenz. On the contrary, Lenz sued Universal for abusing copyright law.

"The idea that putting a little video of your kid up on YouTube can mean you have to go to court, and maybe declare bankruptcy and lose your house, is just wrong," Lenz said. "I don't like being made to feel afraid, and I don't like being bullied."

And neither does it seem do lots of other folks who are not just taking down their movies just because the big companies say they must.