Group items tagged

Current fair use law is hazy by design; instead of laying out specific use cases, the law relies on the famous "four factors" about the purpose of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount borrowed, and the effect on the value of the original work. This can be maddening in many situations, because it is impossible to know in advance if a particular use qualifies. On the other hand, it gives a fair use incredible flexibility to adapt to new circumstances like the advent of the VCR. But in the paragraph that comes just before the four factors, Congress did see fit to lay down a nonexclusive list of fair uses: "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research." Is it time for more list items? The new Copyright Reform Act, proposed by Public Knowledge, would make a deceptively simple change to bring fair use into the 21st century-add seven words to this list. The CRA is a new project from Public Knowledge, with much of the heavy lifting being done by the Cyberlaw Clinic at Stanford and the Technology & Public Policy Clinic at UC-Berkeley. While Berkeley's noted copyright scholar Pam Samuelson works up a new "model statute" for copyright law in the digital age, Public Knowledge hopes to make smaller interim fixes to copyright law that won't require the same dramatic reworking.

The show's star judge is nearing a deal with Fox to launch a similar talent show, 'The X Factor,' and may downscale or end his role on the hit show after this season, which begins Tuesday.

"the main bottle necks for mobile broadcast TV are lacks of viable business models, low device variety, slow licensing processes. Despite these limiting factors, the number of mobile broadcast TV users considerably increased around the world in 2009"

Forget the last 10 years of post-Napster industry annihilation - Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) is now seeing growing income from both music sales and music publishing - but only if you factor in overseas sales; the U.S. business is still in rewind...

"She's a student at a northern university and says she doesn't know anyone who watches TV, with the possible exception of the X Factor finals, because "watching it online means you can avoid the annoying ads and you can watch whatever you want whenever you want"."

The FCC conducted a survey identifying several barriers to broadband access amongst those who are unwired, with prices being the biggest factor. The FCC will submit a national broadband plan to congress next month

For many Americans, having high-speed access to the Internet at home is as vital as electricity, heat and water. And yet about one-third of the population, 93 million people, have elected not to connect.