Righting Copywrongs. Three years ago, the Walt Disney Company pulled off a nifty legal heist. Disney's copyright on Mickey Mouse—who made his screen début in "Steamboat Willie," in 1928—was due to expire in 2003. By James Surowiecki, The New Yorker, Jan. 21, 2002.

Bill to Protect Right to Copy Digital Files A congressman who has played a key role in high-tech issues said Monday that he will introduce legislation aimed at protecting the right of consumers to make copies of digital files, such as songs on a CD. By Dave Wilson, LA Times, Jan. 8, 2002.

Public Money, Private Code The networked society we live in is in large part a gift from the University of California to the world. By Jeffrey Benner, Salon, Jan. 7, 2002.

Doctors Without Patents Patent systems are challenged when proprietary rights clash with doctors' sharing of health-care know-how. By Seth Schulman, Technology Review, Dec. 2001.

Universal to release copy-protected CD in U.S. The world's largest record company will be the first of the major labels to release a copy-protected CD in the United States, signaling a new chapter in the industry's efforts to stem music piracy. By Dawn C. Chmielewski
Mercury News on siliconvalley.com, Dec. 16, 2001.

Experts Say Decision Could Undermine Online Journalists Free speech advocates are worried that a recent federal appeals decision could have a chilling effect on online journalists who use hyperlinks to direct readers to relevant, newsworthy sites that contain illegal material. BY Carl S. Kaplan, The New York Times, Dec. 14, 2001.

POINSETTIA MAN: Turns out, flowers can also come under the jurisdiction of international patents. Host David Brancaccio talks with Poinsettia developer Paul Ecke about flowers, globalism, and patent protection. Marketplace Morning Report, Dec. 14, 2001.

Independence Day for Indie Bands Tim Quirk decided he didn't want someone else controlling his music -- and now he has a chance to do that and make some money in the process. By Brad King, WIRED News, Dec. 13, 2001.

Russian Hacker Charges Dropped Dmitri Sklyarov has traded his testimony for his freedom to return home, exactly what the man he will soon be testifying against had hoped for. By Michelle Delio, WIRED News, Dec. 13, 2001.

Madcap Maneuvers Halt MS Hearing A highly-anticipated Senate hearing on the Justice Department's antitrust settlement with Microsoft came to an abrupt end soon after it began Wednesday morning. By McCullagh and Polen, WIRED News, Dec. 12, 2001.

Patent Ruling Aids Seed Biotech Firms In a victory for companies that develop genetically modified plants, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that seeds and seed-grown plants can be patented. BY Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 12, 2001.

House Subcommittee Revisits Online Copyrights A House subcommittee has planned hearings on two consecutive days to analyze a U.S. Copyright Office report that recommends that few changes be made to a controversial online copyright law.By Brian Krebs and Robert MacMillan, Newsbytes, Dec. 11, 2001.

New online music service nears launch The second of the major record label-backed online music services is poised to launch, offering the one feature that consumers demand but rival subscription offerings lack: portability. By Dawn Chmielewski, SiliconValley.com, Dec. 11, 2001.

Napster Still Playing, in Court Napster's lawyers are back in court, asking a panel of judges Monday to clarify an injunction order that forced the company to shutter its file-trading network in July. By Brad King, WIRED News, Dec. 10, 2001.

Technology: Napster, record labels ask appeals court to change earlier rulings Both sides in the battle over the online song-swapping site Napster asked a federal appeals court Monday to modify lower court rulings that have idled the company since July. By Gary Gentile, The NandoTimes, Dec. 10, 2001.

Napster, record industry back in court Napster and the U.S. record industry will be back in court Monday, arguing over how much initiative the once-popular song-swapping service can take in order to comply with a court-ordered injunction that it stop trade in copyright-protected music. By Reuters. CNET's News.com, Dec. 9, 2001.

The Crackdown on IP Crime In July 1999, then-Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. was in San Jose, Calif., to tell a new breed of crooks that the jig was up. By Jason Hoppin of The Recorder, law.com, Dec. 5, 2001.

Senate Confirms Former Lawmaker As Patent Office Chief Former California Republican Representative James Rogan received U.S. Senate confirmation to be named Commerce Department. undersecretary and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. By Robert MacMillan, Newsbytes, Dec. 3, 2001.

Porn Directory Isn't Only Master Of 'Link-O-Rama' Domain Webmasters can't claim trademark-like rights to Internet domain names just because they operate popular sites, the publisher of an online pornography directory has been told by an international arbitrator. Porn Directory Isn't Only Master Of 'Link-O-Rama' Domain. By Steven Bonisteel, Newsbytes, Dec. 3, 2001.

Aibo Site Owner Wins Dogfight to Stay Online Less than a month after Sony forced an Aibo enthusiast to pull the plug on his Web site, at http://www.aibohack.com, Aibohack is back online. By Dave Wilson, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 1, 2001.

DVD CCA Appeals Ruling To Calif. Supreme Court The DVD Copy Control Association today filed a petition for review with the California Supreme Court. The DVD CCA is seeking a review of an appeals court decision to overturn a preliminary injunction that had blocked the posting of the source code for DeCSS. By Michael Bartlett, Newsbytes, Nov. 30, 2001.

Federal Judge Dismisses Professor's Lawsuit Against RIAA A Princeton University professor who feared strong-arm legal tactics would keep him from telling the world how his research hacked through digital security measures has lost in court. By John P. McAlpin, The Associated Press, law.com, Nov. 30, 2001.

Kazaa To Comply With Order To Halt Illegal File Swaps - CEO Kazaa, an Amsterdam peer-to-peer file-sharing software firm, says it will comply with a Dutch court's order Thursday to stop users from sharing copyrighted songs. By Andrew Rosenbaum, Newsbytes, Nov. 30, 2001.

2 Copyright Cases Decided in Favor of Entertainment Industry The entertainment industry won two closely watched cases yesterday that pit owners of copyrighted works against the people who develop technologies that can be used to copy those works. By John Schwartz, The New York Times, Nov. 29, 2001.

Firm Claims Human Embryo Cloned The announcement by a U.S. company that it has cloned a human embryo for the first time has set off a heated debate on the ethics of the research, with the company on Monday staunchly defending its work. Reuters, WIRED News, Nov. 21, 2001.

Federal courts on two coasts are asked to determine which relatives have right to use name of legendary oceanographer By Dan Christensen of Miami Daily Business Review on Law.com, Nov. 21, 2001.

Suddenly, 'Idea Wars' Take on a New Global Urgency As officials from around the world gather to discuss global trade in Doha, Qatar, this weekend, many are challenging one of the towering achievements of American industry during its economic boom years: an unprecedented expansion of intellectual property rights. BY Amy Harmon, The New York Times, Nov. 11, 2001.

After 70 Years, a Family Sells Its Stake in a Dapper Elephant The French family that owns partial rights to Babar, the urbane picture-book elephant who has endeared himself to children worldwide, is selling its stake in the brand 70 years after the character was created. By Geraldine Fabrikant, The New York Times, Nov. 5, 2001.

Some I.B.M. Software Tools to Be Put in Public Domain. I.B.M. plans to announce today that it is placing $40 million of its software tools in the public domain as the first step toward founding an open-source organization for developers. By Steve Lohr, The New York Times, Nov. 5, 2001.

The Phantom Edit How one "Star Wars" fan nearly fixed the "Episode 1" disaster, and why George Lucas is indirectly stoking another kind of digital revolution. By Daniel Kraus, Salon.com, Nov. 5, 2001.

Building a Case, Copyrights apply to buildings, and suits are growing, by
Emily Heller, The National Law Journal on law.com,Nov. 1, 2001.

Copyright as Cultural Policy From the Center for Art & Culture -- The first paper in the Art, Culture and the National Agenda series. Written by Dr. Michael Shapiro, former general counsel for the National Endowment for the Humanities and a leading scholar on intellectual property law, the issue paper provides an overview, historical analysis and legal implications of copyright law for the creative sector and cultural organizations in the United States.

Gettysburg Ghost Stories Scare Up Copyright Battle A former Gettysburg park ranger who started a business telling ghost stories to visitors to the Civil War battlefield town has lost a copyright infringement suit he filed against a rival. By Tom Troy, The National Law Journal on law.com, Oct. 31, 2001

Whatever happened to fair use? In music sharing, it's the record labels vs. the consumers -- and the battle is just beginning. By Dawn C. Chmielewski, Mercury News, Oct. 31, 2001.

Drug Patent Dispute Poses Trade Threat Generics Fight Could Derail WTO Accord, By Paul Blustein, The Washington Post, Oct. 26, 2001.

Book Keeping By Mike Godwin, The American Lawyer (online at http://www.law.com), Oct. 24, 2001.

Disney's Peer-to-Peer Pressure By Brad King, WIRED News, Oct. 24, 2001.

Canada Overrides Patent for Cipro to Treat Anthrax Canada, taking an unusual step that the United States has resisted, said yesterday that it had overridden Bayer's patent for Cipro, an antibiotic to treat anthrax, and ordered a million tablets of a generic version from a Canadian company. By Amy Harmon and Robert Pear, The New York Times, Oct. 19, 2001 .

Senator proposes generic Cipro Bush administration questions legality of plan for boosting drug supply, MSNBC News Services, Oct. 17, 2001.

Music Rights Battle Spins On Walking out of the Capitol in Washington last July, Craig Grossman, Dan Rodrigues and RaySantamaria believed their company, Scour, had a bright future. By Brad King, WIRED News, Oct. 17, 2001.

RIAA Wants to Hack Your PC By Declan McCullagh Look out, music pirates: The recording industry wants the right to hack into your computer and delete your stolen MP3s. WIRED News, Oct. 15, 2001.

'The Wind Done Gone' Copyright Ruling May Have Lasting Impact A Georgia law professor who has authored two books on copyright law says a federal appellate ruling upholding publication of "The Wind Done Gone" is "a Supreme Court quality ruling." And, he says, it could become "very influential" in future copyright litigation. By R. Robin McDonald, Fulton County Daily Report on law.com, Oct. 12, 2001.

EU Resists Push to Widen Patent Law BRUSSELS The European Union appears to be resisting pressure to bring its software patent law into line with the more protective systems in the United States and Japan. By Paul Meller, New York Times Service, Oct. 6, 2001.

Lawyers, Doctors Fight for 'Without Borders' Name Members of the Hartford, Conn.-based Lawyers Without Borders are used to fighting for worthy causes as an international clearinghouse for attorneys taking on foreign work. However, the fight they now face is their own in trying to stop a similar humanitarian organization from blocking its application to use the trademark "without borders" name. By Kellie A. Wagner, The Connecticut Law Tribune on law.com, Oct. 5, 2001.

Brave New World for Higher Education In April 2001, MIT president Charles M. Vest announced that the Institute would bring the "open-source" software sensibility to higher education and offer—for free!—its curricula and courseware to the world via the Web. This "OpenCourseWare" initiative represents a radically different approach to digitizing, marketing and globalizing education. By Michael Schrage, Technology Review, Oct. 2001.

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