On October 12th and 13th, the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property (CPIP) hosted its Fifth Annual Fall Conference at Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia. The event brought together scholars, industry professionals, and practicing attorneys to discuss recent developments in intellectual property law and to present meaningful policy reform proposals. Read more
Author: Kevin Madigan
Small Claims Bill Aims to Empower Copyright Owners and Creators
Cross-posted from the Mister Copyright blog.
This month, Congress introduced a bill that would establish a long-discussed small claims court for copyright disputes. The legislation comes after a House Judiciary Committee proposal based on a four-year review of the US Copyright system and a 2013 report by the Copyright Office that recommended “the creation of an alternative forum that will enable copyright owners to pursue small infringement matters and related claims arising under the Copyright Act.” Read more
Stream Ripping Emerges as the New Face of Music Piracy
Cross-posted from the Mister Copyright blog.
As formats change and advances in technology continue to transform the way we listen to music, new methods of pirating content are never far behind. What started with the analog dubbing and bootlegging of cassettes forty years ago evolved with the digital age into CD burning and MP3 sharing, eventually leading to a chaotic illegal downloading landscape at the turn of the century that would force the music industry to develop novel anti-piracy efforts and distribution models. Read more
Mayweather v. McGregor Warrants Preemptive Anti-Piracy Efforts
This Saturday, the world will be treated to one of the most hyped events in the history of sports when “The Notorious “ Conor McGregor and Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. meet in Las Vegas to become (even more) rich while ostensibly also participating in a boxing match. Read more
CPIP Affiliate Scholar Erika Lietzan Testifies at HJC Hearing on FDA Approval Process
On July 27, 2017, CPIP Affiliate Scholar and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Missouri–Columbia Erika Lietzan testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law in a hearing on Antitrust Concerns and the FDA Approval Process. Read more
International Trade Administration Report Highlights Strong Markets, Persistent Piracy
Last month, the International Trade Administration (ITA)—an agency in the US Department of Commerce that measures and promotes the export of nonagricultural services and goods—released its 2017 Top Markets Report, Media and Entertainment Sector Snapshot. The report provides updates on the steady growth of the US media and entertainment (M&E) sector, which includes the core copyright industries: books, newspapers, periodicals, motion pictures, TV production, recorded music, radio and television broadcasting, video games, and software. Read more
Judgment Against Sci-Hub is a Win for Authors and Publishers
Last week, the United States Court for the Southern District of New York entered a default judgment against Sci-Hub, the Library Genesis Project (LibGen), and a number of related websites and site operators for the willful infringement of dozens of copyright-protected scholarly articles. Read more
As Investment Moves Overseas, the US Must Restore its Gold-Standard Patent System
Venture capital investment in the United States has declined steadily for years, as investors abandon an uncertain domestic climate for more reliable opportunities in foreign countries. In a report on the current state of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, the National Venture Capital Association emphasizes the extreme decline in the US share of global venture capital in the last twenty years, highlighting a drop from 83% of global share in 1996 to just 54% in 2015. Read more
Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) Unites to Fight Online Piracy
As digital piracy shifts away from torrent downloads and towards unauthorized streaming and theft-based extortion, stakeholders from all parts of the creativity community are reassessing their efforts to fight online infringement. This week, a global coalition of creators and leading on-demand entertainment services joined forces to better address the ever-evolving threat that piracy poses not only to artists and copyright owners, but to consumers and end users. Read more
In Defense of an Inclusive IP Conversation
In a recent essay responding to a divisive critique of his book, Justifying Intellectual Property, Robert Merges makes clear from the start that he won’t be pulling any punches. He explains that the purpose of his essay, Against Utilitarian Fundamentalism, is to address the misleading and polarizing conclusions of Mark Lemley’s 2015 article, Faith-Based Intellectual Property, recapitulate the arguments he makes in Justifying IP, and show that those who approach intellectual property theory through a nonstrict empirical lens can still make meaningful contributions to the debate. Read more