NAS Study Urges Empirical Basis for IP Reforms

On Monday May 2, the National Academies of Science officially released its long-awaited study of  “copyright in the digital age.” The paper spends considerable time discussing and praising the important role that empirical data from various patent studies played in consideration and passage of the American Invents Act.  We could not agree more.  The data from these studies demonstrated the need for patent reform to address the significant problems caused by patent trolls.  The AIA was an essential step in addressing these problems but the problems have gotten worse and have morphed– and the data has backed this up.  In a 2011 study, James Bessen and Mike Meurer concluded that that lawsuits by patent trolls are associated with half a trillion dollars of lost wealth to defendants from 1990 through 2010.  In a study in 2012, they estimate the direct costs to defendants arising from patent troll litigation at $29 billion in 2011. The GAO study on the economic effects of patent trolls – mandated by Congress in the AIA will be released soon.  It is likely that this study will also demonstrate that additional patent reforms are needed to address the troll problem.

There does not appear to be any “silver bullet” solution to this problem.  SIIA and its members are looking at a variety of different approaches to address the problem.  But the need for such reforms is solidly supported by neutral empirical economic research.

The NAS paper is not about patent reform.  It’s about the need for empirical data on copyright.  We support the conclusions of the NAS paper – that more empirical data on import at copyright issues is needed.  It is imperative that such data be generated by unbiased neutral parties.  Empirical data on such issues as licensing efficiencies, enforcement problems and data and text mining, to name just a few, would go a long way to providing a better understanding of the role that copyright plays in these issues and whether and what type of copyright reforms might be necessary or appropriate.  As House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte considers a series of hearings to explore the extent of possible reforms, SIIA urges that comprehensive changes be based to the greatest extent possible an empirical foundation.


Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.

Intellectual Property Roundup

USTR Releases Piracy ‘Watch List’ (The Hollywood Reporter)
The Office of the United States Trade Representative released its annual “Special 301″ report, intended to highlight which countries raise concern over intellectual property practices.

Players Who Pirated ‘Game Dev Tycoon’ See Their Virtual Studios Hit By Piracy (The Verge)
Greenheart Games took a novel approach to its piracy problem; the indie studio released a “cracked” version of its game so that players would experience the struggles of piracy first-hand when their own virtual studios were hit by piracy.

China Court Fines Apple $118K for Copyright Breach (ZDNet)
A Beijing court has ordered Apple to compensate three Chinese writers for selling their works via its app store without first getting their permission.

Artist Richard Prince Didn’t Infringe Photo Copyrights (Reuters)
In a closely watched case in the art world, American artist Richard Prince won a federal appeals court order holding that he did not infringe the copyrights of a photographer by incorporating his images into 25 paintings and collages.

Craigslist Wins Early Legal Victory Against PadMapper, 3Taps (CNET)
Craigslist has won the first round in its federal lawsuit against PadMapper and two other companies, in which Craigslist alleged a slew of unlawful acts, including terms of use violations, copyright violations, trespass, and civil violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.


Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.

Intellectual Property Roundup

YouTube Prevails in Huge Copyright Suit with Viacom (Los Angeles Times)
A federal judge in New York sided with YouTube, once again, in the long-running $1 billion copyright infringement suit brought by Viacom in 2007.

US Digital Public Library Launches Free Online Access (Intellectual Property Watch)
The Digital Public Library of America has partnered with a number of institutions such as the National Archives and Records Administration, the Smithsonian Institution, the New York Public Library, and Harvard University to provide free public access to content of all libraries, universities, and museums in the United States.

Pirate Bay Cofounder Indicted on Hacking Charges (Wired)
The Pirate Bay cofounder Gottfrid Svartholm was indicted today on hacking charges unrelated to his one-year prison sentence for running the world’s most notorious and illicit file-sharing service.

Google Loses Autocomplete Defamation Suit in Japan (CNET)
Google was ordered to change its autocomplete function and pay damages to a Japanese man who sued saying his name was being linked to crimes.

UMG Wins Copyright Ruling in Case Against Grooveshark (Variety)
A five-judge panel of the New York Supreme Court’s appellate division, in a ruling issued on Tuesday, concluded that pre-1972 song recordings are not covered by safe harbor provisions of the DMCA.


Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.

SIIA Hails House Passage of Cybersecurity Legislation, Urges Senate to Act

SIIA commends today’s House passage of the Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA, H.R. 624) and three other critical cybersecurity bills passed earlier in the week. Following the House passage of this legislation, I issued the following statement:

Early detection and notification of cybersecurity threats is the most critical component of preventing and mitigating attacks as well as increasing security across the board. SIIA supports CISPA because it would provide the critical necessary framework for early detection and notification of cybersecurity threats.  Today, the House clearly recognized this vital need, and as cybersecurity threats and damage continue to grow, it is essential that the Senate move quickly to approve these bills.

CISPA creates the necessary flexibility for businesses to share security information without fear of legal or regulatory liability. Specifically, CISPA would protect companies and organizations that share threat and vulnerability information with the government from legal liability and the risk of lawsuits, while also providing a critical exemption from antitrust laws that currently discourage information exchanges between private companies.

Additionally, SIIA applauds House passage of three other key cybersecurity measures to reform federal information security management and enhance cybersecurity R&D. These measures include:

  • Federal Information Security Amendments Act (H.R. 1163)
  • Cybersecurity Enhancement Act (H.R. 756)
  • Advancing America’s Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act (H.R. 967)

With cyber threats more sophisticated and targeted than ever, now is the time to act on critical cybersecurity legislative priorities. We urge the Senate to move with all deliberate speed to consider these key measures and advance the Nation’s cybersecurity readiness.


Ken WaschKen Wasch is President of SIIA. Follow the SIIA Software team on twitter at @SIIASoftware.

Intellectual Property Roundup

Why Hollywood Studios Care About the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens Logo (The Hollywood Reporter)
The MPAA sided with the NFL and the Baltimore Ravens in defending limits to a copyright holder’s authority to object to use of protected material, saying that if the artist suing the league is victorious at an appeals court, it could raise problems for movies containing logos, signs and other copyrighted works.

Broadcasters File Aereo Appeal, Warn of ‘Havoc’ and ‘Massive Disruption’ to TV Industry (paidContent)
Fox and other broadcasters are asking a New York appeals court to reconsider its decision to allow Aereo to retransmit over-the-air TV, claiming the decision “threatens to cause massive disruption to the television industry” and “will wreak commercial havoc.”

Supreme Court Rules Web Browsing Does Not Infringe Newspapers’ Copyright (The Guardian)
The UK Supreme Court has ruled that readers who open articles via a website link are not breaking copyright laws, but also decided that the copyright issues surrounding web browsing are so important that it referred the case to the European Court of Justice to ensure that the ruling applies uniformly across the EU.


Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.

Intellectual Property Roundup

Google Lobbies Against Patent Privateering (CNET)
Google has banded together with BlackBerry, EarthLink, and Red Hat to submit comments to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice in an effort to expose the industry-wide consequences of patent privateering, or the practice of companies outsourcing patent enforcement to independent entities with no technologies of their own.

Patent Trolls Launched Majority of U.S. Patent Cases in 2012 (CNET)
A new study has found that more than half of last year’s patent litigation cases in the U.S. were filed by companies that license patents but don’t have another business.

Did Anti-Piracy Laws Improve Revenue in New Zealand or Japan? (Billboard)
New Zealand and Japan, the two newest countries to adopt anti-piracy laws, had mixed results on the laws’ impact in 2012, according to data in the IFPI’s new Recording Industry in Numbers 2013 report.

Russia Says File-Sharers Will Not Be Held Liable for Piracy (TorrentFreak)
Russia says it will not proceed with holding Internet users liable for downloads, but it does intend to take a tougher stance with infringing sites.

Lawsuit Attempts to Use Six-Strikes Copyright System in Case Against Verizon Subscriber (SlashGear)
Malibu Media is pursuing a case against a Verizon subscriber over alleged sharing of copyrighted materials, and has subpoenaed Verizon for copies of the six-strike notices the subscriber received under the new Copyright Alert System.

Quarter of UK Adults Can’t Tell Piracy Websites Apart From the ‘Real Deal’ (The Drum)
A YouGov survey of over 2,000 British adults revealed that nearly a quarter were unable to tell the difference between piracy websites and de-branded legitimate pages.


Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.

SIIA Calls for Support for Cybersecurity Legislation

SIIA called on congressional leaders today to enact legislation that would help the government detect cybersecurity threats.  In a letter sent today, SIIA thanked Reps. Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) for their bipartisan leadership with regard to the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), and urged members of the House Select Intelligence Committee to support this legislation.  In the letter, I commented:

Early detection and notification of cybersecurity threats is the most critical component of preventing and mitigating attacks – increasing security across the board. SIIA supports CISPA because it would provide the critical necessary framework for early detection and notification of cybersecurity threats.  Specifically, CISPA would provide needed legal certainty that threat and vulnerability information voluntarily shared with the government would be provided safe harbor against the risk of lawsuits, and it would also provide a critical exemption from antitrust laws that currently discourage information exchanges between private companies.

 


Ken WaschKen Wasch is President of SIIA. Follow the SIIA Software team on twitter at @SIIASoftware.