Digital Discourse / Archives for intellectual property

SIIA and The McGraw Hill Companies Voice Support for Strong IP Protection in Latest Round of Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks

September 11, 2012 By
Dan Duncan

Dan Duncan, The McGraw Hill Companies

The latest round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks are happening in SIIA’s backyard in Leesburg, VA until Friday, and SIIA and several member companies have attended to voice support for the protection and effective enforcement of intellectual property rights.

SIIA member The McGraw Hill Companies spoke to the value of copyright and knowledge expansion in a presentation before delegates on Sunday. Dan Duncan, Senior Director for Government Affairs at The McGraw Hill Companies, explained that strong IP protections are an essential element in fostering the growth of new content services that will continue to spur innovative technologies and information products.

As online theft of content and software becomes more sophisticated and widespread throughout the world these innovative new products and services are increasingly at risk and the companies that create them are finding it more difficult to continue investing in existing products and funding new ones. Because online piracy has become a global epidemic that is not limited to just one or two countries, it is important for nations across the globe to join together to create a strong, common foundation of adequate and effective copyright protection and enforcement.

The adoption of strong IP protections by all countries in the TPP will more widely promote economic and social benefits for all nine countries partnering in the TPP.

View Dan’s slides:

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA. Follow the SIIA Public Policy team at @SIIAPolicy.

Share|
Filed Under: Content, Policy, Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With: ,

SIIA Welcomes New Commerce Department Report Hailing Intellectual Property’s Contributions to the U.S. Economy

April 11, 2012 By

SIIA welcomes the Commerce Department’s groundbreaking report, which shows, from an independent and authoritative body, that Intellectual Property protection is essential to the creation of American jobs and growth of the U.S. economy.

The new report found that 40 million jobs, or 27.7 percent of all jobs, were attributable to the most IP-intensive industries in 2010, while software publishers led the way among IP-intensive service-providers with $22.3 billion in exports in 2007. The Commerce Department’s report underscores the critical importance of adequately and effectively protecting the software and digital content industries, which are key drivers of economic growth and recovery.

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

Share|
Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Internet Piracy, Policy, Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With: , ,

This Week in IP Enforcement

April 9, 2012 By

Hollywood Formally Brings ISPs Into The Anti-Piracy Fight (CNET)
The major film studios and music companies unveiled its plans for the Center for Copyright Information, the organization that will help support the graduated response anti-piracy program.

Copyright Infringement Will Lead ICANN Registrars To Lose Accreditation (PCWorld)
Governments and law enforcement authorities want registrars to be held more accountable in cases where domain registrations are done with bogus data. Registrars that fail to comply with copyright infringement contract terms given by ICANN will lose their accreditation.

Publisher Unmasks ‘Dummies,’ Ramps Up Lawsuits Against e-Book Sharers (paidContent)
“For Dummies” publisher John Wiley has identified some of the anonymous individuals it accuses of illegally downloading its books, and is pushing forward with lawsuits against the book-sharers following a federal court order allowing the publisher to obtain the names of the defendants from their internet service provider.

Ray Charles Foundation Sues To Stop Children Taking Back Copyright (GigaOM)
The Ray Charles Foundation is suing seven of Charles’ children who have triggered a controversial law that lets artists and their heirs reclaim copyrights after 35 years. This is the second high profile case to emerge over “termination rights.”

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

Share|
Filed Under: Policy, Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With:

This Week in IP Enforcement

March 14, 2012 By

The U.S. Threat To Sue Apple And Publishers: What It Means (paidContent)
The Justice Department is planning to sue Apple and five publishers for conspiring to fix the prices of e-books in order to raise prices. This article takes a look at the case and what may happen next.

EU Open To Settlement With E-Book Publishers (Reuters)
EU regulators are open to a settlement with the e-book publishers they have been investigating for price-fixing, if the publishers will offer concessions to resolve competition concerns.

UK ISPs Must Write Letters To Pirates, Other Measures Some Way Off (paidContent)
The Court of Appeal ruled against two UK ISPs’ case over the Digital Economy Act, meaning UK ISPs will have to write warning letters to illegal downloaders identified by rightsholders to notify them of the allegations and provide information about legal alternatives, evidence, and appeals.

Germany Wants Publishers Paid For Online News Clips (The New York Times)
In a move aimed at helping newspapers generate new revenue, the German governing coalition said it intends to introduce legislation requiring search engines and news aggregators to pay to use news excerpts.

Aereo Files Countersuit Against TV Broadcasters (Reuters)
Eleven days after broadcasters sued Aereo to stop its plans to retransmit their programs, Aereo filed a countersuit seeking a declaration that it does not infringe their copyrights.

China Steps Up Anti-Piracy Fight (Variety)
China’s top judge reported that 66,000 intellectual property rights cases went to litigation in 2011, up 38% over 2010. The report comes as the Chinese government has opened the doors to more Hollywood products within the quota system for foreign movies, and said it would redouble efforts to fight piracy.

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

Share|
Filed Under: Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With:

This Week in IP Enforcement Headlines

February 29, 2012 By

Are Top Websites In Business With Counterfeiters? (Today)
Jeff Rossen investigates how criminals are buying real ad space and selling counterfeit products to consumers directly from popular and trusted websites, and how those websites may be profiting from it.

To Combat Piracy, RapidShare Cuts Download Speeds For Free Users (PCMag)
RapidShare is attempting to combat piracy on its site by reducing download speeds for free users and requesting more account and file information from its RapidPro subscribers who can still unlock speedy transfers.

Hidden File Offers Suggestion For Pirates: Apply For A Job (PC World)
Game developer Starbreeze is using a hidden file to send a message to pirates, appealing to them to think of the game’s developers, and also to recruit the pirates.

Cudo Blames Vendor For Pirated E-Book Deal (paidContent)
Microsoft-backed Australian daily deal site Cudo offered a Chinese e-reader bundled with a CD of pirated books, and is now blaming the e-reader merchant for the mistake.

Texas Software Pirate Sentenced to Prison (The Houston Chronicle)
A Texas man was sentenced to almost six years in prison and ordered to pay more than $400,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to selling pirated Adobe software.

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

Share|
Filed Under: Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With:

This Week in IP Enforcement

February 15, 2012 By

Google Books Lawsuit Lurches Forward (paidContent)
The Authors Guild revived a class-action lawsuit over Google’s massive book scanning project in new filings this week demanding Google pay authors for scanning their works without permission.

AP Sues Meltwater News Claiming Copyright Offense (Bloomberg)
The Associated Press is suing digital news distributor, Meltwater News, for infringing on AP copyrights by illegally selling and distributing content created by the AP.

Copyright Tribunal Says Businesses Need License to Use Google News (Wired)
In a long running case between the Newspaper Licensing Association and media-monitoring service Meltwater, the Copyright Tribunal ruled that Meltwater must hold a license to use media aggregators like Google News and Alerts. In the same trial, the Tribunal also decreased the NLA’s proposed fee increases.

Pinterest: Is it a Facebook or a Grokster? (paidContent)
While Pinterest’s soaring popularity has led it to be dubbed the “next Facebook,” all the hype has also brought attention from angry copyright owners who are complaining that their images are being used without permission by users on Pinterest’s site.

Pirate Bay to Replace All Torrent Files with Magnet Links (Herald Sun)
The Pirate Bay announced it will be deleting all torrent files (but they would remain available through magnet links) in order to become more resistant to being shut down, since the content would no longer be downloaded directly from the Pirate Bay’s servers.

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

Share|
Filed Under: Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With:

This Week in IP Enforcement

February 8, 2012 By

Patent Office: Inventors Don’t Have to Pay Copyright on Science Submissions (paidContent)
The U.S. Patent Office has issued a memo suggesting that inventors do not have to pay publishers for articles copied and included in patent applications.

Media Groups Propose Anti-Piracy ‘Code of Practice’ For UK Search (The Register)
Media groups are proposing that “search engines should vet ad partners, stop all advertising on “substantially infringing sites and on search results pages that contain links to substantially infringing sites” and stop selling key words terms that are “are closely associated with piracy,” among other proposals.

‘Hot News’ Returns in Hollywood Publisher Catfight (paidContent)
Penske Media raised the hot news claim again in a new filing last week in the latest twist in its spat with The Hollywood Reporter, whose parent company Penske initially sued last fall over allegations it lifted website code and copied stories.

U.S. Shuts 16 Sports Piracy Websites Pre-Super Bowl (Reuters)
U.S. prosecutors seized 16 websites that illegally streamed live sports and pay-per-view events over the Internet, and charged a Michigan man with running nine of those websites.

Oracle Seeks New Trial in SAP Case (The Wall Street Journal)
Oracle rejected a $272 million award in its intellectual property theft case against SAP, stating in its filing it was opting for a new trial in order to vindicate the original 2010 verdict in which the jury awarded Oracle $1.3 billion.

Man Indicted on Software Copyright Charge Arrested (Washington Post)
A former Baltimore man was arrested at Dulles Airport after fleeing to Pakistan before he was indicted for reproducing and distributing more than 100 copyrighted software programs, including Adobe, Intuit, and Microsoft products.

Judge Refuses to Shut Down Online Market for Used MP3s (Wired)
A federal judge denied EMI’s request to shut down ReDigi, an online marketplace for used digital music.

Share|
Filed Under: Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With:
« Older Posts