Copyhype

The objection to the rights of literary property … proceeds, it should be observed, not upon fact but upon vague and unwarranted suspicion. It says, in effect, “We dare not trust you with your rights, because we suspect that you would make an ill use of them.” Why should this be suspected? No good reason can be assigned why the descendants of literary men should be less honest or less liberal than other persons. Surely, then, the objection is of a most ungracious character.

— Are the Laws Regarding Literary Property Founded in Justice? (1825). ¹Philomathic Journal and Literary Review, Vol. 3, pp 393-94.

Copyright doesn’t limit online speech — IP scholar Adam Mossoff makes the case why copyright is not censorship. “The right to free speech is the right to express one’s thoughts without censorship by the government. Copyright does not prohibit anyone from creating their own original novels, songs or artworks. Importantly, copyright does not stop people from thinking, talking or writing about copyrighted works.”

Our forgotten Constitutional right — intellectual property protection — Marking the 225th anniversary of the drafting of the US Constitution this week, Colin Hanna reflects on the protection of creator’s rights in the foundational document. “The focus of any discussion of Constitutional rights usually focuses on the limitations placed upon its power by one of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known collectively as ‘The Bill of Rights.’ There are, however, other specifically enumerated rights laid out in the main body of the Constitution that sometimes go unnoticed. One of those is the protection of copyrights and patents, or what we now call ‘intellectual property.'”

Visions of a Blind Photographer — A fascinating look at the work of Sonia Soberats, a 77 year-old woman who took up photography after losing her eyesight to glaucoma. As Soberats says, “It surprised me that the human mind can do whatever it wants if we work toward it.”

I Has Moar Flava: Nine Copyright Observations About the myVidster Case — IP attorney Rick Sanders takes a closer look at last month’s Flava Works v Gunter decision. Insightful and quite entertaining.

MPAA debuts new website telling stories behind the story — Check out thecredits.org, a new site that takes a behind the scenes look at the people and technology creating films. Like this article on the Democratization of CGI Technology, which traces the history of computer generated special effects in movies and how advances in technology have “fostered greater opportunity to bridge the gap between independent films and Hollywood studios.”

Top False Claims of the New Internet Association — Part 2 of Internet as Oz Series — This week, Internet giants including Google, Facebook, and Amazon launched yet another lobbying organization. Scott Cleland fact-checks the claims made by the Internet Association.