If not for the copyright extension bill that became effective in 1978, a wealth of significant work created in 1954 would have entered the public domain this January 1. [Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain]
Posts Tagged ‘publishers’
“Jury Awards Law Professors $5 Million Against West Publishing For Defamatory Pocket Part”
A major law-book publisher seems to have gone ahead with an update under the authors’ names despite their unwillingness to cooperate. [Max Kennerly; Philadelphia Inquirer]
“Libel tourism” legislation
The intention of protecting American authors from overreaching foreign defamation suits certainly seems a good one. But what about the details? Howard Wasserman, who has raised various objections in the past, finds the bill that just passed the Senate “a dramatic improvement over earlier versions.” [Prawfsblawg]
“New Suits Could Chill Writers’ Use of Own Experiences”
Two lawsuits filed last month claim that writers improperly based fictional characters on the complainants. [Matthew Heller, OnPoint News] A much noted case last November, in which a Georgia jury awarded $100,000 to a woman who said she had been wrongly used as the basis in part for a character in the novel “The Red Hat Club”, may have encouraged the filing of such suits.
February 18 roundup
- Math curriculum wars in Seattle school district head for court [Seattle Times]
- Stuart Taylor, Jr. reviews new Abigail Thernstrom book on the Voting Rights Act [New Republic]
- Gail Wilensky: Dems could’ve gotten GOP votes for health care reform if they’d compromised on medical liability [The Hill]
- Erin Brockovich swoops down on Florida cancer cluster [Fumento/CEI, more, also on Florida case]
- Barry Goldwater was right: right-leaning bloggers favor lifting military gay ban by 62-37 margin in National Journal bloggers poll;
- Jim Copland vs. Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter [Point of Law, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, more]
- Why is there no iPod or iPhone equivalent for automobiles? Regulation might have something to do with it [Ryan Avent and more via Sullivan; McArdle and more (commenter: “Motorcycles would never, EVER be approved by NHTSA if they were invented today.”)]
- So reassuring: for now FTC says it’s “unlikely to actually investigate individual bloggers” [Lewis, NYLJ] More from late last year on commission’s semi-retreat on blogger freebies [Publisher’s Weekly, GalleySmith, GalleyCat, Reason “Hit and Run”, William S. Galkin] Icons to make disclosure easy [Louis Gray]
“Scan and Deliver”
“How Google got control over millions of out-of-print books” via a legal settlement. [Michael May, Texas Observer]
Update: Kindle not helpful enough to blind users
“Two organizations representing the blind have settled a discrimination lawsuit against Arizona State University over its use of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader device. … The university, which denies the pilot program violates any law, agreed that if it does decide to use e-book readers in future classes over the next two years, ‘it will strive to use devices that are accessible to the blind,’ according to their joint statement.” [AP/ABC News; earlier] Related: Berin Szoka, “An Internet for everyone” [L.A. Times/City Journal]
“Inmate sues Penthouse magazine for denying him subscription”
“A Florida prison inmate is suing the nudie magazine because it refused to send a subscription to him behind bars.” [Citrus Daily, Gothamist]
“Penguin v Steinbeck Estate re: The Pearl”
The 1947 novella always did seem to evoke the process of litigation on some psychological level, and here’s a literal lawsuit that arose from it just lately [Schwimmer, Trademark Blog]
Disclaimer in a 1975 gun book
TortsProf’s Christopher Robinette notes the exceedingly cautious language employed by the publisher of a book on the Walther P-38 pistol. “It’s sad that the publisher can’t even ‘approve of,’ never mind ‘advise’ or ‘encourage,’ the ‘use of’ the material ‘in any manner.'”