Legal Issues

An Eldred V. Ashcroft Transcript is now online. It\'s not the official one, but it\'s all we have right now.

Here\'s The Docket, Slashdot Thread, Lessig\'s Thoughts, and a Washington Post Primer.
Free The Mouse!

Sabrina I. Pacifici writes "European Union Law: An Integrated Guide to Electronic and Print Research is
Marylin J. Raisch's extensive guide which includes: treaties establishing the European Union, legislation, case law, periodical literature and other sources, implementing legislation at the national level, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, citation issues, and "a guide to the guides." See the October 15 issue of LLRX.com.

Wired points the way to a new campaign from The American Civil Liberties Union "Keep America Safe and Free".

"The Bush administration has presented Americans with a false dichotomy that we must choose between being safe or free," said ACLU national spokeswoman Emily Whitfield. "We're saying there doesn't have to be a choice. We can stay safe and free at the same time."

Jen Young passed along Making My Own Music that sheds some more light on Eldred v. Ashcroft. The author says copyright extension actually restricts creativity by narrowing the shared universe of works artists can build upon. He adds instead of seeing new ideas as a positive development, corporate copyright holders view it as something that must be quashed.

Legal Librarian writes \"Here\'s The Form.

The Copyright Office is preparing to conduct proceedings mandated by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which provides that the Librarian of Congress may exempt certain classes of works from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. The purpose of this rulemaking proceeding is to determine whether there are particular classes of works as to which users are, or are likely to be, adversely affected in their ability to make noninfringing uses due to the prohibition on circumvention.
This notice requests written comments from all interested parties, including representatives of copyright owners, educational institutions, libraries and archives, scholars, researchers and members of the public, in order to elicit evidence on whether noninfringing uses of certain classes of works are, or are likely to be, adversely affected by this prohibition on the circumvention of measures that control access to copyrighted works.

\"

Marian clued us in to this research paper in the latest number of Information Technology and Disabilities addressing the question of accessibility. From the introduction:

\"This article will discuss the importance of accessibility to electronic and information technologies in libraries. The context and requirements of Section 508, including which organizations the law applies to, will be discussed, with emphasis given to its application to libraries. The article will outline the roles and requirements of other Federal laws and organizations relevant to electronic and information technology accessibility. Potential problems that must be considered in the implementation of Section 508 standards will be examined. Finally, this article will discuss the methods by which libraries can adopt the standards of Section 508 to implement accessibility.\"

Don\'t miss the excellent bibliography.

This Wired Story looks like bad news. They say the U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday expressed measured skepticism that copyright law and the First Amendment are intertwined. Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association, said Congress will most likely overturn the CTEA on its own even if the court upholds it.

See also: Fencing Off the Public Domain, for more the public domain and copyright.

News.com also has more.

This Slashdot Thread has a nice summary of the Eldred v. Ashcroft case. They point to Lawmeme and Yahoo News for some first hand accounts.

Jen Young pointed us to This CNN Story on Eldred V. Ashcroft, which will be heard on Wednesday. It's a nice overview on the case if you need to catch up. The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 was sponsored by late Rep. Sonny Bono and quickly became known as the "Mickey Mouse Extension Act" because of aggressive lobbying by Disney, whose earliest representations of its squeaky-voiced mascot were set to pass into the public domain in 2003.

Sabrina Pacifici writes \"Constitutional, Federal and State Legal Definitions of Child Pornography, Obscenity and \"Harmful to Minors\" of Interest to California Libraries
Mary Minow reviews the federal and California state laws on pornography, child pornography, obscenity, and the recent \"harmful to minors\" laws (the Online Protection Act and the Children\'s Internet Protection Act). This article is in the October 1, 2002 issue of LLRX.com.\"

Here\'s A Businessweek Story on Eldred v. Ashcroft. On Oct. 9, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of Eldred v. Ashcroft. It\'s a challenge to the controversial 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), which lengthened copyright terms by 20 years, stretching them to 70 years after an artist\'s death.


A Supreme Court ruling against the CTEA would be the first major victory for digital-rights activists, who want more books, music, and images to enter the public domain. And it would be a grand defeat for corporations, which claim they would forfeit billions in lost revenues.

Teddy writes \"Kind of an interesting story at the Washington Post

As acceptance for biometrics technology has grown, so too has opposition from a broad range of voices, including many like Dick Armey allies.

\"There\'s something about ourselves that is being captured,\" Kshirsagar added. \"This biometric identification will be linked to some kind of database. All of a sudden you have a pretty intrusive look into somebody\'s life.\"
\"

Runner writes \"The Opposing Copyright Extension Site, Maintained by, Dennis S. Karjala, Professor of Law, Arizona State University, is a great place to keep up on the world of Copyright Extension, the \"Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act,\" and such legal matters.

Check it out! \"

Thomas J. Hennen Jr. passed along This JSOnline Story that says \"Library associations, civil libertarians, even average book-loving Americans are understandably nervous about whether library and bookstore record searches will be abused. But if it comes to an actual case, you probably won\'t hear a peep. The law imposes a gag on librarians about specific searches. That\'s scary.\"

Wired has Lawrence Lessig\'s Supreme Showdown. This one, How BayTSP is Enforcing the Digital Millennium, a look at a company being used to enforce the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and last but not least A cybersage speaks his mind, is a CNET interview with David Sorkin.

Michael Nellis writes \"The King County Library System settled out of court for seizure by the police of two computers. The police wanted to search the computers for kiddie porn but took them without a warrant.


Tribnet.com Has The Full Story \"

The settlement states that the computers can be put back into service Wednesday.The city paid $30,000 toward the library system\'s attorney fees and $670 to cover costs incurred by the library system as a result of the lawsuit.

\"We expect we would have the library\'s attorneys challenging everything we try to do,\" police spokesman Paul Petersen said. \"Besides, our computer forensic folks have told us that, with the way the library manages its software, we may not be able to find the information we need.\"

For CNet News, Jeffrey Eisenach and Peter Swire write...

\"The bill to create the new Department of Homeland Security is now before the Senate. The new Department, once created, will enhance the federal government\'s ability to collect and use information about American citizens, or in today\'s favorite catch phrase, to \'connect the dots.\' But which dots will be connected, by whom and for what purpose?\" Read More.

Business Week is reporting on a story about telecom giant Verizon refusing to comply with the RIAA to turn over the identity of a subscriber who the RIAA thinks might have illegally downloaded some music. \"The RIAA didn\'t specify why it wanted to know who the user was or what it would do with the information. Perhaps Verizon\'s \"John Doe\" should be charged with bad taste in music, but not with anything else. The RIAA and the music labels believe that if they can fry the big fish, or at least scare them into not supporting the P2P networks, resilient services such as KaZaA and Morpheus will share Napster\'s fate.\" Read More.

The Middletown Press is reporting on the fact that since 9/11, civil rights cases are being argued quietly. \"Federal authorities have detained immigrants for months, held secret court hearings, seized computer data from libraries and gathered vast amounts of e-mail and phone records, all in the name of protecting America from more acts of terrorism. But if civil libertarians are grumbling about the possible erosion in individual rights, they are doing it somewhat quietly.\" Read More.

This one comes by way of The Pensacola News Journal: \"The FBI won\'t say how many public libraries it has checked to determine who is getting particular books or looking up certain information on computers. But a University of Illinois survey of nearly 2,000 libraries in December and January determined that the agency searched one of every nine of the nation\'s largest libraries for information after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.\" Read More.