Koons and Christo
Jeff Koons is at it again. He’s been sued for copyright infringement, this time by an artist who created an… Read More »Koons and Christo
Copyright Law
The Future of Copyright: Teaching
IP law seems to be moving so quickly these days that figuring out how to teach it and what to… Read More »The Future of Copyright: Teaching
Is Hachette Being Hoisted by Its Own DRM Petard?
Rebecca Tushnet points to this column by Cory Doctorow arguing that Hachette is being held hostage in its fight with Amazon over e-book versions of its books because of its “single-minded insistence on DRM”: “It’s likely that every Hachette ebook ever sold has been locked with some company’s proprietary DRM, and therein lies the rub.” Doctorow argues that because of the DMCA Hachette can no longer get access, or authorize others to get access to, its own books:
Under US law (the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and its global counterparts (such as the EUCD), only the company that put the DRM on a copyrighted work can remove it. Although you can learn how to remove Amazon’s DRM with literally a single, three-word search, it is nevertheless illegal to do so, unless you’re Amazon. So while it’s technical child’s play to release a Hachette app that converts your Kindle library to work with Apple’s Ibooks or Google’s Play Store, such a move is illegal.
It is an own-goal masterstroke.
Everyone loves irony, but I can’t figure out how to make Doctorow’s argument work. First, I can’t figure out what the anticircumvention problem would be. Second, I can’t figure out why Hachette wouldn’t be able to provide other distributors with e-book versions of its books. Read More »Is Hachette Being Hoisted by Its Own DRM Petard?
Oracle v. Google Reversed – Why Framing Matters
Two years to the day since my last blog post on this subject, the Federal Circuit has reversed Judge Alsup’s… Read More »Oracle v. Google Reversed – Why Framing Matters
Are You Missing the Market, Aspen?
Professors are in an uproar over Aspen Publisher’s new rules for textbooks. In short, if you thought you could buy… Read More »Are You Missing the Market, Aspen?