Greetings! My name is Meg and I am one of the summer interns here at Copyright Alliance. One of the best things about living and working in Washington, D.C. is having the chance to attend some of the numerous events and activities held in the area. This past Tuesday marked the ninth Christopher A. Meyer [...]

A few months back I wrote a series of blog posts compiled into a paper attacking ten common myths, or canards, about copyright. One I didn’t address, because it seemed obviously false, is “Copyright is an attempt to lock down facts.” Uh, no. Facts are not copyrightable. But expressions are. A website publisher in a [...]

Have you ever played Whack-a-Mole? Satirist Bob Ricci* has a song about a child savant Whack-a-Mole player not unlike The Who’s Pinball Wizard. I picture that young genius with an odd selection of specialty when I think about user-generated online posts that infringe on another’s work. This goes beyond the fact that the law entitles [...]

SEATTLE — I’m here at the FTC Town Hall meeting on digital rights management at the University of Washington School of Law. I just finished appearing on a panel here (well, actually I just finished an enjoyable chimichanga at a great joint right off campus, I had to eat before posting). The FTC is webcasting [...]

When one thinks of MySpace or Facebook, one’s first thoughts are not of copyright. Not even by me. Some think of keeping in touch with friends, or being fans of great organizations (be friends with the Copyright Alliance on Facebook!). Some think of risks to kids. Some think of ways to find good music or [...]

Copyright to me has always meant the ability to speak one’s mind and have that speech protected under the law, but some suggest copyright actually chills free speech. This is odd, because anyone can read or otherwise experience another’s expression, and anyone can comment on that expression, criticize it, or even satirize it. Fair use [...]

Creativity is alive and well in this country, and I’m talking about old-fashioned creativity, where artists create works using only artistic tools and their own imagination, rather than cannibalize the creativity of someone else. I’m still on a high after an art awards ceremony for northern Virginia students last night, a regional contest that sends [...]

A number of readers have directed my attention to an interesting blog post by Mark Fischer, an attorney and law professor, in which he offers his thoughts on Lawrence Lessig’s latest book Remix. As for my own take on the book, as I predicted it is largely a remix of his other works such as [...]

The world knows history was made Tuesday at noon Eastern when Barack Obama became our 44th President. So many profound things have been said by speakers and writers far more insightful than me, so I don’t wish to travel that same ground. And I’m also hesitant to try to localize his election and inauguration to [...]

Has it been three years already? The US Copyright Office is again hearing arguments for exceptions for, as the December 29 Federal Register notice puts it, “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 [...]