The CopyKat - copyright and the internet: are we Poles apart?

The Polish Filmmakers’ Association (SFP) has won a "significant" legal victory against UPC Polska, the country’s leading cable operator. In a statement, the association says that the Warsaw Court of Appeal has ordered  the broadcaster to pay SFP compensation for the non-contractual rebroadcasting of audiovisual works. The actual amount, though not specified, will according to the SFP run into many millions of zloty.

In the communist era, the Eagle lost its crown

And also from Poland comes news that there is "no mechanism in place for mediation in disputes over copyright issues".That's according to Jerzy Straszewski, president of the Polish Chamber of Electronic Communications (PIKE). Speaking in a panel discussion on intellectual property on the second day of the PIKE 2013 conference and exhibition, he added that the Commission on Authors’ Rights (Komisja Praw Autorskich) formed in 2010 had no clearly defined role and there was a need for it to act as a mediator. Józef Kot, from Vectra Investments, said that the whole system for mediating disputes should be rebuilt from scratch, with the creation of an independent mediation authority and with the courts as a last resort

The operator of the popular file-sharing service isoHunt, is shutting down to settle a long-running lawsuit brought by the Motion Picture Association of America, according to court records. Gary Fung, the site’s Canadian operator, also agreed to pay $110 million in damages as part of the deal to end the long-running legal battle - although quite where he will get that sort of sum remains unclear. Programmer Bram Cohen released the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol in 2001, and its efficient way of transferring files has become the method of choice for illicit, peer-to-peer sharing of copyright.  The isoHunt litigation began in a Los Angeles federal court in 2006. In March of this year, a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the DCMA would not apply to Fung  because Fung’s business model, the court said, was designed for the primary purpose of copyright infringement.

TorrentFreak has managed to unearth some financial details for The Center for Copyright Information (CCI), the 'not for profit' organisation set up to administer the US's 'six strikes' regime. When the scheme started,  the founding content owner members (primarily the MPAA and the RIAA) agreed to share the costs with the participating major ISPs. The company's first eight month tax filing shows that  ISPs and copyright holders paid a total of $1,377,633 in membership dues, putting the yearly budget around $2 million per year. So where is all the money going? Well here's a breakdown, via TorrentFreak: (i) The CCI pays Executive Director Jill Lesser - the only key employee working there - a modest $43,750 during the first eight months of 2012 BUT (ii) Lesser indirectly earns a bit more from CCI from her consulting firm JAL, which the CCI paid $193,750 to during the same eight-month period. (iii) Around $144,093 was paid to PR firm Glover Park Group and (iv) Resource Global was paid $125,691 for its consulting services, as well as $102,928 in legal fees. The costs do not cover the cost of copyright actions by copyright holders and the costs ISPs incur when tracking down infringers and processing the notices with TorrentFreak saying that "copyright holders and ISPs are likely to spend double or triple the previously mentioned $2 million on the entire six-strikes system."

What has the UK's Digital Copyright Hub boss Richard Hooper been saying? Well you can read it all on the Music Ally website but in a nutshell "There is a problem with copyright in the fast-moving digital world, [but] before the kneejerk reaction ‘the law must be changed!’, look whether changes to copyright licensing, processes and organisations will resolve some, if not all of the problems specified… most of the problems can be solved if the creative industries get off their backsides and streamline copyright licensing”. 

That said, Creative Commons have urged lawmakers around the world to reform copyright law to make creative works more open to public domain. Creative Commons issued the policy statement in the face of more restrictive intellectual-property trends to dispute suggestions that "the very success of CC licenses means that copyright reform is unnecessary" saying "CC licenses are a patch, not a fix, for the problems of the copyright system," and the statement foes on to say "However well-crafted a public licensing model may be, it can never fully achieve what a change in the law would do, which means that law reform remains a pressing topic.… CC licenses are not a substitute for users' rights" and "the public would benefit from more extensive rights to use the full body of human culture and knowledge for the public benefit. CC licenses are not a substitute for users’ rights, and CC supports ongoing efforts to reform copyright law to strengthen users’ rights and expand the public domain."

The monster Grendel - rivalled by Google?

Researchers at the University of Nottingham have discovered that Google's terms and conditions of use need reading skills above and beyond those needed to understand the the heroic epic Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf: Facebook's terms are so complex that the reader would be well placed to read The Prince by Machiavelli in their place. If you are thinking of signing up with Scottish Power - completing reading their terms and conditions is equivalent to reading Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche - if not worse: Research Fellow Ewa Luger, who analysed the texts, pointed out that data protection provisions are often particularly complex - making no sense to most readers (who haven't given up) and believes that first step towards understanding online terms and conditions would be to make the texts easier to read - saying that E.L. James, author of Fifty Shades of Grey, writes simple, readable, clear and understandable texts - if you like that sort of thing that is! 

“Elysium”, the recently released sci-fi action-thriller starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, is facing a copyright claim in the Northern District of California.  Screenwriter Steve Willis Briggs has accused director of Elysium,  Neill Blomkamp, of stealing the idea for “Elysium” from his screenplay “Butterfly Driver.”   At the heart of the claim is the core story in “Elysium”: In 2154, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy, who live on a luxurious space station called Elysium and the poor, who live on an overpopulated, devastated Earth. While residents on Earth are policed by ruthless robots, Elysian citizens live in comfort and regularly use man-sized medical devices called Med-Bays to keep them free of disease and injury. The film follows the main character Max, who is played by Matt Damon, as he attempts to gain access to restricted medical treatment that is reserved for the wealthy after he is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation and an ensuing fight with Elysiun's Secretary of Defence Jessica Delacourt (Jodie Foster) and vicious mercenary Kruger.  Briggs claims that numerous aspects of the film, namely the plot, characters, and themes, are taken directly from his “Butterfly Driver.” Briggs registered his screenplay in June with the U.S. Copyright Office in order to file the suit. Other defendants include Sony Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Media Rights Capital, and QED International.

Now to the world of video games: First off, The Switch report that one of their most popular posts concerned a full-on recreation of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. in the browser. Nintendo is now accusing the developer of copyright infringement — to which one commentator wrote, "I don't understand, the dude just made something for fun. He's not making profit off of it, it's a fan creation! That's like saying we should take down all fan art and not wear any cosplay, because it's copyright infringement."

And more on video games: It seems independent video game developer Wild Games Studio might have "abused" YouTube's copyright system to censor a negative video review of their game My Day One: Garry's Incident which was posted by user TotalBiscuit. In a series of tweets, Total Biscuit addressed the issue saying "Well, cat is out of the bag since someone on Reddit found it. My Day One: Garrys Incident video was copyright flagged by the devs [developers]. I should point out that this is a game I was sent review code for, it was also the top-ranked video on Youtube for that game. It is fairly obvious what they are doing here, abusing Youtube's copyright system to censor criticism of their product." More on Gameranx here - all fuel for the debate about what is and here perhaps isn't the proper role of copyright.

The shutdown of MegaUpload took nearly 11 million legitimate files offline - that's according to a new study by the Northeastern University in Boston. The same report confirms that the majority of the files did contain infringing content. Overall, researchers say that at least 26% and possibly up to 79% of files on the sites surveyed infringed copyright. stored and shared via the now defunct cloud-locker and file-transfer service were likely infringing copyright. 


And finally - a fascinating article by Shrii Shrii Anandamurtijii on how copyright law does (and doesn't) interface with indigenous peoples' folklore  - and concepts such as communal ownership - here set against a background of Australian Aboriginal customary law. For more, it's on the Speaking Tree - go to "The equitable interface between customary law and copyright law". Image from www.tobwabba.co.au. 

Hooper's plea for better data

Richard Hooper CBE

Richard Hooper, tasked with creating the UK's Copyright Hub and the Digital  Rights Exchange has said the first phase of the licensing platform will launch in July. Hooper told an audience at the London Book Fair that the Hub is in "phase one" of its development, mainly raising awareness of its existence. It's only by "phase three" that people will be able to buy low value rights (perhaps music for a wedding video, or photographs for a small businesses's website) to use copyrighted material, seemingly via third-party websites.

It seems the Copyright Hub will be a place where websites connect to encourage and welcome rights holders to register their rights,licences and permissions. According to Hooper, the Hub will be the portal users go to in the UK to find their way ‘through the maze of copyright’s complexity’. Stemming from Professor Ian Hargreaves 2011 Review of IP in the United Kingdom, The new Hub is being developed by four creative industries – music, publishing, audiovisual and images – under Hooper’s chairmanship. Hooper said style and feel of the Hub is ‘voluntary, opt-in, non exclusive, pro-competitive’, but warned the audience that simplifying copyright licensing is not a short-term task, but ‘a permanent, never-ending requirement of the copyright creative industries as new technology continues to disrupt the established order.’ All businesses and all collecting societies will require ‘eternal vigilance, leading to new strategies and excellent execution of those strategies’ Hooper said.

Giving the Charles Clark Memorial Lecture, Hooper also made the point that the copyright industries need to "get their houses in order" before any kind of Exchange can work and that content owners needed to start labelling and indexing their work accurately and clearly. As an example, Hooper was concerned that the BBC were ignoring two standards of broadcast material metadata and also pointed to failures in the book, music and movie industries have, even where global systems like the International Standard Book Number (ISBN),  in place meaning that on the digital age it is still it not possible to identify and tag individual paragraphs, equations, gene sequences and so on in a text meaning that the original author could be traced from a single extract. Many in the music industry might say the same about samples of sound recordings - surely in 2013 it should be quite simple to embed information in a sound recording so when even a part is used both the user and the owner of the original recording knows who has been sampled.  Indeed The Register reported that Hooper said that "everybody from the BBC to The Sun" is stripping metadata from creative works, and likened it to the tearing of ISBN codes from printed tomes adding that "improving the state of data will enable the multi-media and borderless nature of modern creativity to truly prosper". 

 Hooper also made it clear that the new Hub will not the place for low-volume high-value deals - such as a licence for Premier League football or to develop a blockbuster movie service, and the Register adds "You almost certainly won't be able to launch a music service using licences obtained through the Exchange".

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/18/copyright_hub_hooper_speech/

Hooper's vision unfolds

Former BBC legal chief James Lancaster will chair the new Copyright Licensing Steering Group, set up as a result of Richard Hooper's investigation 'Copyright works - streamlining copyright in the digital age' which proposed the creation of a Digital Copyright Exchange to  facilitate the licensing of copyrights on a 'one stop shop' basis with a registry of copyright data and copyright owners and potentially licensing mechanisms.  The Copyright Hub would also be responsible for providing education on copyright, the need for which (for both consumers and content owners!) was recently highlighted by Iona on this Blog. The DCE would also be responsible for solutions to the issues surrounding orphan works.  Hooper's co-author, Ros Lynch, will oversee the CLSG on secondment from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills, at an industry funded office hosted by publisher Pearson. Hooper will chair a sub-committee called the 'Copyright Hub Launch Group' looking at how the digital licensing exchange will work. 

PRS for Music boss Robert Ashcroft reacted positively to the announcement saying “We join with others across the industry in welcoming the announcement today that James Lancaster, former Head of Rights And Business Affairs at the BBC, will chair the Copyright Licensing Steering Group and that Ros Lynch will be leading an office to spearhead the work to deliver Richard Hooper’s Copyright Works recommendations”. The music collection society boss  added “We will continue, with our partners in the industry, to meet the challenges he identified, providing a better licensing environment for all. As previously stated, we believe that the Copyright Hub recommended by Hooper could place Britain at the very centre of the global, online market for the creative industries. Coupled with industry efforts for a Global Repertoire Database, it will prove to be a critical building block in what must inevitably be an international project”.

Copyright works can be downloaded here 

Hooper's Copyright Hub takes shape

Richard Hooper has today published his final report on the creation of a UK based Digital Copyright Exchange. The report, Copyright Works:  streamlining copyright licensing for the digital age can be downloaded here and sets out four main recommendations under the remit of setting up a not for profit industry led and industry funded Copyright Hub which will serve a number of functions including


* Information and copyright education
* Registries of rights
* A market place for rights - licensing solutions
* Help with the orphan works problem

The accompanying press release gives a little bit more detail saying that the Copyright Hub will have five main purposes, to:

Richard Hooper 

- act as a signpost and be a navigation mechanism to the complex world of copyright

- be the place to go for copyright education

- be the place where any copyright owner can choose to register works, the associated rights to those works, permitted uses and licences granted

- be the place for potential licensees to go for easy to use, transparent, low transaction cost copyright licensing

- be one of the authoritative places where prospective users of orphan works can go to demonstrate they have done proper, reasonable and due diligence searches for the owners of those works before they digitise them.

With Richard Hooper saying  "Setting up an industry led and industry-funded Copyright Hub will help maximise the potential for creators and rights owners on the supply side and the wide range of licensees and users on the demand side".

There are very positive and glowing comments from Business Secretary Vince Cable who said "The idea of a 'copyright hub' is an ambitious undertaking and one that could clearly yield great benefits for the UK's creative industries and consumers. It is potentially a ground-breaking step forward that will help make copyright licensing fit for 21st century." 


UK Music, and the UK's two music collection societies PRS for Music and PPL all made very positive noises and Nick Evans-Lombe, COO of Getty Images said: "We are impressed by the speed and no-nonsense manner with which Richard Hooper and Ros Lynch have addressed the key impediments to speedy innovation, across what are the hugely diverse, inherently international, digital copyright markets. We welcome the way they have dug deep into the underpinning principles of copyright licensing, without losing sight of the critical importance of maintaining a strong copyright regime, which is essential to enable the creative industries to continue to flourish" and from  Sarah Faulder, CEO of the Publishers’ Licensing Society who said: "Richard Hooper's phase two report Copyright Works, sets out a focused and worthwhile vision of a multi-faceted copyright hub to explain and streamline the process of copyright licensing.  Making it easier to get appropriate copyright licences will benefit both rights holders and those who want to build their businesses on copyright content or otherwise be able to use copyright material lawfully" adding "By recognising existing good practice, stimulating new initiatives in the course of his work and identifying issues that need urgent attention, Richard has encouraged the creative industries to collaborate and he has motivated them to take forward his vision. The scale of the task ahead in order to turn his vision into reality should not, however, be underestimated."

All that said, I have to say I found it hard to get excited by the final Report - all of the main problems have been identified and Richard Hooper's approach seems to have been more than diligent, intelligent, inclusive and well thought out - and certainly anything that helps with licensing must be a positive move forward for the content industries in the fight against piracy. But, and its a big but, the Hub will not be 'compulsory' for content owners to join for low value high volume consumer facing schemes, which means that many digital users will just say it has failed, as they need a 'one stop shop' to become legitimate - and there seems to be no real carrot for content owners to be included. I wonder if some commercial operators will bother - although I should make it clear that I would not suggest that using the Hub should be compulsory and clearly Hooper knows that high value low volume licensing will be excluded (citing Universal's licence with Spotify as an example of something that would be outside of the Hub).  


The carrot of some advantage of registering with the Hub might have helped this blogger make more sense of it  - giving the Hub some extra legislative teeth that could be used against infringers for example, or some other advantage. Secondly (and again something that might attract the criticism that there is no 'one stop shop') the Hub is a UK initiative and is not global or even pan-European in its scope - although on the last point I would say "not as yet". PRS For Music's CEO Robert Ashcroft was one who mentioned the need for a "Global Repertoire Database" as a key building block in what "must inevitably be an international project", something the Report itself does acknowledge, noting the importance of data and noting the music industry's aspirations to have a global database for musical works, and for sound recordings, and recommending that the audio visual industry adopts standardised identifiers,. Hooper clearly realises the need for the Hub to include all content owners within and across media sectors against a backdrop of multi-media and borderless end users. As an aside, for a very interesting take on how to streamline music licensing (and collection societies) in Europe, see para 132.


Finally, there seems to be little onward Government support or involvement - it's left to the content industries to make Richard's "vision" a reality - and as I read it, they have to meet the cost. Maybe that's a positive move, far better than having a Hub imposed from above - but I wonder if really legislation might better give the Copyright Hub a spine and some claws (if they are needed). 


Hooper proposes that the Report's co-author, Dr Ros Lynch, now leads a steering committee (the Copyright Licensing Steering Group) to put his proposals into action - and potentially form a cross sectoral and collaborative Copyright Hub Launch Group - I presume with some Government funding for that although Hooper seems to suggest that at least for a year the creative industries have agreed to fund the Licensing Group.


The full report can be downloaded here http://www.ipo.gov.uk/dce-report-phase2.pdf