Assignment for May 3, 2010

On Monday, May 3rd, Professor Dan Laster will be the guest lecturer for the class.

As we continue to focus on the emerging legal, business, policy and other interests related to content on the internet, especially as debated in the Viacom v. Google (YouTube) litigation, and the litigation and settlement discussions surrounding Google Books, a more complete understanding of the DMCA remains central to our work. Of course, you have already studied the DMCA and we have mentioned it as we walked through the foundational case law and statutes underlying these issues over the last few weeks. However, Dan will take a deeper dive with you on the DMCA. You will also have some time during the class to meet with your stakeholder groups.

Some key issues you should consider and discuss include:
-- who qualifies for the DMCA protections and why?
-- how current and relevant is the statute after so many changes with respect to the internet and social media in the past ten years?
-- how fair use and the DMCA interact
-- what are the issues surrounding take-down notices for sites such as YouTube and Twitter; and
-- what are some of the policy and business issues different stakeholders might consider beneficial or damaging to their interests.

Think about the statute and some of these related issues from the perspective of your assigned stakeholder team – a Silicon Valley internet startup; an “old media” company like Viacom (or Disney); and independent recording or visual artist; or a Congressional staffer thinking about broad public interests and the constitutional balance between protection and public dissemination.

There are many law review articles and other journal pieces on the DMCA, but we’ll make it easy and have you look at some basic sites that describe the process, some complaints, and some relevant situations.

DMCA:


http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2010/04/27/twitter-removes-song-link-tweet-after-dmca-complaint

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=83757

www.dmca.com

www.anti-dmca.org

www.youtube.com/t/dmca_policy

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/07/universal-says/

Also, here is the article I mentioned in the last class covering the recent briefings filed as part of the motion for summary judgment describing some of the emails behind the scenes.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/company-news/viacom-v-youtube-google-a-piracy-case-in-their-own-words/19407896/

Of course, if interested, you can find many other interesting sites, blogs, commentary and funny you tube videos online.

I will be back in town and see you all on May 10th.

Steve

The "Fair Use" Economy

It accounts for at least 1/6 of the U.S. GDP: here www.boingboing.net/2010/04/27/the-fair-use-economy.html

Check out about YouTube's All Time Top Videos

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2010/04/25/levs.youtube.supremacy.cnn?hpt=C2

It is hard to believe that YouTube is only 5 years old. According to CNN, YouTube gets over of 24 hours of video uploaded every minute and that they get over a billion views a day.

No wonder YouTube was so aggressive at the beginning. It begs the question, how much does their traffic generate in terms of advertising dollars?

YouTube appears that it can be generous in paying royalties to the respective copyright owners with no problems whatsoever!

Book Scan

Japanese small venture company, Yamato Printing Co., started “Book Scan” service. This service is to provide a pdf file from a book, just for $1. If a user sends his book to Yamato Printing, Yamato Printing makes a pdf file from the book, and then sends the file back to the user. The book will be shredded after making the pdf file in order to avoid copyright infringement. But, can Yamato actually avoid copyright infringement?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5j_a52nNko

SCOTUS & Technology

How tech saavy is this current Court?The Techie Court?

Making money off YouTube content

In reference to today's discussion, here's an article about someone who made a lot of money off a video showing his son saying funny things on the way home from the dentist.

Funny KTV singing

In case class needs a break:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2rZxCrb7iU

www.youtube.com/watch?v=muNTS-HkU7o&feature=fvhl

Stealing Digital E-Books legally?

www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/magazine/04FOB-ethicist-t.html?ref=magazine

Article on Google Books Settlement

This is a link to a fairly good, but long, article, which talks about the potential ramifications of the Google Book Settlement. The website is part of the Gizmodo family.

Comcast v. FCC

Recent case where the court ruled against the FCC in the agency's attempts to enforce "net neutrality," holding that the FCC did not have such authority under its ancillary powers. FCC censured Comcast for slowing internet access to a file sharing site, BitTorrent. ISPs may control internet traffic/access to certain websites.

NY Times Article

Full Opinion

Current Syllabus - To Be Updated

Weekly Outline

Week 1: March 29, 2010.

Books, Videos and More Online – What’s The Problem?

Two of the most interesting and visible recent developments at the intersection of the law and the internet involve Google (not to mention their position in China!). Having acquired YouTube, Google is one of the defendants in a suit brought by Viacom claiming, among other things, widespread copyright infringement of Viacom’s many media properties. Google vigorously opposes these claims, asserting a statutory safe harbor under the important Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) providing copyright owners the right to “opt out” and have their works removed from the site. More recently, Google also has been in the news for its languishing settlement of a widely publicized set of claims made by authors, publishers and others regarding its “Google Books” project.

Both of these cases provide ample fodder for us to consider a larger range of legal, business and policy issues pertaining to creativity on the internet, and will provide the basis for this course. First, it is important to understand a little about these cases and understand their various stakeholders and their respective interests.

Reading for this Class:

• Read Luckhurst, “Viacom v. Google: The $1B Battle for Content,” The Independent, (March 18, 2007) http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2368890.ece
• Read Lessig, “Make Way for Copyright Chaos” New York Times Op-Ed, March 18, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/opinion/18lessig.html?ex=1331870400&en=a376e7886d4bcf62&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
• http://publishers.org/main/PressCenter/Archicves/2005_Aug/Aug_02.htm
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/23/authors-opt-out-google-book-settlement
• www.googlebooksettlement.com

Review as appropriate / if interested:

• Complaint, Viacom International Inc. et. Al. v. YouTube, Inc. et. Al (SDNY), www.lessig.org/blog/archives/vvg.pdf
• Any background reading on Google Books
• Go to www.googlebooks.com; and www.youtube.com, and check them out


Class Discussion:

• Introductions
• Establishing the Problem
• The Courts. v. The Court of Public Opinion v. Business Practices
• Scenarios from Different Stakeholders

Next Assignment:

• Readings below
• Start thinking about what different stakeholders might want and what they must do…


Week 2: April 5, 2010

So What’s the Law?

So before we go too far, we should review the law and try to understand where counsel for Google, Viacom and the others in these cases must start

Readings for the Class:

• DMCA, Sections 512 http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap12.html
• MGM v. Grokster, 125 S.Ct. 2764 (2005)
• A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc., 239 F.3d 1004 (9thCir. 2001)
• Kelly v. Arribasoft, 336 F.3d 811 (9thCir. 2003)
• Compare approaches and legal positions of www.eff.org v. www.musicunited.org v. www.googlecopyright.blogspot.com

Class Discussion

• Review of the case law
• Divide into Stakeholders Groups
• Discuss Team Assignments

Next Assignment:

• Readings (see below)
• Surf the Net and Identify four different sites that might raise questions of authorized and unauthorized use of content based on your understanding of the current state of the law, and be prepared to discuss.


Week 3: April 12, 2010 - NO CLASS


Week 4: April 19, 2010

A Closer Look at the YouTube Case

Reading for this Class:

• Review complaint, Viacom International, Inc., et. al. v. YouTube, Inc. et. al., (SDNY) www.lessig.org/blog/archives/vvg.pdf
• Review Wu, The Copyright Paradox: Understanding Grokster, 2005 S.Ct.Rev. 229
• Take a look at the following sites:

• www.anti-dmca.org (dmca)
• eff.org/issues/dmca (dmca)
• google.com/dmca.html (dmca)
• www.lessig.org/content/articles/works/cyberlessons/index.html (fair use - lessons 7 – 10)
• www.eff.org/issues/ip-and-free-speech/fair-use-principles-usergen (fair use)

Class Discussion:

• Discuss some of identified sites using content legally or not
• Discussion of legal framework issues in context of historical perspective
o DMCA
o Fair Use
o DRM/Filtering
• Define and discuss in more detail Stakeholder Teams’ assignment and issues

Next Assignment:

• Meet with your Stakeholder Team before next week. Divide into respective sub-groups as necessary. Begin process of developing positions/sub-positions and approaches.
• Post short (<200 words) blog of YOUR personal bias/position – whether as consumer, change agent, law student, etc. regarding the issues of this case – on Class Blog. Due May 9th.

Week 5: April 26, 2010 (MAY NEED TO RESCHEDULE TO PRIOR WEEK)

A Closer Look at Google Books

Reading for this Class:

• TBD

Class Discussion:

• History of Google Books
• The role of Competitors in legal developments
• The international implications
• E-Readers – and new issues

Next Assignment:

• Individual comments to be posted on Blog by EOD May 9th.


Week 6: May 3, 2010

Guest Speaker (or Work on Stakeholder Groups)

Reading for this Class:

• TBD

Week 7: May 10, 2010

Creators’ Rights in the Digital Age

Reading for this Class:

• Review selected press articles on Google Books
• Explore Columbia University Kernochan Center on Law and Media’s project www.keepyourcopyright.org
• Articles on Creative Commons
• Read article on approaches to music downloading http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-music-roundup-starbucks-iphone-radiohead-fans-pricing-bebo-atlantic-imeb

Class Discussion:

• Explore and Discuss Artist Views and Issues, legally, economically and socially
• Keepyourcopyright.org; Radiohead, and other innovations
• Update on status of different Stakeholder Team assignments – identify with class current challenges and issues

Next Assignment:

• Further Development of Stakeholder’s Position Papers – Final Presentations Due end of day May 17th (<8 pages from each of the four groups) for posting on Class Blog


Week 8: May 17, 2010

Corporate Interests in the Digital Age: Old Media & New Media

Reading for this Class:

• TBD

Class Discussion:

• Devote half of class to stakeholder team presentations

Next Assignment:

• Readings below
• Team Presentations due on May 17th – posted on blog ahead of class presentations


Week 9: May 24 2010 (Final Session)

The Public’s Interests in the Digital Age: Consumers, Communities & Governments

No specific readings for this class, but come to discuss YOUR stakeholder’s point of view, with any appurtenant readings/articles/support

Presentations representing litigators, judges and lawyers, business coalitions, artist coalitions and others.

Readings:

• www.creativecommons.org
• www.keepyourcopyright.org
• TBD

Class Discussion:

• Presentations and/or mock debates between groups
• Who Represents the Consumer? The Community?

Course Description

E-Books, YouTube & More:
Innovation & Creativity on the Internet

It is hard to imagine the world before the Internet, before you could immediately access information about any subject from diverse sources around the world, before you could shop for books, cars and homes from your kitchen table, before you could download books onto your e-reader, or find nearly any song ever recorded the moment you want, or waste time watching YouTube videos. But recall that the Netscape browser, which essentially enabled the commercial Internet and text-based websites and search, was launched less than 20 years ago. Streaming digital audio was introduced less than 15 years ago, peer-to-peer file sharing of content – courtesy of Napster – less than ten. Google emerged as the dominant search tool just 5 years ago, YouTube was launched in 2005 and Facebook began to gain traction a mere two years ago, back in the days when a tweet was something only birds could do In the last several months we have watched the rapid success of new media and communication tools like Twitter and Hulu, while traditional (aka “old”) means of delivery, such as newspapers, are fighting for survival in a digital world.

The speed at which innovation and creativity, driven by individuals not just large companies, is occurring is mind-boggling, and it will not slow down. Well, some would argue, that it can only be slowed by corporate interests, using the existing legal regime, to protect current business models involving control of intellectual property from the threat posed by innovation and creativity. Others suggest that it is only because of these legal regimes that innovators and entrepreneurs have the ability to create new models with a clear understanding of the risks and rewards they will enjoy.

As a result, one of the most visible, challenging and inherently interesting debates law, policy and business today emerges around the question of who owns and has the right to control intellectual property and content in the digital ecosystem today, and the relationship to ownership and control of that content to innovation in society. Simply put, many are asking whether copyright is the enemy of innovation in the digital world, or not.

These are not new questions, but their implications and the ways in which the answers may evolve in the future are changing. Important cases such as Napster and Grokster, among others, have set some standards for us to follow – for now. But in more fundamental ways, practical questions surrounding the use and control of videos, music, pictures and text online are far from resolved, and the early case law surrounding these emerging questions only form part of a larger puzzle. There are policy questions, business standards and even social practices that eventually will define the ownership, control and access to content and information distributed through the Internet.

The emergent “grand debate” in the “creativity 3.0” world is whether in this era of new technology, tools and platforms for distributing media, the current legal vehicles and standards of copyright are adequate to continue the long-standing constitutional balancing between protection and reward to the creator, and the public’s interest in knowledge and access.

This course will examine different stakeholders’ points of view on this important debate, with the goal of developing some rationale and defensible outcomes, and a way forward for both creators and technology innovators.

While we will require some case readings, our focus will be more on policy discussions, practical business analyses and press coverage on this topic. We will spend a significant amount of time trying to understand the business interests and risks, and understanding some of the practical issues lawyers and law students often ignore. To that end, guest speakers may participate. .

There will be no exam. Instead, we will divide the course into teams reflecting different “stakeholders” in the creation, ownership and distribution of content and information over the Internet, and each team will prepare a presentation or proposal to be presented in the class. Active participation by the class also is required.

We will meet once each week. Attendance is required.

Welcome

Welcome to the class blog for E-Books, YouTube & More: Innovation & Creativity on the Internet.

This is the blog for University of Washington Law School's IP Innovations in Science and Technology course, E589, during the 2010 Spring Term.

We will use this blog to post assignments, discuss issues, link to relevant sights, and otherwise generate a broader class discussion on the fascinating and complex issues surrounding music, books, videos, photography and other "content" on the internet.

I hope you enjoy the class -

Steve