Earth: Mostly Harmless

Self-serve

August 31, 2007 on 2:08 am |
Categories: copyright, law

Sometimes, the corporate interests of tech companies and those of copyfighters intersect. For some, it’s a relatively transparent case of self-interest: Google and Microsoft are sued continually - and harangued by Old Content industries - for their various activities which rely on Section 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act. Others have a foot in both camps. Apple pays lip-service (in public, at least) to sympathy for the content industries’ perceived ‘piracy’ crises.

All of which makes the composition of companies involved in the Computer & Communications Industry Association’s “Defend Fair Use” campaign especially telling.

Co-plaintiffs Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google in particular rely on the fair use rationale in their activities in indexing the contents of the Web. One particularly contentious area is in news, where Google’s News product is regular lawsuit fodder for many a news organisation relying on front-page or syndication advertising for revenue.

The CCIA’s new complaint to the FTC (PDF link, 1.5MB) particularly targets copyright statements and disclaimers which misrepresent U.S. copyright statues, citing several examples from television, sport, movies and literature. The examples from Major League Baseball and the NFL match broadcasts are particularly brazen:

“This copyrighted telecast is presented by authority of the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball. It may not be reproduced or retransmitted in any form, and the accounts and descriptions of this game may not be disseminated, without express written consent.”

“This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience. Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL’s consent is prohibited.”

So that puts paid to blogging your team’s victory then.

It remains to be seen how long the proponents of campaigns such as the CCIA’s will stick with the cause. The effect of mergers, acquisitions and new business sectors will be particularly brutal in re-aligning the companies’ interests, as has happened with Apple in the case of the iTunes Music Store.

Tech companies are also mindful of the MGM vs. Grokster ruling, realising that giving users the technical capability to infringe copyright without other measures to ‘prevent’ or dissuade it may expose them to partial liability if infringement occurs, DMCA safe-harbour provisions notwithstanding. The intersection of user-generated content and video sharing are naturally dangerous territory in this regard.

Priorities do tend to change once summons start arriving…

See the Ars Technica article for more information.