Some recent news from Penguin gives me a chance to revisit a question I was asked last week at the Net Caucus Academy briefing on AI and IP: can a publisher change the law by printing magic words on their work?Have you ever actually read the copyright page in a commercially published book – something put out by one of the handful of big…

The US Copyright Office recently published The Geography of Copyright Registrations, a report from its new-ish Economic Research division. It lays out interesting data about which parts of the country file the most copyright registrations. While registration isn’t a requirement for obtaining copyright, it is a common step for rightsholders who want to monetize those rights. As I read through the…

Understanding our nation’s copyright law is important, but also complex. Re:Create’s glossary of key copyright terms is a resource to help promote informed discussions about copyright policy. DMCA Section 512 Safe Harbors: The DMCA safe harbors refer to legal protections for those on the internet that host, store, transmit, locate, or cache content uploaded by others. The power of the internet…

Understanding our nation’s copyright law is important, but also complex. Re:Create’s glossary of key copyright terms is a resource to help promote informed discussions about copyright policy. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA): Congress passed the DMCA in 1998 to update U.S. copyright law for the digital age. The DMCA attempts to strike a balance between copyright holders, internet platforms, and…

An interesting thing happens almost any time lawmakers try to control what you see on the internet: they shred your privacy in the process. This happens in at least two ways. First, when the government tells internet services, “Hey, you have to make sure nobody uses your platform to share XYZ, or you face epic liability,” the service provider has…

As pop culture and the halls of Congress alike continue to be in thrall to the latest, loudest technopanics about AI and the end of copyright as we know it, two appeals courts quietly confirmed that actually, we are living in a golden age of copyright control. First came Green v. DOJ, which rejected a constitutional challenge to the Digital Millennium…