Is Creative Commons becoming mainstream?

Most readers of this blog know Creative Commons (CC) licensing well.  However, outside of the blogosphere and the IP field, CC is relatively unknown.  Over the last few months, CC has racked up some victories that are pushing it into mainstream culture very quickly.

Late last year, then President-elect Obama made news in the IP world when he announced that the content on Change.gov would be licensed under the CC-by license.  Even before that, Obama placed many photos from his campaign on Flickr.  They are licensed under the CC-by-nc-sa license, including the famous election night pictures that became an overnight sensation.

Now that Obama has entered the White House, licensing of his content is no longer an issue.  All government works are automatically part of the public domain.  17 U.S.C. § 105.  However, Obama took the extra step of making sure all of the information on the White House site would be free by requiring third party content to be under the CC-by license.

Just a few days ago, we reported that Nina Paley released her award winning movie Sita Sings the Blues under a cc by-sa license.  Just a day or two ago, Gawker Media, owners of the highly popular blogs including Lifehacker, Gizmodo,and Gawker, announced that all of their blogs will be licensed under the CC-by-nc license.  Lastly, this blog is licensed under CC-by-nc-sa (see below).

Creative Commons is making great strides in the world of IP.  With so many people adopting CC for their content, we will soon approach a day where CC licensing is the norm.

Alphabet War

About a month ago, Ip's What's Up posted an entry about the status of collecting societies in Nigeria.  The main issue is the ongoing feud between the two former collecting societies, MCSN and PMRS, and the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC).  Well, it looks like the beef is getting bigger.

The Guardian newspaper published a story this past Friday about allegations flying back and forth between MCSN and the NCC.  The news article is a bit cryptic, especially for those of us who are not fluent in Nigerian English, but it appears that the NCC and MCSN are on opposing sides in two different matters.

MCSN v. NCC

First, there is the old matter of MCSN suing the NCC (as its counterpart, PMRS is doing) over the Collecting Society Regulations and the section of the Copyright Act that authorizes these regulations.  (For those who are interested, the MCSN suit is: Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria LTD/GTE v. Nigerian Copyright Commission, SUIT NO. FHC/L/CS/478/2008, but this Ipper has no idea where you can find any reporting on the case.)  Basically, MCSN claims that the relevant sections of the Nigerian Copyright Act violate MCSN's fundamental human rights as protected by Sections 40 and 44 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, as well as violating Articles 10 and 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.

NCC v. MCSN

The Guardian article discusses a second conflict between the NCC and MCSN.  According to the article, the NCC is currently investigating MCSN based on a complaint from the International Federation of Phonographic Industries.  The complaint alleges that MCSN is pirating films, both reproducing them and publishing them.  (Publishing, under the Nigerian Copyright Act, is making a work available to the public.)

MCSN claims that this complaint never existed and was only fabricated by the NCC in order to make it appear that the NCC's raids on the MCSN offices were justified.  NCC says it's legitimate.  MCSN says that NCC is harassing MCSN and its affiliates by questioning collecting societies in the UK (Performing Rights Society and Mechanical Copyright Protection Society) and raiding MCSN offices in Nigeria.  NCC says it had to question the UK societies because MCSN claimed to have received authorization for their alleged pirating behavior from those societies.

Clear as Mud

This Ipper is quite confused by all of this, and doesn't really know what to believe.  Both parties involved in this battle have been known to spin things a little bit away from the truth.  What is certain is that MCSN does not have authorization to act as a collecting society, and that, in general, the NCC has authority to conduct investigations in matters of alleged piracy.  The Director General has stated that MCSN cannot receive authorization to become a collecting society until it meets transparency requirements.  MCSN seems to think there it is actually some sort of NCC vendetta that is preventing MCSN from receiving authorization.  Both parties claim to be acting in the best interests of copyright and the artists.  Maybe some readers can shed some light on the situation.

One thing is clear, whatever is going on here, it's not doing anybody any good, especially not the artists.

Nigeria and the Special Case of the USTR Special 301 Report Pt. 2

This is part two of a two part series looking at Nigeria's status in regards to the US Trade Representative Special 301 Report.  In part 1, we discussed the praise the Nigerian Copyright Commission and its Director General, Adebambo Adewopo, have received for getting Nigeria removed from the USTR Special 301 Report.  Today, we are looking at what's really going on.

Quick Recap

For two years, the Nigerian press and various government officials have been citing Nigeria's removal from the Special 301 List as proof of the Nigerian Copyright Commission's success in its war on piracy.  This "list" is the USTR Special 301 Report.  The report actually includes three lists, each containing countries whose laws or practices have adverse affects on IPRs: Priority Foreign Countries, Priority Watch List, and Watch List.

The Real Deal

It seems somewhere along the way, someone in Nigeria got confused.  Nigeria was never on any of the lists contained in the Special 301 Report, at least not this century.  Previous reports appear to only be available from the Library of Congress.  (Thank you to a very kind reference librarian at Vanderbilt University for that information.)  A few Special 301 Reports have mentioned Nigeria, but always to cite activities from the past year that have protected IPR.  (Special 301 Reports from 2002 through the current year are available at the USTR website; the 2001 report is available here.)

The closest Nigeria has come to being on these lists has been inclusion in the International Intellectual Property Alliance's (IIPA) reports suggesting which countries the USTR should place on the various lists contained in the Special 301 Report.  IIPA is a group of trade associations that, among other things, assists the US Trade Representative with its Special 301 Report.  IIPA prepares its own report of suggestions for the USTR to consider in compiling its report.  (IIPA Reports from 2001-2008 available here.)

IIPA first gave Nigeria a "special mention" in 2005, citing outrageous piracy levels in sound recordings and the proliferation of optical disc replicating plants.  Concerns over optical disc plants kept Nigeria in this section through 2006.  Last year, IIPA suggested putting Nigeria on the Watch List.  This year, the organization made the same suggestion.  So in fact, Nigeria is closer than ever to being listed in the Special 301 Report.  Rather than celebrating the "accomplishment" of being taken off a list they were never on, members of the Nigerian intellectual property community should be working hard to reverse the trend of increased attention from IIPA.  This will help Nigeria stay off the Special 301 Report lists.

Nigeria and the Special Case of the USTR Special 301 Report Pt. 1

For the past two years Nigeria has been praising the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) and its Director General, Adebambo Adewopo, for getting Nigeria removed from the Special 301 Lists. But inside sources say Nigeria was not removed from the Special 301 List, because Nigeria was never on the Special 301 List. This makes the Ippers ask "what's up?"

A two part series, we'll look first at what the Nigerian Press has been saying, and then at what's really going on.

The Special 301 List

What the Nigerians refer to as the Special 301 Lists is actually part of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) Special 301 Report. This report "highlights shortfalls in intellectual property protection" and "acknowledges progress" by US trading partners. (Spicy IP has a good overview of the Special 301 Report and the controversy surrounding it.) The Report includes the following lists of countries whose laws or practices have adverse affects on IPRs: Priority Foreign Countries, Priority Watch List, and Watch List.

Nigeria's "Removal"

The first reports of Nigeria's removal from the Special 301 List came in May 2007. A Nigerian newspaper, The Vanguard, and an online news source, nun gu entertainment, both carried the story. "US delists Nigeria from piracy blackist, as govt moves to enforce IP regulation," read the online headline. Both articles cited the Deputy Economic Consular at the US Embassy as the source of the news. The online story also carried a direct quote, "We have decided to keep Nigeria off any of the 301 lists this year." Keep Nigeria off, not remove.

From there, other articles, editorials and speeches included the news. An article in Sun News used the "delisting" as evidence that Adewopo was doing a great job at the NCC and anyone saying otherwise was involved in a smear campaign against him. Lagos IP law firm Aluko & Oyebode included the wonderful news in their July newsletter.

In a few short months the removal of Nigeria from the Special 301 List was being touted as one of the NCC's greatest achievements. The Chief Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation congratulated Adewopo on his achievement. The President of the Federation also commended the NCC for its anti-piracy work.

By the beginning of 2008, the story had changed a bit. Several papers carried an article citing a June 2007 letter from the Former US Ambassador to Nigeria as the source of the information about Nigeria's delisting. Added to this was also a statement from the Attorney General that "Government was aware that until now, the country had always been on the U.S. Special 301, adding that the President has deemed the Commission as deserving of commendation in creating an enabling environment for the country’s unprecedented delisting." (The same info was carried in Sunday Benjamin's article in The Daily Trust.)

Stories about Nigeria's amazing feat spread beyond the country's borders. AllAfrica.com picked it up just a few months ago:

Recently, the Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC) got a rare pat on the back when the United States removed Nigeria from the Special 301 Lists of countries blacklisted for condoning intellectual property theft in recognition of the renewed battle against the increasing spate of piracy and counterfeiting.

In various seminars and paper presentations around the country, members of the Nigerian government continue to sing praises of the NCC's anti-piracy programs to the tune of the Special 301 delisting.

But the question remains, was Nigeria really removed from the lists in the USTR Special 301 Report?

Anybody Feel Like Starting a Collecting Society?

Nigeria is desperately in need of one.

What is a Collecting Society?

For those who are unfamiliar, a collecting society is an intermediary between the user of a work and the owner of the copyright in the work.  An artist's work can be used by millions of people any where in the world at any time.  Logistically, it's impossible for one artist to monitor all the possible places where the work might be used.  The collecting society pools the resources of many artists and does this monitoring for the artists collectively.  There are many different types of collecting societies, such as performing rights organizations and reproduction rights organizations.

The Situation in Nigeria

There are currently no collecting societies in Nigeria.  This has been the situation for the past three years.  Grab some popcorn, and enjoy a little drama-filled story.

One, Two, None - the Background

Once upon a time Nigeria was a British colony.  The British Performing Right Society (PRS) represented the colony's musical artists.  Sometime after gaining independence, Nigeria decided it didn't want any foreign owned companies operating inside it's borders.  So the Nigerian section of PRS became MCSN, Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria.  And everything was fine.... Or so it seemed.

The Nigerian government was concerned that the lone collecting society was taking advantage of the artists, taking too much of the royalties for itself and not accounting completely for what it had collected.  The government decided to do something about this and issued the 1992 Copyright (Amendment) Decree.  (Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 Cap. 28 Sec. 39.)  This decree authorized the Nigerian Copyright Commission to set up regulations for collecting societies and required collecting societies to register with the Nigerian Copyright Commission.  The Commission's regulations went into effect in 1993.  (Copyright (Collecting Society) Regulations, 1993.)

MCSN applied for approval but was denied.  The Commission said that MCSN was being sneaky, not disclosing enough information about the royalties it was collecting for its artists.  Like the Itsy-Bitsy Spider continually going up the water spout, MCSN kept renewing their application, but down came the Commission and denied it every time.

The Commission did recognize the importance of collecting societies, so, in 1994, it helped form a new organization, PMRS, Performing and Mechanical Rights Society of Nigeria.  This made MCSN really angry.  Some people thought there should only be one collecting society in the country, and MCSN was there first.  MCSN kept trying for approval, and the Commission finally granted the approval in 2005.  Within six months the President of Nigeria revoked the approval and removed the Director General of the Commission.  The Director General's law firm had represented MCSN in the past and the President felt there had been a conflict of interest.

Somewhere in all of this PMRS and MCSN discussed merging.  The merger talks fell apart, and during this time PMRS's registration lapsed.  And then there were none.

How the Situation Sits Today

Both MCSN and PMRS claim to be proper collecting societies in Nigeria (as can be seen from their websites.)  Both are currently suing the Nigerian Copyright Commission.  Neither can collect royalties for their supposed clients.  Artist are not getting paid, and they're losing out on other opportunities.

International companies, such as MTV, don't know who to pay, so they don't pay anyone.  Nigerian superstar D'banj recently explained to the House Committee on Information & National Orientation that he and several other Nigerian music stars have well over $30,000 each sitting in a bank account in South Africa.  In MTV's bank account.  MTV doesn't know who to pay, so it's holding the money until it knows who to pay.  It's nice that MTV isn't spending the money, but the artists would really like to get it sooner than later.  In the meantime, the artists don't get paid.

Whenever MCSN or PMRS attempt to bring a lawsuit on behalf of one of their artists for infringing performances, the court throws the suit out citing a lack of standing by the plaintiffs.  Restaurants, hotels, bars, clubs and even radio stations know they can't be sued for playing music without paying royalties.  They play whatever they want, whenever they want.  (On the upside for listeners, this produces a lot of really neat remixes, recently featuring a number of Obama's speeches mixed-in.)  The artists don't get paid.

D'banj has also highlighted another way in which the lack of collecting societies is hurting artists.  Nigerian artists are losing opportunities to reach world-class stardom (and at least get royalties from other countries).  International superstars (including R.Kelly and Snoop Dogg) have approached Nigerian artists about doing collaborations.  These types of collaborations could turn Nigerian artists like D'banj or 2Face into the next Akon, a household name around the world.  But the deals fall through.  Why?  As D'banj put it, the artists ask a simple question for which there is no answer, "How do we get our royalty?"

The Questions

Now, being a lowly little intern with no collecting society experience, this sad soap has left this Ipper with some questions.  Perhaps some fellow IP enthusiasts can shed some light on the subject.

Why can't the artists just collect the money MTV owes them by themselves?  Does it have something to do with agreements they may have signed with MCSN or PMRS?  Is MTV somehow prevented from working directly with artists?

Is there any reason interested people with the available capital couldn't come in and start a new collecting society in Nigeria?  One that complied with the provisions of the Copyright Act (Sec. 32B in this version) and the Collecting Society Regulations?  Would the government allow it?  And if it is possible, where can we find these interested people with available capital?  The artists are suffering.

And lastly, can the international superstars stop worrying about getting their own money from Nigeria and collaborate with these amazing Nigerian artists anyway?  Please!

 

 

Image credits: map outline from About.com:Geography; D'banj photo courtesy of goldenrail; 200 Naira notes courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica; 5, 20, 50, 100 and 1000 Naira notes courtesy of Statni vlajky sveta; diagonal bills courtesy of Hit Naira; all images (minus D'banj photo) found using Creative Commons, but I couldn't always find information regarding the license for the images.

A Spectrum of Perspectives

There is a common axiom that you should not discuss politics or religion at a dinner party. But what about intellectual property? One part of the Ip's What's Up team found out that this topic can be just as impassioning as the others.

This past weekend I had the opportunity of attending a friend's birthday party. A birthday party is probably one of the last places you would expect to find much conversation about intellectual property, but we had plenty. The various opinions seemed to represent a good cross-section of different perspectives on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), so I think it could be helpful to offer a little recap.

[This video and the sound recording in it are under a different license than the blog post.  Video: cc by-sa 2008 goldenrail.  Sound recording in the video: "nunoo" cc by-sa 2004 maki, www.myspace.com/theopenwound.]

[Technical difficulties?  If the video does not appear above, you can watch it at youtube.]

Stronger is Better

First, I spoke with an Economic Counselor for the United States. He had met with the local government earlier in the week to check on the progress in its war on piracy. The local government has worked closely with the United States and other developed nations in effort to strengthen its IP laws and increase the level of copyright enforcement in the country. This gentleman clearly represented the camp working for stronger IPR, as well as the international relations and trade aspect concerns that are part of IPR.

Intellectual property is now one of the biggest commodities developed nations have. In order for these countries to reap the maximum benefits, the whole world needs to have strong intellectual property laws. Countries with large creative industries work hard to help make this happen. People on the developing country side can also be in this group. They want stronger protection in order to encourage foreign investment and often to protect their growing creative industries.  Stronger IP laws protect their domestic creations as much, or even more so, than foreign ones.

What Good is Protection if I Can't Get the Goods?

Next, I spoke to someone on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, a British NGO-worker who decried the lack of books in the country. "We just need more books, I don't care if they're copied or not!" she exclaimed. Here is one of the common arguments against increased copyright enforcement in the country. The legal supply clearly doesn't meet the demand. For those who want the products but cannot find legitimate copies, especially for things like text books, copyright seems like nothing more than a barrier to development.

Supply that cannot meet demand is not just a problem in the book industry. Two years ago the demand for Nigerian Home Videos in Nigeria was estimated at 50 million buyers, but only about 500,000 legitimate copies were produced. (NCC Committed to National Copyright Policy & Reform, 10 NCC Copyright Bulletin December, 2006 Vol. 3 No. 6, ed. Charles O. Obi.) Similar circumstances exist elsewhere, with music industries in many developing countries, and even to some extent in developed countries when dealing with out-of-print books and such.

Consumers who are generally concerned with copyright often justify obtaining infringing copies of these types of materials. They point out that the author wouldn't be receiving anything if they didn't buy the infringing copy because they cannot buy a legitimate copy. They may also blame the author for the shortage of legal goods.

Eh, So What?

Near the end of the evening, I had an encounter with a third group. Those who really don't care about or pay attention to IPR. Sometimes they are ignorant of the laws; sometimes, they just do not care. In this case, they were most likely the later. A high up government official from a developed country handed a higher-up official from the same country a clearly pirated DVD of an American Television series. For these people, piracy and infringement are matters for other people, for governments, enforcement agencies and private rights holders. They did not create the copy; they did not sell it; they are just 'innocent' purchasers.

This seems to be a very large group, and it blends into other groups, people who believe it is ok to make a copy of a cd for a friend, those who indiscriminately clip artwork from internet sites. It is highly likely that we have all fallen into this group at some time or another, and many people may be in this group with regards to some IP while falling into another group in regards to other IP.

In Between the Extremes

Of course, there are plenty of groups that care about IP but fall somewhere between the extremes represented at the party. There are organizations who want to change the system without chucking IP protection completely out the window or creating a single strict set of laws for the whole world. The trick for all these groups is balancing the interests of everyone involved, including the points of view above.

Why Congress, Why Part II

As promised, we are returning to the PRO-IP bill to look at Congress's reasons for the bill.  This may be our last look at S. 3325; there's a lot of other interesting stuff going on in the international IP world (check out the sidebar).  Also, if you haven't already done so, please submit your thoughts on some good things about IP protection!

Here is a brief look at two more reasons Congress listed as its sense for why the US needed to strengthen its IP laws: (S. 3325 § 503.)

• effective criminal enforcement of the intellectual property laws against violations in all categories of works should be among the highest priorities of the Attorney General
  

Why?  Why should criminal enforcement of intellectual property be more important than violent crimes, drug issues or the government's favorite enemy, terrorism?  I'm not sure I can buy this reason.  How do others feel about it?

• terrorists and organized crime utilize piracy, counterfeiting, and infringement to fund some of their activities

Oh!  That's why.  The IP criminals are terrorists!  At first I was very skeptical about this; it was the government crying terrorism like the boy cried wolf.  But I looked into it a bit and found that there is some support for this claim.  Most of the information and studies are about 3 years old.  The reports seem to show two separate connections between terrorist organizations and copyright infringement:

(1) terrorists engage in piracy in the same manner that they engage in a variety of other illegal trade, such as arms trafficking or drug running,

(2) people who have been arrested for piracy have been supportive of or have leanings towards terrorist organizations.

I will agree then that piracy, counterfeiting and infringement funds terrorist activities.  If terrorists are fundraising with pirated goods just as they are with drugs, then yes, piracy is technically funding terrorism.  It’s also possible that pirates who support terrorist organizations might donate funds they raised from their piracy.  Again, this can technically be called piracy funding terrorism.  If the terrorists sold flowers, would we enact laws against those? 

As another author pointed out, copyright infringement is its own issue.  Yes, it is illegal, so yes, the government should address it.  But protecting the rights of creators should not be mixed up with anti-terrorism laws.  I’m sure all illegal activities can be linked together in some way.  Drug dealers might drive over the speed limit; people who drink under age might also jaywalk; and terrorists might engage in copyright infringement.  That doesn’t mean that the laws dealing with each of these crimes should be all mashed together.

As for the organized crime claim, this seems like a problem from a logic game.  If a group of people have organized their copyright infringement activities so that there are large-scale manufacturing plants and elaborate distribution networks, as is the case in Nigeria for example, are the pirates using organized crime to support their piracy, or are the criminals using piracy to support their organized crime?

For those who are interested, here are some further links for information on the terrorism/piracy connections:

the government claiming a connection (2005)

report of person engaged in infringement and supportive of Hezbollah (2006)

the scary stuff: RIAA video claiming the link (2008)

and something a bit reassuring: Current US AG’s take on the issue (2008)

Why, Congress, Why?

Today's look at the PRO-IP bill (S. 3325) will focus on the "Sense of Congress."  Perhaps there are reasons for the changes made by this law, things Congress knows that we don't understand yet.  Perhaps....

Here are four reasons Congress listed as its sense for why the US needed to strengthen its IP laws: (S. 3325 § 503.)  (Later this week, we will look at the rest.)

• the United States intellectual property industries have created millions of high-skill, high-paying United States jobs and pay billions of dollars in annual United States tax revenues;
  

Yes, this is probably true.  IP is so prevalent in society that I'll even accept that at least 1 out of every 300 Americans is employed in a high-skill, high-paying job because of an IP industry.  (Current population approx. 300 million.)

• the United States intellectual property industries continue to represent a major source of creativity and innovation, business start-ups, skilled job creation, exports, economic growth, and competitiveness;
  

Again, a true statement.  But while both these statements are factual, the nexus between them and the changes made to law seems to be missing.

• counterfeiting and infringement results in billions of dollars in lost revenue for United States companies each year and even greater losses to the United States economy in terms of reduced job growth, exports, and competitiveness;
  

Ah yes, the good ol' piracy is killing our industries and our economy.  I don't need to get into this because ars technica did a wonderful piece about "The dodgy digits behind the war on piracy."

• the growing number of willful violations of existing Federal criminal laws invoking counterfeiting and infringement by actors in the United States and increasingly, by foreign-based individuals and entities is a serious threat to the long-term vitality of the United States economy and the future competitiveness of United States industry;
  

This statement could be true; I have no idea.  I'm not a fortune-teller.  However, I think Congress overlooked something very important here:  "the growing number of willful violations."  The question should not be "how do we stop this growth?"  The question should be, "why is there a growing number of willful violations?"  Let's think about this for a moment.  What are some reasons people break the law?

1. Extreme Desperation: such as drove Jean Valjean to steal a loaf of bread in Les Miserables.  While that could be a reason for people supporting their families through the sale of pirated cds in third world markets , it probably does not explain the "growing number of willful violations" in the US. 
   
2. Ignorance: On the other extreme there's the ignorance plea, the kind used to excuse a child for stealing a candy bar from the supermarket.  "He didn't know any better; I'll pay for it," and all is well again.  With the high-profile lawsuits like Napster, Grokster and the Thomas case, as well as the ever present anti-piracy trailers at the beginning of every movie and warnings posted on everything we buy, it's highly unlikely anyone can claim ignorance of copyright infringement laws.
   
3. Bullshit: The general population either doesn't care about the law or doesn't understand the reasoning behind the law.  Or, even more likely with such a large increase in willful violations, the people DISAGREE with the law.  They don't think it's for their benefit, or even the benefit of the country as a whole.
   

Now, without getting into all the different philosophical theories about laws and legal systems, I would like to suggest that if there is a large showing of people who break a law or do not believe in a law, the lawmakers should step back and re-evaluate said law, and possibly who this government is "of," "for," and "by."

Image by: Lovelypetal cc-by, available at http://farm1.static.flickr.com/181/445070705_c2b64a0560.jpg?v=0

PRO-IP Bill is Now Law (and still wasting our tax dollars)

Well folks, he did it.  Bush signed the PRO-IP bill into law.  Now, I can only hope it goes unenforced.  Torrent Freak has a good post on just how crazy this new law is.  One thing people have been celebrating (people that aren't lobbyists or the RIAA) is the removal by the Senate of a section that would have given the DOJ the ability to bring civil infringement claims.  It was the DOJ itself that had to step in before Congress could be talked out of that idea.

A sigh of relief swept the country when the provision was struck.  There was a general feeling of "at least our tax dollars won't be fighting Hollywood's battles for them."  But it's a false sense of relief.  Our tax dollars are not as safe as we hoped or believed.  What am I talking about?  Title IV of the new law: Department of Justice Programs.

There's plenty in this title that could serve as fodder for burning our tax dollars (improved forensic research for IP crimes!), but I'm going to focus on one provision:  Sec. 401 Local Law Enforcement Grants.

The Federal Government has had a program in place for many years that provides grants to State and local governments to aid them in the prosecution of computer crimes.  (42 U.S.C. 3713.)  To obtain these funds, State and local governments need to have enacted laws that prohibit and penalize certain types of computer crimes, like on-line fraud or hacking.  The grant funds may be used for enforcing laws against and prosecuting computer crimes, and for the development of educational and awareness programs.

Copyright infringement was just added to the list of computer crimes.  In the law's language:

The Office of Justice Programs of the Department of Justice may make grants to eligible State or local law enforcement entities, including law enforcement agencies of municipal governments and public educational institutions, for training, prevention, enforcement, and prosecution of intellectual property theft and infringement crimes. (S.3325 Sec. 401(b).)

So there it is.  Our tax dollars are still hard at work to "protect" the mass media companies from theft.  A grant program that used to protect the security of our identities and the sanctity of our on-line information, now panders to the iniquitous MPAA/RIAA (or as one blogger called them, the MAFIAA).

The States Can’t Copyright Their Law

This week, the SF Chronicle ran a story about a man named Carl Malamud who is creating a website where he would like to provide the public with access to our laws for free. He is posting case law, statutes, municipal codes, and law in its various other forms. However, he's run into a major problem. Some of the state governments are asserting that they hold a copyright of their laws and are threatening to sue him.

Reading the story surprised me for a few reasons:

1. As an intellectual matter, it shocks me that there are people who actually believe that they can or should be able to copyright the law that we are all held accountable to.

2. The author of the story is clearly ignorant of the current state of the law. Here is the legal analysis in its entirety: "Malamud says he believes that he's on solid ground if he is sued. Some legal experts agree." That's it. I don't expect journalists to be legal experts, but this is piss poor for an article that is supposed to be reporting on this copyright dispute.

In five minutes of Google time, anyone could have learned that Section 105 of the Copyright Act, while directly not on point, prevents the Federal Government holding a copyright in its works, including the law. That's a good starting point. As for state law, the Fifth Circuit recently wrote "'the law, whether it has its source in judicial opinions or statutes, ordinances or regulations, is not subject to federal copyright law." Veeck v. Southern Building Code Congress Int'l, Inc., 293 F.3d 791, 800 (5th Cir. 2002) (en banc). Then, instead of their worthless quote above, the paper could accurately report that the state's copyright claims are all frivolous and compete bullshit.

3. Lastly, this story is at almost half a year old. It was reported in the Washington Times on April 19, 2008. Over five months ago. Yet, the Chronicle reports it as if it is new news on September 27, 2008. The blogosphere also covered it in several places including here, here, here and here. What took the Chronicle five months to catch on to this story?

I really hope that this story is an outlier in terms of quality, but I fear that it is not.