Three Conversations on Intellectual Property: Fordham, University of St. Gallen, UOC (Catalunya)

Three recent conversations I’ve been part of offered a contrast in styles and views on intellectual property rights across the Atlantic. First, the Fordham International IP conference, which Prof. Hugh Hanson puts on each year (in New York, NY, USA); the terrific classes in Law and Economics of Intellectual Property that Prof. Urs Gasser teaches … Read more

Viacom Believes Fewer Than 60 Take-Down Mistakes

I’ve been e-mailing with Michael Fricklas of Viacom since I posted about Jim Moore’s home video that got caught in Viacom’s 100,000 take-down push on Friday. Mr. Fricklas wrote to me a few times during their process of assessing how many errors they made out of 100,000. Today, he wrote: “… we’re achieving an error … Read more

Another Video for the Put-Back-Up List?

As with Jim Moore’s video — now famous thanks to Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing — you can decide for yourself whether Viacom’s cease-and-desist letter should have resulted in Jaegercat’s video being taken down at YouTube. In an e-mail from .sg, (which she said I could republish), Jaegercat writes: “My video ‘Beat Police’, an original … Read more

A Voice from Outside the US on the Viacom-YouTube Matter

“Jaegercat” writes in a discussion board on this topic: “I don’t live in the US. I’ve already responded with the counter-notification via fax, but I have no idea how to proceed from here if they don’t respond. The video that they pulled was an original work that took me around 5 months to make, that … Read more

What's the "Day 2" Story on the Viacom-YouTube Tussle?

Google News suggests that there have been about 500 stories so far written in this news sources that they scan on the topic of Viacom’s 100,000 take-down notices to YouTube users. Most of the stories focus on the business dynamics of the matter, understandably: 1) why Viacom did this; 2) the possibility (or likelihood, or … Read more

How Many Jim Moores Are Out There? Viacom's Cease and Desist Letters … for Home Videos?

Jim Moore has received a cease and desist letter from Viacom for a home video that he shot. (I love Jim, but the video’s pretty bad. Highly unlikely to be affecting any market that Viacom cares about, among other things.) The DMCA’s Section 512 has a provision that allows for counter-notification for people, like Jim, … Read more