ExpertPreneurLaw℠ Blog

How Much Infringement is Infringement?

ABC News reports of what some might be tempted to call "babyish" behavior when it comes to applying the controversial take down notice provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

In its report,  ABC tells of a woman who uploaded a home video of her baby dancing to You Tube and had that video removed after You Tube received a take down notice from Universal Music Publishing Group because the song playing in the background, Prince's "Let's Go Crazy", was copyrighted material.

As required by the DMCA, the alleged infringer was notified and, by filing a counter-notice, objected to the take down on the grounds of claimed fair use under the Copyright Act, resulting in its being restored, although not for several weeks.

According to the report, the claimed infringer, with the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has sued for damages and other relief, claiming abuse of the procedure by Universal, since the DMCA requires those serving the take down notice to  certify that they have a right to send the notice and that their work is legitimately being infringed.

Are Bloggers Journalists?

In her "Writes like she Talks" Blog, Jill Miller Zimon writes about proposed federal legislation that provides "shield" protections to journalists and whether bloggers would or would not be included.

These "shield" protections deal with privileges afforded to journalists protecting them from having to divulge their resources,  among other things.

As the post points out, however, the crucial question is in how to define who a journalist is, for purposes of the law.

For example, would ExpertPreneur bloggers be included if journalism was not their main line of work?

Since an underlying concern of defining who is included as a journalist deals with comfort that they are abiding by professional ethics and codes of conduct otherwise followed by more mainstream journalists, the answer, as yet, is not clear.

The proposed bill is not the first stab at this subject, but it is the latest, dealing with federal cases. 

Prior versions sought to impose "financial gain" and "source of livelihood" requirements in order to be considered a journalist but that language is not yet in the current proposal.

The issue of journalist privilege for bloggers is just one of many shakeups in legal theory made necessary by the increasing prevalence and influence of blogs in today's World.

As an example of what rights and responsibilities ExpertPreneur bloggers may find themselves affected by, this legislation bears watching.

More on Domain Name Tasting

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, recently again called for feedback on the practice known as domain name tasting, previously reported in this Blog.

The practice refers to registrants taking advantage of current registration regulations that allow a five day grace period in which to cancel and avoid paying for registrations, by scooping up domain names, evaluating their ad generating revenue, and throwing underperforming ones back before having to pay for them.

While use of generic domain names increases security threats to the system and slows it down for everyone, ExpertPreneurs should take note of the potential for trademark infringement by those who register lapsed or purloined or typosquatting names, only to run off before their actions may be noticed or acted upon.

For smaller ExpertPreneurs who don't have the resources to monitor or pursue domain tasters that may be infringing on their marks and diverting traffic from their most popular pages, helping raise the pressure on ICANN to curtail the practice can only help.

Powered by ScribeFire.

The Money has to Come from Somewhere

C-Net's News.com reports on proposed legislation that would be the proverbial shot across the bow for Internet marketing and distribution, a body blow to most, if not all ExpertPreneurs.

If implemented as its being discussed, not only could there be a tax on high speed Internet access, a sine qua non for Web 2.0 applications, including popular audio and video marketing, so popular with expertpreneurs of late, but also on email.

Read about how......

Net taxes could arrive by this fall | CNET News.com