Category Archives: Copyright

Crimson Connect

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This is interesting six ways to Sunday: apparently, some students at Harvard became frustrated with Harvard’s portal, so they went and designed their own: Crimson Connect.

As The Chronicle: Wired Campus Blog reports, Harvard asked the creators of this site to remove proprietary information that was originally stored on the password protected Harvard portal and the creators complied. The Chronicle doesn’t explicitly say the removal was due to copyright issues, but one would suspect that was a big reason. The students were including course materials that in all likelihood needed to be password protected for Fair Use and/or TEACH Act requirements.

But as many of the commenters point out, plenty of other issues arise, among them usability, branding and PR, and Intellectual Property.

I just find it fascinating that students took it upon themselves to create a university portal. And it raises the question as to who should be putting out this information and/or how involved students should be in the creation of a portal.

Rules for the Revolution

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Found an interesting podcast about copyright: Rules for the Revolution. It’s hosted by Colette Vogele who is an Intellectual Property lawyer. She covers a wide-range of copyright questions including (from the Rules site):

“How do I legally incorporate music into my podcast? Do I need permission to reference other people’s content? What is fair use and how does it impact my work? Do I need to get releases from my show’s guests? How do I establish ownership of my trademark? What’s the DMCA? What sorts of legal documents/agreements/records should I save, and which ones can I toss? If I use someone’s image on my podcast, do I need permission? Always? What is the public domain? What if someone says something defamatory in my podcast, or in a comment on my blog, am I liable for that? What’s section 230 about, anyway”

As of April 2007, she has 12 episodes. I just listened to episode 12 which is about Promonet, a site which legally provides music for podcasts and other web applications. As was the case with this episode, she has guests on her podcasts, so it’s more of a lively interview format rather than just someone pontificating about copyright laws. Some of the issues she’s covered in previous episodes include: fair use, section 230 of the CDA, and DMCA. Must listening for librarians.

DRM Conference

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For a registration fee of a scant $1,695, you can attend the 2007 Digital Rights Management Conference. And the hotel is just a mere $345/night. Geared toward the entertainment industry, the conference boasts such sessions as:

  • Lights, Camera, Digital Rights! Update On The Emerging Trends That Are Defining Digital Rights Management
  • The Government’s Impact on Digital Rights Management
  • A Global Look At Digital Rights Management – What Does The Future Hold?

Hmmm…seems someone forgot to tell the industry about the impending death of DRM.