[Libs-Or] Good week for libraries and copyright

[Diedre Conkling]

http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/12/good-week-libraries-copyright/

Good week for libraries and copyright
Posted on December 19, 2013 by Carrie Russell

This week, a federal appeals court upheld the Baltimore Ravens' fair
use<http://www.districtdispatch.org/tag/fair-use/>of an historic logo
created by Frederick Bouchat in an interesting
copyright <http://www.districtdispatch.org/category/copyright/> case. A few
years ago, attorneys representing the Ravens contacted the ALA to ask for
support of their position. They figured that libraries would care about
preservation, First Amendment, and fair use, so they gave us a call. The
case was an interesting one involving the old logo of the Ravens team ("the
flying B"). When the Ravens asked fans to submit ideas for their new logo,
Bouchat obliged providing a copy of an original logo he sketched. The
Ravens then did something rather stupid and just went  ahead and used the
logo  without compensating Bouchat. Soon after, the Ravens changed their
logo to the one we see today (a shooting B on a raven's head) and
compensated Bouchat avoiding a expensive court battle.

But Bouchat came back to court asking for more compensation in addition to
a thorough scrub of history.  He wanted any image, photograph, or old
Baltimore Raven football helmets laying around with the old Ravens logo
removed from Baltimore Ravens headquarters and from any film or television
footage in which it appeared-essentially make it disappear. This is when
ALA with the Library Copyright
Alliance<http://www.librarycopyrightalliance.org/submissions/domestic/amicus.shtml>ultimately
submitted "a friend of the court"
brief<http://www.librarycopyrightalliance.org/bm~doc/amicus_bouchatvravens092010.pdf>on
behalf of the Ravens arguing that history should be preserved and that
a
decision on behalf of Bouchat would negatively impact the First Amendment
rights of documentary filmmakers and was a fair use.

The other good thing that happened this week occurred in Geneva, where the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO <http://wipo.int/>) is
meeting to discuss international copyright. Guess what they are talking
about?! Library exceptions to copyright (at this point, preservation). Just
thinking about this makes me shake my head in disbelief. WIPO, a United
Nations agency, is known for its support of maximalist copyright...  and
today they are talking about libraries (and archives). They are
*actually*considering that libraries around the world should have
special privileges
under international copyright law.  WOW!

Of course, supporters of library exceptions can expect the developed
nations of WIPO and representatives from the content industries to be ready
with stern rebuttals. Rights holders see these exceptions as slowly
clipping away at their exclusive rights. In addition, authors have come to
the session, asserting that they do not want WIPO to make decisions that
they do not support.



http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/12/good-week-libraries-copyright/




-- 
*Diedre Conkling*




*Lincoln County Library DistrictP.O. Box 2027Newport, OR 97365Phone & Fax:
541-265-3066Work email**:
**diedre at lincolncolibrarydist.org*<diedre at lincolncolibrarydist.org>
*Home email: **diedre08 at gmail.com* <diedre08 at gmail.com>

 "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change
your attitude."--Maya Angelou
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/libs-or/attachments/20131219/bd285c76/attachment.html>