Copyrights

There are trolls who live under bridges in fantasy novels. Then there are "copyright trolls. " The latter have always occupied one of the most squalid corners of the legal system. They're people or firms that acquire copyrights to movies, music or other creative works chiefly to turn a profit by filing lawsuits alleging piracy. Often the threat of a lawsuit is used to scare Web users into paying nominal settlement fees to avoid legal costs and a big penalty. Collect a few checks of a few thousand bucks each from enough defendants, and presto!

In an epic clash between old and new media, Google Inc.'s video website YouTube has scored another huge victory in the long-running skirmish over copyright infringement brought by television giant Viacom Inc. A federal judge in New York on Thursday ruled that YouTube had not violated Viacom's copyright even though users of the popular online site were allowed to post unauthorized video clips from some of Viacom's most popular shows, including Comedy...

Re "Oracle vs. Google," Editorial, May 29 If a federal court holds that application programming interfaces (APIs) are copyrightable, the ruling will have no consequence. An API is an interface, like the key slot in your car. It can be changed while still performing the same functions. An API can have things moved, changed and added without copyright issues because only the appearance has changed. The reverse is also true: APIs, like key slots, can appear exactly the same, yet the under the hood, the mechanics are completely different.

There are trolls who live under bridges in fantasy novels. Then there are "copyright trolls. " The latter have always occupied one of the most squalid corners of the legal system. They're people or firms that acquire copyrights to movies, music or other creative works chiefly to turn a profit by filing lawsuits alleging piracy. Often the threat of a lawsuit is used to scare Web users into paying nominal settlement fees to avoid legal costs and a big penalty. Collect a few checks of a few thousand bucks each from enough defendants, and presto!

Tyler Shaw of Woodbridge, Va., uses Internet file-sharing services to grab free copies of indie pop or punk songs before deciding whether to buy a CD. Wayne Guerrini of San Diego and his pals exchange homemade jazz or progressive rock CDs with songs culled from their music collections and the Internet. Markus Pope of Springfield, Mo., and his co-workers have turned a computer in their office into a way station for free songs downloaded from MP3.

Two weeks before a Dec. 30 deadline, Washington broke off key trade talks with Beijing, warning that trade sanctions are inevitable if China doesn't make "serious offers" to improve intellectual property rights enforcement soon. American trade officials declared the latest round of talks at a dead end after three days of intense wrangling in Beijing. At issue is China's treatment of international copyrights, patents and trademarks.

EMI Music Publishing, one of the world's biggest music publishing houses, has filed a copyright suit against a Santa Monica "dot-com" that helps people change the simple ring of their cell phones into beeping melodies of popular tunes. The target of the suit, YourMobile.com, has become a cult hit among cell phone users eager to customize their phones in order to make their rings easier to differentiate in crowds.

Superman won't be going up, up, and away from Warner Bros. In a crucial legal victory for the Burbank studio, a federal judge in Los Angeles on Wednesday denied an effort by the heirs of Superman co-creator Joseph Shuster to reclaim their 50% interest in the world's most famous superhero. Superman is one of Warner's most valuable characters, having generated more than $500 million at the domestic box office with five films and billions of dollars more from television series such as “Smallville,” toys and games, and 74 years' worth of comic books.

A hearing is set in Chicago federal court today that could decide if Russell Sprague, arrested last week on suspicion of helping illegally post Oscar "screeners" on the Internet, should be transferred to L.A. for trial. Sprague, 51, was charged Friday with violating Hollywood studio copyrights. Prosecutors contend he violated copyrights on "The Last Samurai," "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" and "The Matrix Revolutions."

Supap Kirtsaeng was a Thai student in the United States who helped finance his education (and then some) by reselling textbooks that family members bought for a low price in Thailand. Textbook publisher John Wiley & Sons sued Kirtsaeng for copyright infringement in 2008, citing a federal ban on importing copyrighted goods without the copyright holder's permission. Lower courts agreed with Wiley, opining that the "first sale" doctrine - a buyer's right to sell, lend, rent or give away a lawfully purchased copy of a copyrighted work - did not apply to foreign-made products even if they'd been manufactured under contract with the copyright holder.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court, in a major ruling on copyright law, has given foreign buyers of textbooks, movies and other products a right to resell them in the United States without the permission of the copyright owner. The 6-3 decision is a victory for a former USC student from Thailand, Supap Kirtsaeng, who figured he could earn money by buying textbooks at lower costs in his native country and selling them in the United States. He was sued by publisher John Wiley & Sons  for violating its copyright protection.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court gave foreign buyers of books, video discs and other copyrighted works a right to resell them in the U.S. without permission of the copyright owner, giving discount retailers a victory and the entertainment industry a setback. The 6-3 decision Tuesday came in the case of Supap Kirtsaeng, a USC graduate student from Thailand who figured he could earn money for his education by buying low-cost textbooks in his native country and reselling them in the United States.

This week the entertainment industry finally is getting a version of something it has been craving since the original Napster transformed online piracy into a mass-market phenomenon: a new Copyright Alert System that turns Internet service providers into anti-piracy enforcers. It's not as powerful as the major record companies and Hollywood studios have proposed, and it ignores many sources of bootlegged music and movie files online. But it's a start. And if the industry's assumptions are correct, it could make a dent in the problem.

Unlike last year, people hoping to jazz up their Academy Awards viewing parties this weekend with an oversized statuette resembling Oscar are now out of luck. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has settled a lawsuit it brought against an Edwardsville, Ill.-based events rental company for copyright infringement stemming from the alleged renting and selling of eight-foot statues that looked like the Oscar statuettes. The case against TheEventLine.com and its president, Robert Hollingsworth, was settled late last year and dismissed Nov. 19. In a lawsuit filed March 9 in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, the Academy had alleged that Hollingsworth continued to market, sell and rent the eight-foot statues after he'd been notified of the alleged infringement in a letter sent in March 2011.

Cellphone users know that when they sign a contract with a mobile phone company, they're locked into that network for the duration of the deal. What they may not know is that their phone is digitally locked to that network forever. And as of this week, they may no longer have the legal right to unlock it, even after the contract has expired. It's just the latest example of how companies have stretched copyright law to deter competition and innovation, not protect the creators of copyrighted works.

Prof. Edward Condren's review of Jay Parini's "The Last Station" (Sept. 9), relative to Tolstoy's final days, is grossly inaccurate in certain important respects. Referring to Tolstoy's purported "fondness for half-baked ideals which actually arose from some personal inability," Condren asserts that Tolstoy believed and continually lectured "that to own property is to be a thief." This is an unfortunate distortion of Tolstoy's viewpoints. In fact, Tolstoy vigorously opposed the Marxist revolutionaries of his time.

Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney Co. and other members of the Motion Picture Assn. of America settled a lawsuit against a website they accused of illegally posting copyrighted movies. Cinematube.net, operated by Georgian Tien "Timothy" Tran, will pay $1.38 million to the companies and admit violating copyrights as part of the settlement filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. The companies sued in September, seeking monetary damages and a court order barring illegal postings, including some films still in theaters.

In a battle pitting copyright owners against consumers and retailers, the Supreme Court heard a case Monday that could decide how much control manufacturers can exert over their products after they've been sold. At issue is whether the "first sale" doctrine - which lets people who buy copyrighted works resell, rent or donate them as they please - applies to goods made outside the United States and then imported into the country. If it doesn't, that could spell trouble not just for "gray market" retailers - who buy products in foreign countries at a discount, then resell them here - but also for libraries, second-hand stores, used-car dealers and others who lend or resell imported goods.

Superman won't be going up, up, and away from Warner Bros. In a crucial legal victory for the Burbank studio, a federal judge in Los Angeles on Wednesday denied an effort by the heirs of Superman co-creator Joseph Shuster to reclaim their 50% interest in the world's most famous superhero. Superman is one of Warner's most valuable characters, having generated more than $500 million at the domestic box office with five films and billions of dollars more from television series such as “Smallville,” toys and games, and 74 years' worth of comic books.