Looking to make a difference out of law school?

This woman did: Barbara A. Ringer, who joined the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress straight out of Columbia Law School, and 21 years later oversaw the passage of the revolutionary Copyright Act of 1976. At the time Ms. Ringer joined the Copyright Office, the 1909 law in place provided for 28 years of copyright from date of publication, after which works could pass into the public domain; the ’76 Act extended the term to life of the creator plus 50 years, and also created the statutory fair use exception. While some may disagree about the merits of copyright term extension, Ms. Ringer’s objective was always to protect the rights of authors and content creators.

Ms. Ringer also won a gender discrimination suit to become the first woman Register of Copyrights in 1973. She died on April 9th.

categories Copyright, News | saji | datetime April 27, 2009 2:16 pm | comments Comments (3)

Conviction in The Pirate Bay Case

Today in Stockholm the Swedish District Court handed down a  $3.5 Million fine and one year in jail time for the people behind The Pirate Bay, a popular bittorrent tracker.  While the people fined say they would rather burn down their homes than pay the fine, (Ars interview), it appears they will have to serve the imprisonment.  The IFPI, a European version of the RIAA in the United States, prosecuted for the copyright holders in the case.  Sweden typically has a more lax attitude towards copyright infringement, which is one of many reasons The Pirate Bay hosted there.  In Sweden, a law recently went into effect mandating the disclosure of private data by ISP’s of file-sharers.   The trial has major implications for all of the European countries implementing the IPRED, as well as bolstering the position of copyright enforcers in the United States as well. The Pirate Bay website is currently still functioning and hosting torrent files. 

categories Copyright | dkoonce | datetime April 17, 2009 11:37 am | comments Comments (2)

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