Oct
02
2017
October 2nd, 2017 by Michael Sauers

About a month ago a friend pointed me to an article which used a photograph of mine. The trouble was, this was a commercial use of my photo and while they did attribute the photo to me, my CC-BY-NC license didn’t allow for commercial use without asking me first. So, I took a chance and sent the author of the article my a $50 invoice for reprinting my photo. I didn’t ask them to take it down, I just asked that they pay me for the use.

I didn’t hear back for a week so I sent a follow-up invoice requesting that at a minimum I receive a response form them with how they planned on addressing the issue. Their response: the check is in the mail.

Lo an behold a few days later I received payment in the amount of $50. No apology, but here’s hoping that they learned their lesson.

(Thanks to Kathy D. for the heads up and I think my standard licensing fee just increased.)

Posted in Photos, Politics & Law Tagged with: ,

Jun
23
2017
June 23rd, 2017 by Michael Sauers

‘Pirate’ sites Sci-Hub and LibGen have been ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages to Elsevier, one of the largest academic publishers. A New York District Court granted Elsevier’s request for a default judgment of $15 million in damages. Sci-Hub’s founder says that she can’t pay the damages even if she wanted to, and for now, the “Pirate Bay for science” isn’t going anywhere.

Read the full article @ TorrentFreak.

Posted in Politics & Law Tagged with:

Mar
18
2017
March 18th, 2017 by Michael Sauers

All rights reserved. All lefts are reserved too. And while we’re reserving things, I’ll also take front row seats to all NBA Finals games. Unless you are observing the doctrine of fair use, please do not reproduce, distribute or transmit this work as it took a long time to make and I’d like to be paid for it, just as you would. If you are from the future and are in the possession of winning lottery numbers some exceptions can be made, so get in touch. Otherwise go in peace into my book with reciprocal author/reader respect. We need each other to do well. Cheers.

Dance of The Possible / Scott Berkun—1st ed.
March 2017

Posted in Books, Politics & Law Tagged with:

Dec
22
2016
December 22nd, 2016 by Michael Sauers

From The Pirate’s Dilemma, December 8, 2008

Posted in Politics & Law Tagged with: ,

Sep
28
2016
September 28th, 2016 by Michael Sauers

I’ve never been a big fan of the Copyright Clearance Center. This isn’t helping…

I then asked CCC to clarify why an article from CCC was five times the cost of the very same article direct from the publisher. I received a quick response from CCC that said “Unfortunately, the prices that appear in our system are subject to change at the publishers’ discretion. CCC only processes the fees that the publisher provides us.”

I discovered that the publisher—who allegedly sets the price of the permission fee—also was usedIngenta document delivery, as an additional online permissions service. Just as the librarian said, Ingenta only charged $113 (which is still a big number for a five page article). I contacted the journal editor and asked about the difference and he responded immediately via email, “You are right that article is available for $113 from Ingenta. Just download from the Ingenta website.”

The difference in price can only be explained as a huge markup by CCC. Surely processing a 5-page article request cannot cost CCC an additional $400. Think about it. CCC is giving the rights holder $113 and taking the other $390.50. Deep pockets, right?

Read the full article @ District Dispatch.

Posted in Politics & Law Tagged with:

Dec
23
2015
December 23rd, 2015 by Michael Sauers

I just received this from Pinterst. Ignoring the fact that I don’t recall ever pinning a blank 200×200 jpg (as why would I,) but even so, this is a bit ridiculous…

We’re getting in touch to let you know we received a copyright complaint and have removed one (or more) of your Pins. The complaint wasn’t directed against you or your Pin; it was directed against another user’s Pin of the same content from:

http://wordpress.com/i/blank.jpg

While many copyright owners are happy to have their content on Pinterest, we recognize that some do not want their content to appear on Pinterest, or did not receive attribution for the content. When a copyright owner sends us a complete notice per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), it’s our policy to remove the Pin(s).

Again, this complaint was not directed at you, or anything you did: we just thought you’d like to know why we removed your Pin.

Happy Pinning and thanks again for using Pinterest.

The Pinterest Team
Pinterest DMCA #ID 802124167

Seems I’m not alone: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/copyright-problem

Posted in Politics & Law Tagged with: ,

Sep
24
2015
September 24th, 2015 by Michael Sauers

Stephanie Lenz was in her kitchen in rural Pennsylvania, filming her two young children having fun after dinner. As Prince’s song “Let’s Go Crazy” played, her toddler — clad in red pajamas — bounced up and down to the rhythm.

…

On Monday, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Lenz may hold Universal Music Corp. liable for ordering YouTube to take down the video if she can show the company failed to first consider whether the footage amounted to “fair use.” An exception in the copyright law, the fair-use principle allows people to use others’ creative works in criticism, teaching and other limited circumstances.

Source: ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ suit: Woman whose kitchen video was yanked from YouTube wins court ruling – LA Times

Posted in Misc, Politics & Law Tagged with: ,

Sep
22
2015
September 22nd, 2015 by Michael Sauers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that the music publishing company that has been collecting royalties for the song “Happy Birthday To You” does not hold a valid copyright to the popular tune that is sung worldwide.

The Associated Press has more.

Posted in Politics & Law Tagged with:

Aug
17
2015
August 17th, 2015 by Michael Sauers

Posted in Politics & Law Tagged with: ,

Jul
09
2015
July 9th, 2015 by Michael Sauers

And that last statement, that the Copyright Office feels these best practices are “often are arrived at absent consultation with authors and other copyright owners.” Hey Copyright Office – the orphan works don’t have any “authors and other copyright owners” – that’s the whole point. They are orphans. Why the heck would we consult with them? They don’t own the rights, and if they did, it wouldn’t be an orphan work!

Source: The Copyright Office and the Orphan Works Report: Top Three Problems | Kyle K. Courtney

Posted in Misc, Politics & Law Tagged with: ,

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