I am officially entering the race to be the next Copyright Czar. I would love the opportunity to talk with you to discuss why I am the right candidate for this position.

* Wired Nominees.
* Will Obama's copyright czar help save the music?
* pdf: Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act

Professor L. Ray Patterson: "The competitor uses the copyright; the consumer uses the work. The copyright owner, by reason of the Copyright Act and the copyright clause, has not only no right to interfere, but a duty not to interfere with the consumer's use of a publicly disseminated work." (Free Speech, Copyright, and Fair Use 1987)

Host: Denise Howell,

Guests: Cathy Kirkman, John Palfrey, Kevin Heller, and Professor Eric Goldman.

The panel discusses the RIAAs case vs. Jammie Thomas and new developments in indirect liability for third party acts and comments.

Our talking points are online at http://del.icio.us/thisweekinlaw/10.

* advanced patent searching,
* patent PDF files,
* PAIR file histories or file wrappers, and
* double-click word searching within the text of patent documents.

Among its most notable achievements, WikiPatents.com is contributing to an important movement of improving patent quality by allowing users to add prior art references, comment on the relevancy of prior art, and discuss the scope of inventors' claims. To join the WikiPatents Community, go to http://www.wikipatents.com. Of course, it's free to join.

Assignment: find your own links for each of the above; it shouldn't be too hard.

2006: 1. Bizz Bang Buzz 2. pf.org 3. Loosely Coupled

2005: 1. Bizz Bang Buzz 2. IPTABlog 3. Unbillable Hours

2004: 1. Bizz Bang Buzz 2. Tech Law Advisor 3. The Invent Blog

Announcement: Blawger Bowl IV Gearing Up; Expansion Teams Available

Previously: Fantasy Sports League Lawsuit Filed!

Update: TWiL 6: Ecommerce and the Internet

A high school assistant principal is suing two students and their parents, alleging the teens set up a Web page on MySpace.com in her name and posted obscene comments and pictures. In the complaint, the spoofed educator is claiming defamation, libel, negligence and negligent supervision: Official sues students over MySpace page.

A very compliant Myspace removed the page when told it wasn't the assistant principal's profile.

In a not exactly related story, Kevin O'Keefe has posted on how attorney Anicia Ogonosky gets new clients at MySpace: Blonde attorney gets new clients at MySpace.

MSNBC interviewed David Bodney, a First Amendment and media rights lawyer with Phoenix-based Steptoe & Johnson LLP, who indicates that if the John Doe blogger never signed a confidentiality decree, then "Target would have to prove the poster knew the policy was confidential" and that "the postings had no legitimate purpose other than to malign."

According to the anonymous poster in question "Target Sucks" on July 28, 2006, Target's law firm Faegre & Benson was monitoring (pdf) the site for improper activity.

YouTube should note that all of the user generated content is also subject to copyright and unless its uploaded by the creator or licensee is technically 'pirated material'.

The article goes on to say that "YouTube could open itself up to a flood of requests by creators of videos looking for their own share of advertising revenue. Other sites such as Revver Inc. currently give amateur video creators a percentage of ad revenue. YouTube in the future will explore options for sharing online ad revenue with smaller, or amateur creators, Mr. Hurley said. But right now we're building tools for record labels, TV networks and movie studios."

Let's just hope they don't alienate their users in the meantime.

Previously: Universal to Sue YouTube?

Related: Mark Cuban on The Coming Dramatic Decline of Youtube (ed - he wrote this prior to reading any of my posts or the WSJ articles apparently; maybe Calacanis is going to his head.)