More than a decade ago a student in Kazakhstan working on a research paper found that she needed access to scientific articles that were hidden behind a paywall. By 2011, that need had developed into the project we now know as Sci-Hub – ‘The Pirate Bay of Science’. To celebrate ten years online, operator Alexandra Elbakyan has now added another 2.3m articles to the site’s archives.
Source: Sci-Hub Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary By Uploading 2.3m New Articles * TorrentFreak
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hould an artificially intelligent machine be able to patent its own inventions? For a US federal judge, the larger implications of that question were irrelevant. In April 2020, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) ruled that only “natural persons” could be credited as the inventor of a patent, and a US court decided Thursday that yes, that’s what the law technically says.
Source: AI computers can’t patent their own inventions — yet — a US judge rules
Facebook Gaming is letting more creators play licensed music in the background while streaming gameplay. Streamers who have partner status have been able to spin tracks from a broad range of publishers and labels since last September, and now Level Up creators can do so too.
Source: Facebook expands access to licensed music for game streams | Engadget
Legislation called the Copyright Knowledge Society Act went into force in Germany on March 1, 2018. As the copyright team at the German booksellers and publishers association writes, “Among other things, it expands the possibilities for university teachers to provide students with excerpts from digital or printed scientific works and textbooks without their universities having to obtain licenses under reasonable conditions.
Source: Copyright: Germany’s Börsenverein Warns Textbook Market Is ‘Shrinking Drastically’
After being hit with an exclusivity ban by China’s State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) in July, Tencent published a statement on WeChat on Tuesday (August 31) announcing that as of August 23, it had officially written to all “upstream copyright” holders to end their exclusive agreements.
Source: Tencent axes all exclusive label deals in China following antitrust clampdown
In an opinion issued this week, U.S. Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter concluded that a court would likely find Maryland’s recently passed library e-book law to be preempted by federal copyright law under a legal doctrine known as “conflict preemption.” But in her 9-page opinion, Perlmutter did not find the Maryland law to be “expressly” preempted by the Copyright Act, as opponents of the law have contended
Source: Copyright Office Weighs in on Maryland Library E-book Law
Increasing numbers of musicians and other owners of music royalty streams are looking to capitalize on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) by selling NFTs associated with music royalty streams. But selling such NFTs without proper due diligence and planning can quickly land artists and other royaltors in hot water legally, resulting in hefty fines, or even jail time.
Source: NFTs and Music Royalty Streams: 5 Legal Issues To Be Aware Of
Google on Wednesday said it is appealing a decision by France’s competition watchdog to hand it a 500-million-euro ($590 million) fine in a row with news outlets over the use of their content under EU copyright rules. The fine, issued by the French Competition Authority in July, was the biggest in the agency’s history for a failure to comply with one of its rulings.
Source: Google to appeal 500 mn euro French fine in copyright row
CryptoPunks is one of the biggest things in NFT crypto collectibles, with the Ethereum-based pixel avatars—released in 2017, well before this year’s NFT market boom—recently surpassing the $1 billion mark in total transaction volume to date. What’s the next potential stop for the CryptoPunks, then? Hollywood.
Source: CryptoPunks Go Hollywood as Larva Labs Signs With Major Talent Agency – Decrypt
