Gasps of dismay this week from delegates at my copyright course. It always gets them talking when I say that their employer owns the copyright in their work. Even when they do the same work as at work but in their own time and at home. Photographer forced to destroy images There’s a famous case Read More
Category: Intellectual property
Social Media and the Law – Elearning course now live!
Do you really know what you can and can’t post? Take our elearning course for just £9.99 and find out. Read More
You need the permission of a trademark owner to use their trademark in your content. True or False?
If you’re not sure, buy our Copyright and Intellectual Property (IP) elearning course today! It’s essential for anyone who creates, edits, publishes or distributes content. And it’s only £19.99! Read More
Who owns the contacts you’ve made on LinkedIn when you leave the job?
Really good question at a conference where I spoke about the new libel law this week for Conscious Solutions. Not about libel but about ownership of LinkedIn contacts. The same question has been asked in one of our face-to-face courses. Question: who owns the contacts you make on LinkedIn while you are employed by a Read More
World music sales up for first time since 1999
The record industry has turned around after 13 years of decline. Global record sales grew 0.3% in 2012 by value, says the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). A small growth but at least growth. Sales of digital products are up 9% on 2011. Strategy The global industry has adopted the strategy of: Attacking Read More
Praise for the creative commons: quality of work improving
All hail the creative commons The quality of photography available on Flickr for commercial use via the creative commons licence has increased by bounds. More and more are willing to let their photos be used as long as they are credited. Take this photo I wanted an illustration of a hammer and a screw. I Read More
Covers clash
Cover designers need to be careful not to be hit by a copyright or passing off action. There is a spat in the book trade over the cover of a new book cover which looks like the original cover of Len Deighton’s Ipcress File, The Observer reports. Private Eye has a long running piece on Read More
Selling used software is legal
A decision by the European Court of Justice this week opens the way for buyers of content to resell it, whatever the terms of the original licence. The Court ruled that UsedSoft, a Germany company, was legally selling used Oracle software. Oracle argued that UsedSoft was breaching its licensing policy: but the Court said not. Read More
US Congress moves against “pirates”: Wikipedia protests
The US Congress is taking ”piracy” of US intellectual property seriously by proposing to attack the financial basis of foreign sites running copyright material without permission. Two acts are in Congress to let media owners force search engines to stop linking to “pirate” sites and stop US advertisers advertising. Wikipedia offline in protest The opposition Read More
The BBC: Dinosaurs can dance
BBC Worldwide is close to the sale of its magazines to private equity group Exponent. This will satisfy those critics in the magazine industry who have always wondered why the BBC is in magazines, not just spin offs from its own programmes. No supporter or enemy of the BBC should see this as a retreat. Read More