Silicon Valley Media Law Blog

Back in the fall I noticed and blogged that the Copyright Office did not have an up-to-date version of the Copyright Act on its web site.  The legal code was actually several years out of date.  On Thanksgiving Day no less, they announced the launch of an updated version, and I've been meaning to post about it.  Today I recorded a new podcast episode of This Week in the Law with Denise Howell as part of her panel, and gave a verbal shout out.  So this post is to complete the thought with a blogger's thank you note! 

Also if you're not overloaded you might want to subscribe to feeds or lists from the Library of Congress -- coverage includes Copyright Office information, digital preservation, poetry and other good stuff. 

The Axe returned; the rightful order of things restored; celebration!

Here's the story of a simple fix to the Copyright Office site that should probably be moved up on the priority list:

I was looking on the Copyright Office web site for the text of Section 506, regarding criminal copyright infringement, for the "making available" language, as discussed in my prior post.   Didn't find it.  Puzzled, I looked on the Cornell web site, and there it was.  Then I went back to the Copyright Office web site and noticed that their posted version of the Copyright Act is from 2003.

Above the links to the copyright statute, they have a box with a list of the half dozen amendments to the law since 2003.  So technically it's all there, but it hasn't been integrated into a single version of the code.  Not very helpful, and potentially misleading, to someone if they don't know precisely what they're looking for or that they need to reconcile the statute with all the amendments.  And a time-waster for those who do. 

The page with the box says:

"The documents below will be updated soon to reflect these changes."

That was 2004 -- it's now almost 2008, so "soon" appears to be a relative term.   I think we can do better -- especially given how copyright law is increasingly relevant to the general public in regard to their digital activities -- and the site (logically) is the top result on web search for "copyright act".   

Lucky for the Copyright Office they're not in Palo Alto.  Recently folks here started giving our city government hell from the moment it launched a flawed web site redesign!

We missed the first half because my younger son had a birthday party today.  My older son checked the Stanford game in the third quarter -- we finally found it on the Versus channel -- and we wondered what had happened in the first half, with USC up just 9-0? 

Then it all unfolded.    

http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/collegesports/2007/10/06/stanford-beats-usc-the-greatest-upset-in-college-football-history/

 http://yardbarker.com/college_football/articles/Stanford_defeats_2_USC/30055

As a kid growing up in Palo Alto, I will never forget the thrill of watching Plunkett and Vataha.   Back then my sister, in a cheerleader outfit, got to be on the sidelines with Prince Lightfoot, and the dollies gave us their used paper pom-poms to play with afterwards. 

Now my boys have Pritchard and Bradford.   New memories today  -- what a game!

Kevin O'Keefe's blog did a piece today about my relaunching my blog, as I've come back after an extended break.  When I told Kevin that I was going to relaunch, he suggested a guest interview on his ongoing Five Questions feature.  I readily agreed and very much enjoyed working with Rob La Gatta on it.  I would love to hear from anyone about it, and I'm glad to be back!

Our summer house is in the August issue of House Beautiful.  

They must have wanted a break from glamour homes when they chose our Victorian beach house in Port Townsend, Washington.  It looks out over the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which is the shipping lane from the Pacific Ocean into Puget Sound, where we see a steady stream of container, cruise and military vessels going by.   We spent a good part of July there, but are now back in Palo Alto and so have to settle for the pictures.

The house was decorated by Markham Roberts, a Mark Hampton protege whose client list includes the likes of Charlotte Ford, and among other things, Markham used antiques from my brother's gallery, James Sansum Inc.  The magazine pics aren't online, as the mag is in the print business.  If anyone has a Port Townsend connection, I would love to know about it for the next time we are up there.