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For whatever reason, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) continues its misguided game of  “Let’s Make A Deal” with the big telecom empires.   Since the end of June, FCC Chief of Staff Edward Lazarus has convened representatives from AT&T, Verizon, the National Cable Telecommunications Association, Google, Skype and the Open Internet Coalition in an effort to try to have those negotiators do what FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski apparently won’t do – make a decision about the future of broadband and the Internet in this country.As far apart as the parties are, it’s increasingly unlikely that any overarching deal will be reached, even though negotiating sessions are scheduled for today (Aug. 4) and tomorrow (Aug. 5), following a marathon Saturday session on July 31.  The Empire is stuck in 2005, giving nothing up and expecting surrender from the other side. read more

October 13, 2010 - 6:00pm - 8:30pm Public Knowledge is excited to announce this year's IP3 Award winners, who are recognized for their work to advance the public interest in one of the "three IPs": Intellectual Property, Information Policy and Internet Protocol. This year's winners are as follows (the winner of the special President's Award will be announced at a later date): read more

It’s not every day that you find groups like American Public Media, Center for Community Change,  The Humane Society of the United States, Reform Immigration for America, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops speaking together on an issue.  However that is just what is happening with text messaging.  They, along with a number of other nonprofits, are getting together to tell the FCC that it is time to realize that people use text messaging to communicate.read more

For Immediate Release:  August 3, 2010 Public Knowledge President Gigi B. Sohn announced that four winners have been chosen for the 2010 IP3 awards.  In addition, a special President’s Award will also be presented.  The name of that winner has not yet been disclosed.This year, the awards will be given Pamela Samuelson, Susan Crawford, Michael Geist and Nina Paley.  Awards are given to individuals who over the past year (or over the course of their careers) who have advanced the public interest in one of the three areas of “IP” –Intellectual Property, Information Policy and Internet Protocol. The awards will be presented at a ceremony Oct. 13 in Washington, D.C.read more

By now, you’ve probably heard that the Library of Congress says you can jailbreak your iPhone. But there are other exceptions to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) that the Library of Congress created—and other people who are happy about these exceptions.read more

In this week's edition of the In the Know Podcast, we discuss the Copyright Office's Section 1202 Anticircumvention Rulemaking Report, also known as the DMCA report.  Then, we speak with the people behind Rock Your Phone, an alternative iPhone app store, about what an alternative iPhone app store is and why they think that Apple may be acting anticompetitively. You can download and listen to the audio by clicking here (MP3) or stream it using the player below: Want to subscribe to our podcast? Click here for the MP3 feed and here for the mixed audio/video feed. read more

Last Thursday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that toymaker Mattel did not own the trademarks and copyrights in the Bratz doll line, and that competitor MGA Entertainment was not liable for copyright infringement.  This case properly distinguishes ideas, which cannot be copyrighted, from the protectable expression of these ideas.      read more

Last Thursday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that toymaker Mattel did not own the trademarks and copyrights in the Bratz doll line, and that competitor MGA Entertainment was not liable for copyright infringement.  This case properly distinguishes ideas, which cannot be copyrighted, from the protectable expression of these ideas.      read more

Greetings! My name is Anne Halsey and I am the newest of the PK summer interns.  I started at the beginning of July and have been getting up to speed on a variety of issues, some of which I’ve worked with before and some of which are new to me.  I’m looking forward to spending the rest of my summer in DC working on issues that are near and dear to PK and to me! Like Anjali, I’m also new to Public Knowledge, although not to DC summers.  During and just after college I worked for One Economy Corporation, also in DC, on increasing access to the internet for under served international communities.  Working for One Economy brought home just how vital the internet is, and how intricate and interesting tech law and internet law in particular can be.read more

Greetings! My name is Anne Halsey and I am the newest of the PK summer interns.  I started at the beginning of July and have been getting up to speed on a variety of issues, some of which I’ve worked with before and some of which are new to me.  I’m looking forward to spending the rest of my summer in DC working on issues that are near and dear to PK and to me! Like Anjali, I’m also new to Public Knowledge, although not to DC summers.  During and just after college I worked for One Economy Corporation, also in DC, on increasing access to the internet for under served international communities.  Working for One Economy brought home just how vital the internet is, and how intricate and interesting tech law and internet law in particular can be.read more

The blogging service Blogetery was recently cut off from the Internet by its web hosting service.  As a result, blog creators and readers lost access to an estimated 73,000 blogs.  Why Blogetery was cut off from the Internet is not clear.  The New York Times’ Bits Blog originally reported that the cut off resulted from an FBI request, made after the FBI discovered links to Al Qaeda bomb-making instructions on one of the blogs on the Blogetery service.  The web hostread more

The blogging service Blogetery was recently cut off from the Internet by its web hosting service.  As a result, blog creators and readers lost access to an estimated 73,000 blogs.  Why Blogetery was cut off from the Internet is not clear.  The New York Times’ Bits Blog originally reported that the cut off resulted from an FBI request, made after the FBI discovered links to Al Qaeda bomb-making instructions on one of the blogs on the Blogetery service.  The web hostread more

New Labour, the FCC, and G.K. Chesterton are known for third ways. But when it comes to “copy ownership,” there’s no such thing. The mostly-awesome Copyright Office 1201 report wishes there was, however. read more

New Labour, the FCC, and G.K. Chesterton are known for third ways. But when it comes to “copy ownership,” there’s no such thing. The mostly-awesome Copyright Office 1201 report wishes there was, however. read more

Blizzard Entertainment has a history of making popular, well-regarded games, such as those in their long-running WarCraft, Diablo, and StarCraft franchises, and even games like The Lost Vikings back on Super NES. But Blizzard also has a recent history of expounding a rather broad theory of copyright liability, one which gives copyright owners wide discretion to unilaterally decide which of their customers’ should count as copyright infringement. The upcoming release of the much-anticipated StarCraft II, along with a recent change to the Terms of Use for Battle.net, Blizzard’s online multiplayer service, has some people worried. After a brief review of Blizzard’s approach to copyright, I’ll describe how they might apply it to StarCraft II.read more

Blizzard Entertainment has a history of making popular, well-regarded games, such as those in their long-running WarCraft, Diablo, and StarCraft franchises, and even games like The Lost Vikings back on Super NES. But Blizzard also has a recent history of expounding a rather broad theory of copyright liability, one which gives copyright owners wide discretion to unilaterally decide which of their customers’ should count as copyright infringement. The upcoming release of the much-anticipated StarCraft II, along with a recent change to the Terms of Use for Battle.net, Blizzard’s online multiplayer service, has some people worried. After a brief review of Blizzard’s approach to copyright, I’ll describe how they might apply it to StarCraft II.read more

For Immediate Release:  July 26, 2010 Earlier today, the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress released the results of its triennial review of applications for exemptions from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).  The ruling found that adding programs to the iPhone (called jailbreaking) is not a violation of copyright law.  The decision is here.The following statement is attributed to Sherwin Siy, deputy legal director of Public Knowledge:read more

For Immediate Release:  July 26, 2010 Earlier today, the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress released the results of its triennial review of applications for exemptions from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).  The ruling found that adding programs to the iPhone (called jailbreaking) is not a violation of copyright law.  The decision is here.The following statement is attributed to Sherwin Siy, deputy legal director of Public Knowledge:read more

July 25, 2010 (All day) - July 28, 2010 (All day) Hear Gigi B. Sohn speak about the National Broadband Plan on Tuesday, July 27 at the Hilton Baltimore. Join NCTC and ACA at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor for the 2010 Independent Show, featuring three days of educational sessions, networking opportunities and a great summer destination for the family. THE INDEPENDENT SHOW JULY 25-28, 2010 HILTON BALTIMORE - BALTIMORE, MD

July 25, 2010 (All day) - July 28, 2010 (All day) Hear Gigi B. Sohn speak about the National Broadband Plan on Tuesday, July 27 at the Hilton Baltimore. Join NCTC and ACA at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor for the 2010 Independent Show, featuring three days of educational sessions, networking opportunities and a great summer destination for the family. THE INDEPENDENT SHOW JULY 25-28, 2010 HILTON BALTIMORE - BALTIMORE, MD