Friday’s Endnotes – 09/22/23

Have We Misunderstood Copyright’s Consequences? — A very intriguing new paper from economist Stan Liebowitz. From the abstract: “This paper uses an unusually rich 21st century data set to compare two sets of vintage bestsellers from the early 20th century that, by a circuitous path of copyright law alterations, came to have different copyright treatments. The most striking result is that, on average, copyrighted vintage bestsellers sell almost four times as many copies as public domain vintage bestsellers and this result holds throughout the sales distribution. This result conflicts with the expectation that copyright would restrict sales by allowing the exercise of monopoly power, and instead points to factors such as post-creation investment by publishers as being much more important than previously recognized.”

The Authors Guild, John Grisham, Jodi Picoult, David Baldacci, George R.R. Martin, and 13 Other Authors File Class-Action Suit Against OpenAI — This was the big copyright news driving this week. Check out the Authors Guild page here for more information about the litigation, statements from the plaintiffs and counsel, and a link to the complaint itself.

Advertising on Pirate Sites Outlawed in Ukraine Under New Law — “Under a new law set to be enforced early October, placing advertising on pirate sites will be outlawed in Ukraine. Signed earlier this year by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the legislation targets sites that appear on the World Intellectual Property Organization’s WIPO Alert blacklist for systematically ignoring takedown demands.”

Internet TV services under the scrutiny of EU copyright law: CJEU ruling in Ocilion — Discussion of a CJEU case from July concerning an interesting (though technical) copyright issue involving a commercial IPTV service that provides, among other features, cloud recording and storage of TV programs. US copyright fans may see shades of Cablevision and Fox Broadcasting v Dish Network here.