Imagine the following: You were very sick.  It was touch and go for a while, but you’ve just awakened and feel much better.  You open your eyes and see… nothing. It’s absolutely, completely black, like the deepest cave.  ‘Am I blind?’ you ask yourself out loud, but the sounds of your own voice are all wrong. […]

Dear Doc: I have heard that Congress is considering a new law that would create a small claims court for copyright infringement cases, particularly those that stem from infringement on the Internet. That sure sounds like it would help to stop unauthorized copying! Whaddya think? Signed,Well-intentioned.   Dear Well:   Have you ever shared a […]

Here is some news for old fogey music lovers (like me).   Remember the Spencer Davis Group? Stevie Winwood was the sixteen year old lead singer belting out hits like “Gimme Some Lovin’.”  In 1966, the song reached the number 2 hit single position in the U.S.  According to Muff Winwood, the bassist, it was “conceived, arranged, and […]

In the not too distant past, a person or company unhappy about a patent had two choices:  (a) wait to be sued for patent infringement by the patent owner in Federal court and then challenge the validity of the patent, or (b) preemptively sue the patent owner in Federal Court and ask the court to […]

Dear Doc: I know that in the past you have said (complained, actually) that copyrights last far too long…for the life of the author plus another 75 years (or 95 years for corporate-authored works.) That said, it was not always the case that the term was so extensive. How can I know if a book […]

In many parts of the world, authors and artists also own “moral rights” in their works.  Moral rights include the “right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and the right to the integrity of the work.”  The “right to integrity” means that right to object to the “distortion, or […]