3 Count: I Want My YTV

This is daily column on Plagiarism Today where the site brings you three of the days biggest, most important copyright and plagiarism news links. If you want to offer your feedback on the column, use the contact form or just follow me on Twitter at @plagiarismtoday.

1: YouTube and Universal ‘to develop music video site’

Even as Warner Music continues its feud with YouTube over licensing, Universal Music is looking for a way to deepen its relationship with the video sharing site. Yesterday, the two announced that they were in talks to develop a stand alone video site solely for music videos. Of course, the deal wouldn’t mean much if it couldn’t be expanded to other record labels but “Vevo”, as it is being called as a placeholder, is a potential leap forward for both companies.

Music video fans can already find most of the videos they want on MTV.com or on YouTube itself through existing licensing deals and tolerated uploads.

2: RailCorp targets rogue iPhone app

Railcorp, a NSW state corporation that manages the trains in and around Sydney, has sent a cease and desist letter to the developer of an iPhone application that was designed to help passengers get train table information. The developer of the app, which is the second most popular in its category, is still available as the developer seeks legal advice.

Though Railcorp is a government entity, in Australia, government entities can hold what is known as “crown copyright”, giving them the right to enforce copyright protection in their work. However, whether or not a train table is protectable is another issue.

According to Railcorp, they are only interested in ensuring the accuracy of train information, not in exploiting the work financially.

3: Seen Reading busted by Indigo

Finally today, an employee at an Indigo bookstore in Canada stopped Julie Wilson, administrator of the popular blog Seen Reading, from copying a fifty-word passage from a book for her blog.

Seen Reading is a blog where Wilson observes people reading in public, sees what book they are buried in, estimates where they are in the book and then posts a short passage from about where they were, complete with short audio reading. The goal is to get people excited about reading and encourage the hobby.

However, this time the employee stopped her and told her that what she was doing was illegal, even after she explained that she was only copying 50 words from a novel-length piece. Though one can sympathize with the employee for being aggressive, they no doubt do see at least some actual copyright infringement, it seems that there should have been a much better way to handle this.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today, we’ll be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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