3 Count: Idaho Public

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1: University of Idaho Law Students Push to Put State’s Code in Public Domain

First off today, the Associated Press is reporting that two University of Idaho law students, Jordan Scott and Randi Schumacher, have written a bill that has been introduced by an Idaho House panel that would put all of the state’s laws into the public domain.

Currently, though unofficial text of the state’s statutes are available online, commentary and the official text of the code is unavailable. To obtain the full version of the laws, you need to either buy access to an online version or a printed edition, the latter of which can cost more than $500.

The bill’s prospects are uncertain as Rep. Richard Willis, who chairs the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee, says he is uncertain if he will give the bill a full hearing. Currently, the copyright in the code earns the state more than $400,000 per year though the students feel that public access could not only increase access to the laws, but enable the creation of apps and other tools to make the laws easier to understand.

2: ‘Blurred Lines’ Trial Nearly Doubles Sales of Disputed Marvin Gaye Song

Next up today, Tim Kenneally at The Wrap reports that, even as the jury is out in the Blurred Lines trial, sales of the Marvin Gaye song Got To Give it Up have nearly doubled compared to the week prior.

The dispute pits the estate of Marvin Gaye against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Wililams over whether Thicke and William’s song Blurred Lines is an infringement of Gaye’s Got to Give it Up. The case reached a trial and the jury began deliberating the case on Thursday and is still evaluating the case.

In the meantime, sales of both Got to Give it Up and Blurred Lines have skyrocketed. With the Gaye song shooting up nearly 100% from 1,300 sales per week to 2,400. Blurred Lines also increased from approximately 4,000 digital sales to 6,000.

3: Creative Commons Logo Acquired for MoMA Exhibition

Finally today, Michellse Starr at CNet reports that the Museum of Modern Art in New York has acquired the iconic Creative Commons logo for part of its exhibition, This is for Everyone: Design Experiments for the Common Good.

The logo, which is a “CC” enclosed in a circle, was designed by Ryan Junell and was based on the traditional copyright symbol, which is a single “C” within a circle. It has since become one of the most recognized IP-related symbols and is used to indicate that, while the owner of the work wishes to retain copyright in it, they are granting certain permissions to others.

By acquiring the logo, MOMA is not taking ownership of the symbol. Instead, they are merely obtaining permission to store and display it. They have also acquired the other Creative Commons symbols including ShareAlike, Noncommercial, NoDerivatives and Attribution. The exhibition runs until January.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will 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.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.