3 Count: Independent Spirit

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday.

1: Bill Would Make Copyright Office Independent Agency

First off today, John Eggerton at Broadcasting and Cable reports that two U.S. Representatives, Judy Chu and Tom Marino, have presented a draft of the Copyright Office for the Digital Economy (CODE) Act, which would remove the U.S. Copyright Office from the Library of Congress and make it an independent agency.

The bill, which is currently in draft stage, would also have the President appoint a directory for the Copyright Office for a 10-year term, would transfer administrative and legal duties from the Library of Congress to the Copyright Office and would allow the Copyright Office to deliver all communications directly with the legislative branch without any executive review.

The representatives behind the draft are planning on holding conversations with stakeholders over the next few months. They hope that the bill will better prepare the U.S. Copyright Office for its broadening mission in the digital age.

2: Did Hollywood Producers Steal Her Prayer?

Next up today, Debra Nussbaum Cohen at Forward reports that Jewish rabbinical student Trisha Arlin says that the popular TV show A.D.: The Bible Continues used a prayer she wrote within the show without providing attribution or requesting permission.

According to Arlin, her Payer for Compassion, was used in the fourth episode of the miniseries. She says she was alerted to the plagiarism by a movie critic who noticed the similarities.

Arlin licenses all of her work under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike licenses, which allows for commercial reuse of her work so long as attribution is provided and any derivative work is placed under a similar license. However, Arlin says that the show violated all of the requirements of her license and that she is seeking guidance from an attorney to address the matter.

3: BPI launches new Copyright Protection Portal

Finally today, Chris Cooke at Complete Music Update reports that British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has launched a new copyright protection portal that aims to not only show the musicians it represents where infringing copies of their work are being distributed, but also how the organization is responding.

BPI is a very active organization in issuing takedown notices against infringing material, the new portal is designed to make it easier for members to track how those efforts are impacting them.

The service is free to all BPI members as well as performer members of the PPL collecting society and non-BPI affiliated indies that are part of both the Association of Independent Music and PPL.

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.

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