A Nevada Court ruled last week that Google doesn’t violate copyright law when it caches web page content for its Google Cache feature. The U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada found in the case of Blake A. Field v. Google Inc. that Google’s copying and storage of the content consitutes fair use under the copyright statutes.
The court was ruling in favor of Google’s motion for summary judgment in the case brought by Field, who had posted a story he wrote on his website and subsequently sued Google for copying it in the cache feature. The court said that despite his awareness of “meta-tags” that stop Google from copying and caching content, Field nonetheless posted his content on the Internet and thus gave Google an implied license to copy the content.
But more importantly, the court went through a traditional copyright analysis to determine if Google’s caching of content constitutes fair use. The predominant factor swaying the court was how “transformative” Google’s caching is. The court said the cached links “add something new” to the content and do not supersede Field’s work.
Here’s how the court said Google transforms content:
—These links give users some sense of what the content is when the original page is inaccessible.
—Cached links allow users to detect changes to web pages over time.
—Cached links allow users to understand why the pages are responsive to their queries.
—Cached links are designed in a way to differentiate the cached content from the original pages.
—Site owners control whether their actual web pages are cached through meta-tags.
Although not a party to the case, the EFF has praised the decision, calling it a landmark case that could influence other pending cases, such as those filed by book publishers against Google’s book scanning operation.
“This ruling makes it clear that the Google Cache is legal and clears away copyright questions that have troubled the entire search engine industry,” said Fred von Lohmann, EFF senior staff attorney. “The ruling should also help Google in defending against the lawsuit brought by book publishers over its Google Library Project, as well as assisting organizations like the Internet Archive that rely on caching.”Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 12:03 PM | Print | Comments (0)
This insiderish piece from Mike Langberg at The Mercury News underscores an annual Washington ritual: waiting to see if your pet issue gets mentioned in the President’s State of the Union address. Langberg says that Silicon Valley honchos will be on the edge of their seats come next Tuesday hoping to see if their lobbying on “competitiveness and innovation” issues, as Langberg has dubbed them, has paid off with a mention in the President’s speech.
These issues cover efforts to “improve our education system, boost research funding and fix overly restrictive immigration laws,” according to Langberg, and some big time tech leaders have been pushing the White House on these questions. In December, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett met with Vice President Dick Cheney and staff. Later that day, George M. Scalise, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association and Floyd Kvamme, a partner in venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers met with Chief of Staff Andrew Card and his people.
Two days later, a group that included Norman R. Augustine, the retired chairman of Lockheed Martin, met with Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Joshua Bolten, director of the Office and Management and Budget. Finally, on December 15, three U.S. senators, Lamar Alexander, (R-TN), Jeff Bingaman, (D-NM), and Pete Domenici, (R-NM) met for an hour with President Bush discussing the issues.
Langberg points out that the chances are pretty good that with this kind of access, President Bush will give a nod to the competitiveness and innovation issues. Moreover, this cluster of questions don’t immediately affect any company’s bottom-line and has bi-partisan support, both of which bode well for a mention in the speech. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) introduced a legislative package in November called “The Innovation Agenda.”
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 10:44 AM | Print | Comments (0)As cable operators and telcos race to capture the lion’s share of high-speed Internet customers, Verizon pulled ahead during Q4 05 with a record-breaking number of net high-speed customers. During the quarter, Verizon added 614,000 net new broadband customers, a record for any broadband provider ever.
At the end of the quarter, Verizon served 5.14 million high-speed customers, up 614,000 over Q3 05 levels (see table below). This figure was given a big boost by Verizon’s FTTP FiOs service, which is now available to more than three million homes.
| Verizon Broadband Customers | ||
| Broadband Customers (000) | Quarterly adds (000) | |
| 3Q02 | 1,522 | 155 |
| 4Q02 | 1,670 | 148 |
| 1Q03 | 1,830 | 160 |
| 2Q03 | 1,931 | 101 |
| 3Q03 | 2,116 | 185 |
| 4Q03 | 2,319 | 203 |
| 1Q04 | 2,664 | 345 |
| 2Q04 | 2,944 | 280 |
| 3Q04 | 3,253 | 309 |
| 4Q04 | 3,485 | 232 |
| 1Q05 | 3,864 | 379 |
| 2Q05 | 4,142 | 278 |
| 3Q05 | 4,530 | 388 |
| 4Q05 | 5,144 | 614 |
| Source: Emerging Media Dynamics analysis of company data. © 2660. | ||
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 10:20 AM | Print | Comments (0)
Business Week writer Jay Greene has this item about Microsoft’s supposed plans to develop a portable media player to compete with Apple’s dominant iPod. The software giant has put together a team to develop a device that would be marketed under the XBox name, although Microsoft hasn’t decided whether it will move ahead on the plans.
One problem: Microsoft could alienate its partners, such as Creative, that already make iPod-like devices. Another issue is the XBox brand name — most consumers know that as a games platform and might have a hard time thinking of it as a media player.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:51 AM | Print | Comments (0)Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK) has vowed to push ahead with legislation that gives the FCC authority to re-implement the broadcast flag, which would impose anti-copying technology on consumer electronics manufacturers that make devices capable of receiving digital broadcast signals. Draft legislation introduced by Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) would ratify rules adopted by the Commission in October 2003, rules subsequently overturned in a court decision, and give the FCC authority to update those rules.
Smith’s bill, however, goes beyond the original broadcast rules by including digital audio transmissions in a broadcast flag regime, and doesn’t limit the anti-copying rules to just television broadcasts, as the original rules did.
The Committee held hearings on this issue Tuesday, and at least one electronics manufacturer, Philips, has dropped its opposition to the reimposition of the broadcast flag for television. But, despite Stevens powerful support, the bill still faces opposition from librarians, who fear the bill will ban educational uses of video, public interest groups and some committee members, including Senator John Sununu (R-NH).
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:32 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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