A follow up on yesterday’s post: Safe harbor textbook copying percentages for copyright fair use defense.

The Georgia State 10 percent Copying Rule….What if 10 Libraries from 10 different library systems each copy one chapter of a 10 chapter textbook and make it available on the Internet at the same time?

Make no mistake about your interpretation of the stakes involved in the Georgia State decision. College libraries are trying, without explicitly declaring, to constructively destroy the textbook industry that no longer ought to be entitled to copyright protection granted in this country a long long time ago to offset the cost of paper print. There is no moral highground or low ground at 9.9 percent or 10.1 percent.

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“Instead, the court fashioned its own quantitative test. For books of nine or fewer chapters, the court set a threshold of 10% of the total page count; for books of ten chapters or more, the threshold was a single complete chapter. (The chapter-based rule creates an odd incentive for publishers to create books with a surfeit of tiny chapters.) Copying of any amount under this threshold, the court held, would be treated as “decidedly small.” In practical terms, this ended up being a one-sided bright-line rule: copying of less than 10% or one chapter always ended in a fair use win for Georgia State.”

Cambridge University Press v. Becker

SEE MY PREVIOUS POST CAMBRIDGE NIL GEORGIA STATE NIL A COPYRIGHT DARBY ANALYSIS

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The fate of an estimated 25 million English language orphan works hangs in the balance as Great Britian awaits the report of Professor Ian Hargraeves.

BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz writes that much of the support for a not-for-profit licensing system comes from the copyright enforcing publishing world itself, which now realizes the profit potential of digitaliation of archives.

We hope that the holders of these archive materials take action, licensing statutes in place or otherwise, before the certain and ongoing deterioration of physical works causes irreperable harm to our cultural history.

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“Ian Sigalow, a partner at Greycroft Partners LLC, talks with Bloomberg Law’s Spencer Mazyck about legal challenges confronting technology start-ups and model venture capital financing documents.”

Skeptical about efficacy of spending money on business process patents.

Another helpful Bloomberg legal video on Tech Start-Up Legal Issues 1: Forming Your Company

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I am advising my U.S. startup clients to explore the exponentially expanding London startup ecosytem. Here is a list of entrance points pulled together by UKTI USA

USA Startups Enter London Here

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Lift Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, February 2012.

Startup founders and each of us can enjoy this talk.

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We think, of course, that Google has nailed the coffin shut on the Oracle copyright infringment claim with respect to its API:

“Computer programming languages are not copyrightable, and neither are Oracle’s APIs. Oracle accuses Google of infringement for doing what the Oracle API specifications describe. That is a classic attempt to improperly assert copyright over an idea rather than expression. The Court should hold that the structure, selection and organization of the APIs are uncopyrightable.”

In any event, for all clients and curious public readers, Judge Alsup does a wonderful job in these jury instructions in framing the issues.

Jury Procedure

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As a Twitter follower of #startups #nyc, I have now skipped through hundreds, if not thousands, of tweets announcing “Time Inc.’s 10 NYC Startups to Watch – 2012“.

For those of us who studied Latin, we often are inclined to use the Latin Phrase “Res Ipsa Loquitur (the thing speaks for itself).”

Here is the shortlist of NYC startup companies to watch. Hard to believe this list and its progeny will support all of New York City’s venture capitalists.

1. Fancy Hands: “A team of virtual personal assistants ready to work for you right now.”

2. Truth and Beauty: “An online platform that allows users to create their own personal skincare blends.”

[Are you excited yet?]

3. Adaptly: “The easiest way to advertise and increase engagement across all social networks.” A true meta-morphosis.

4. Divide: “.Enterproid has created a user experience that allows IT to manage the work persona without compromising an employee’s privacy.” Divide and conquer.

5. Loosecubes: “Loosecubes is a peer-to-peer office sharing community.” O.K,, I have actually used it, but is just a database.

6. Stamped: “A social platform that allows friends to put their stamp of approval on what they like best.” Breakthrough.

7. Codeacademy: “A fun, interactive and easy way to learn code.” Flashcards for Rock Stars.

I am working on the energy to complete 7 through 10. Please check back.

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Source: cbinsights.com

“The Series B and C Crunch? Yeah, That’s Looking Likely Seed and Series A were almost 50% of deals making Series B and beyond a potential chokepoint for many companies raising early stage money.”

Ergo, as Series B and C deals for #Startups decline, focus for #NYC and all is to negotiate best and brightest Series A terms with help of independent adviser and counsel.

Another conclusion here is also to craft a business plan that allows the Startup to generate its own revenue for growth during the Series A funded stage.

seriesB

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There are plenty of empty spaces in the Baltimore Orioles parking lots, and I am sure that Baltmore startup (now Times Square) Parking Panda will find them. Yesterday’s Mashable ink for this new “collective consumption pay us a commission database” adds further spaces at its angel table.

As Mashable describes: “It was that driveway that inspired Parking Panda, the three-person company of which he is cofounder and CEO. The site allows you to locate and rent parking spaces, and rent out your own stretch of car-friendly turf, similar to what AirBNB offers for housing.”

A nice, albeit derivative, startup in an understandable market. Its success will be all in the execution.

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