Wisconsin Featured in NYT as Indicator of Economic Recovery

manufactureGraphicFrom Saturday’s New York Times, Peter Goodman’s “In Wisconsin, Hopeful Signs for Factories.”

A taste:

At the Rockwell Automation factory [in Mequon], something encouraging happened recently that might be a portent of national economic recovery: managers reinstated a shift, hiring a dozen workers.

After months of layoffs, diminished production and anxiety about the depths of the Great Recession, the company — a bellwether because most of its customers are manufacturers themselves — saw enough new orders to justify adding people.

Given the panicked retreat that has characterized life on the American factory floor for many months, any expansion registers as a hopeful sign for the economy. Last week, the Federal Reserve found signs of “modest improvement” in manufacturing. That reinforced the direction of a widely watched manufacturing index tracked by the Institute for Supply Management, which surged into positive territory last month for the first time in a year and a half.

But for sure: we aren’t quite there yet.  The article goes on to warn that, “these indications, while welcome, promise no vigorous expansion: For now, factory overseers remain uncertain that a lasting resurgence is at hand, making them reluctant to hire workers aggressively and invest in new equipment.”  That type of expansion might be some time off.

But here’s hoping that we are at least heading up from the bottom of the Great Recession.

PS

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Another Win for Veoh

Veoh logoOn Friday, the district court in UMG v. Veoh granted summary judgement in favor of Veoh. Decision here, courtesy of Copyrights & Campaigns. UMG, a record label, had sued Veoh, a site hosting user-posted videos, claiming infringement of its music videos. UMG is the second decision to come down on the issue of the responsibility of site owners to deal with continual user infringement under Section 512 of the Copyright Act, and like Io v. Veoh, it’s a big win for site owners. The big one remaining, of course, is Viacom v. YouTube, pending in the Southern District of New York.

There’s bound to be some comment on how this is helpful precedent for YouTube, but I think the cases are importantly different. I’ve noted repeatedly that I think Viacom’s best fact—indeed, possibly the decisive factor in bringing the suit—is that YouTube at one point seemed to be selectively offering to filter uploaded content. See my analysis of this issue from earlier this year.

It doesn’t appear that UMG had anything like this fact to hang its case on.

Continue ReadingAnother Win for Veoh

More on Literary Characters and Copyright Law

CC_No_11_Don_Quixote3This blog has seen an extended discussion on the topic of literary characters and copyright law.  It began with my post here, discussing the ongoing court case brought by J.D. Salinger over the unauthorized use of his Holden Caulfield character from The Catcher in the Rye, (Salinger v. Colting) and using a comparison to the novel Don Quixote to argue that copyright protection for literary characters should be eliminated.  It was followed by Professor Bruce Boyden’s post here, defending the law’s grant of exclusive control over literary characters to the original author because it provides an economic incentive to the creative process.  Professor Gordon Hylton responded with a post here, supporting my argument against copyright protection for literary characters by pointing to the post-publication history of Edward Bellamy’s popular novel Looking Backward.  The discussion continued with Professor David Papke’s suggestion, in a post here, that the resolution of this debate may depend upon how we define what it means to be an “author,” and whether authorship is an individual act of creation or the collective act of an entire society.  Finally, Professor Rick Esenberg contributed this post, discussing the crucial role of the reader in attributing meaning to the text, and implicitly questioning the idea that any author can control how his creation is used.

 I would like to add to this discussion by sharing the comments of my brother, Jim Fallone, on the foregoing debate.  I am aware, of course, of the popular movie Adaptation, “co-written” by screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and his fictitious brother Donald.  In that movie, Charlie Kaufman takes the screenwriting process itself as the film’s subject, and plays with post-modern theories of authorship.  Let me assure you that, unlike Donald Kaufman, Jim Fallone is a real person.  Moreover, Jim Fallone has over 20 years of experience as an executive in the publishing industry, currently with Andrews McMeel Publishing in Kansas City, and is a published illustrator.  While this experience makes him dependent upon copyright law for his meal ticket, it also gives him some valuable insights into the creation and marketing of literary characters.

What follows, then, are the comments of Jim Fallone:

Continue ReadingMore on Literary Characters and Copyright Law