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We provide strategic planning, patent and trademark portfolio management / development, domestic and international technology licensing, patent position competitive analysis, technology and collaboration agreements, technology audits, due diligence studies, cease and desist letters, and invalidity / non-infringement opinions. We represent individual inventors, artists, emerging technology companies, and mature multinational corporations in matters relating to the procurement and enforcement of domestic and foreign intellectual property rights. We recognize that each of our clients'’ needs are unique. This, we adhere to an individualized approach whereby the needs of each client are addressed in accordance with their particular business objectives.
McCormack Intellectual Property Law P.S.
206.381.888
www.mccormacklegal.com 617 Lee Street, Seattle WA 98109
Copyright Cow™…..
With permission from:
Defending the American Dream FOUNDER & PUBLISHER: Timothy B. McCormack CONTRIBUTORS: Timothy McCormack Eric Harrison Lucas Michaels GENERAL REQUESTS: m@mccormacklegal.com PUBLISHING/ADVERTISEMENTS: m@mccormacklegal.com
DISCLAIMER: This magazine is not intended to give legal advice and is not a subs tute for the same; if the reader has a concern they should contact a knowledgeable a orney.
Also by Timothy McCormack:
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The Copyright Cow Blog focuses on the untold stories of the second largest export of the United States – intellectual property and tech‐ nology – through the lenses of law, economics (freaky‐economics) and society. Intellectual property is comic books, cartoon characters, the “Book of Life” embodied in the Human Genome, medicine, technology, movies, websites, and, for example, the business of producing and distribu ng milk (a Copyright Cow favorite). The Copyright Cow BLOG is not only for your local dairy farmer / rancher in Washington state. It is also for the CEOs of Microso , Boeing and Ge y Images. Although Copyright Cow is a great read for any business owner, it is also good for mothers and fathers, teachers and students and anyone who wants to know more about the legal and economic forces shaping 21st century America. The law can decide, who lives and who dies; who eats and who starves. Who gets the latest HIV medica on and who does not? Who owns the cri cal intellectual property that, literally, holds the key to life and death for over 50 million people? What about the economic and social forces that help to shape the law and also result in both prosperity and misfortune? With the help of Copyright Cow, we will all be be er prepared to answer these ques ons, shape a be er future and hopefully be a li le happier! With your help, the reader, Copyright Cow can con‐ nue to help defend the American Dream!
Seattle Post intelliCopyright Infringement , The Information Technology Solutions gencer “Copyright
the Free Press, and “defending” the American Constitution
The most pressing reason to care about copyright infringement is because, life as you know it is potentially in jeopardy. Yes, I just said that. Let me say it again….. Copyright infringement may put life as you know it in jeopardy. There are many misconceptions about copyright law. One of the most frightening misconceptions is embodied in one simple question: Who cares? Many will say, “it’s not really my issue; why should I care?” The answer to this fundamental question is both simple and complex. Let’s set the copyright on Mickey Mouse (and even that of Copyright Cow) aside for a moment. Let’s talk about Anderson Cooper and Human Rights atrocities. Then let’s talk about economics, taxes and social services. We can get back to the mouse and cow later. In a modern Democracy we value information. Information feeds our stock market, it feeds what we buy as consumers (even what we think we want in some cases) and who we vote for.
tographer (or the company they work for). In today’s world, a news story without a picture is almost not a news story. The pictures of news events get sold. This is what helps pay for a freelance reporter’s airfare, travel expense, child support, student loan payments and taxes.
Are you a Pirate—Downloading Pictures from the Internet?
The traditional media is part of the dissemination of that information. Blogs and other social media are also growing in popularity for the same reason. I am going to throw a wrench into the gears of Democracy – into the economic incentives that facilitate creating news reports and stories. Basically, I am going to take Anderson Cooper’s paycheck and shred it! The wrench is copyright infringement . News reporters like Anderson Cooper sometimes risk their lives to bring us news from foreign lands – they report on wars, human rights atrocities and good things too. This reporting can be used to help stop crime, catch criminals and even shape social justice. News reporters don’t work for free. Of course, news events can’t be owned. The pictures documenting the news events, however, are owned. The text of the reporter’s copy is similarly owned. It can be published and re-published. In essence, the news story and the pictures (at least the reporting of the story and the capturing of the action) become the intellectual property of the reporter and / or pho-
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Cow” Column focuses on the untold stories of the second largest export of the United States – intellectual property and technology – through the lenses of law, economics and society. Intellectual property is comic books, cartoon characters, the “Book of Life” embodied in the Human Genome, medicine, technology, movies, websites, and, for example, the business of producing and distributing milk (a Copyright Cow favorite). Timothy B. McCormack, attorney at law, and Seattle based technology and copyright lawyer writes the blog to help educate and raise awareness of some of the most important economic and legal issues of our time – intellectual property. Timothy B. McCormack founded McCormack Intellectual Property Law PS. Mr. McCormack represents artists, photographers and companies like Getty Images and Gallery Stock. Learn more about attorney Timothy B. McCormack. Look for us on Facebook and Google +, McCormack Legal Blog You Tube and Twitter!
Information Technology Solutions
In a modern Democracy we value information.
Intellectual property is a property right in some intangible like a copyright, a trademark, a patent or a trade secret). In this case, the intangible rights are “copyrights” which protect, for example, texts, photographs, graphics, computer source code, movies and music. Since most reporters need to make a living, they can’t be gallivanting about the world with no hope of making money. In fact, you take away the money, you take away the professional reporter. This reporting can be used to help stop crime, catch criminals and even shape social justice.
Since most reporters need to make a living, they can’t be gallivanting about the world with no hope of making money. In fact, you take away the money, you take away the professional reporter. With that, you start to break down the quality and flow of information at all levels. Without freedom of information Democracy stops working. The free markets even stop working. If you really think about it, life as we know it is premised on the free flow of information. When that information stops flowing or is controlled by a government that goes unchecked, you end up with unwanted wars and in some cases human rights atrocities. Germany’s Nazi regime illustrates what can happen when the government controls information and uses propaganda (unchecked false information) to control and influence public opinion. There are dictators and oligarchies all over the world, even today doing (or trying to do) the
“Without freedom of information Democracy stops working”
same thing. While it is true that the “citizen reporter” or blogger provides a new source of possible reporting around the world, without professional new reporters, to challenge government propaganda and dig for “truth” the very foundations of life as we know it, begin to crack! How did this start? Copyright infringement. Yes, the mouse and the cow count too. When we don’t protect the labor of our reporters, our artists, and even our doctors and our lawyers, we erode the foundations of our society. Even the “Founding Fathers” knew that copyrights were important – they wrote into the Constitution itself, the authority for Congress to pass copyright and patent laws. We have copyright laws. Yet, it is almost ubiquitous that we break them. When I speak at the University of Washington, for example, I often informally poll the students. Who has downloaded music without paying for it? Out of a classroom of fifty students, only 5 don’t raise their hands. The same is true of businesses that download and use professional photographs and images on their websites without paying for them. As a lawyer in Seattle, I deal with that issue a lot. It is amazing how many companies do this! What is even more amazing is how many think its no big deal. Many are not even apologetic or ashamed. If you back your car into the side of your neighbor’s minivan, you make good on the damage. You apologize and offer to cover the damage or have your insurance cover the damage. Why is the same not true for copyright infringement? Is it because you can touch the damaged car but you can’t touch the damaged copyright? Yet, the photographer who didn’t get their licensing fee for the use of the image goes without food while the company that stole the image laughs all the way to the bank. This is not right or fair.
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EXPERIENCED
E X P E R I I M A G I N AT I V E
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Timothy McCormack At t o r n e y At L aw
(206) 381‐8888 617 Lee Street, Seattle WA 98109
Based on an Order Information from a United States District Court ICE seized the Technology Solutions domain names and posted the following:
In one recent case, the Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security began cracking down on some of the mass-infringing websites that facilitate widespread copyright infringement of everything from music to photographs to comic books. The reported response of one of the domain name owners was, “My domain has been seized without any previous complaint or notice from any court!”My response to the owner’s comment is, it’s about time! How dare this industrial pirate ask for anything! He broke the law. A judge issued an order after a lawful Investigation. Don’t get me wrong, I love the law. It protects all of us but this industrial pirate’s reaction goes too far.
What it comes down to is this: Don’t steal my stuff! If you do steal my stuff, be prepared to pay the consequences, whether that be monetary damages or jail. This mass infringer threatens society as we know it. He ought to be ashamed of his actions not outraged by the collective efforts of our law and government to curb crime. As a society, if we continue to condone intellectual property theft, at all levels, how long will it be before we can no longer repair the cracks in our fragile Democracy? Before we have no insulation against government propaganda and power that will corrupt so absolutely that not even business can function? Not long, people. Not long. ■
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There is such a thing as a successful bankruptcy.
READ THE ONGOING SAGA OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY HTTP://BLOG.SEATTLEPI.COM/TIMOTHYMCCORMACK/