Now there’s a title. The Register:
“Three years ago, Timothy Vernor quit his day job to enjoy life as a full-time eBay junkie. His online store, Happy Hour Comics, typically sells comics-related collectibles and vintage toys, but about 24 months back, he walked into a “garage sale” and stumbled onto a copy of AutoCAD, the professional design tool that Autodesk prices at roughly $4000 a pop – and he decided to sell that on eBay too.
Well, Autodesk got all huffy. The software maker chucked a DMCA claim at eBay, insisting that Vernor’s AutoCAD auction was in violation of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). eBay promptly yanked the auction, but in an act of defiance rare among internet users, Vernor sent Whitman and company a counter-claim, insisting it put the auction back up.”

San Bernadino County Sun:
“County Supervisor Dennis Hansberger has sued to stop a Muscoy man from criticizing him through a Web site using the supervisor’s name.
Hansberger, who is running for re-election, won a temporary restraining order stopping William Fanning from profiting, promoting or selling the name, said Hansberger’s attorney, Tim Prince.
A preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 26. Hansberger seeks to win the rights to the domain name.
“The public’s access to information about Mr. Hansberger is being limited by these sites,” Prince said.”
Fanning, 37, owns several cyberdomains that use Hansberger’s name, such as www.dennishansberger.com. The Web sites contain critical remarks about the 3rd District supervisor, along with links to newspaper stories about him.

The Register:
Late last month . . . Viacom put the screws to Star Wars-loving North Carolinian Christopher Knight for posting his own TV ad to the world’s most popular video-sharing web site. Yes, he also posted a sliver of Viacom-owned content, but most of the video was his – and he wasn’t doing anything Viacom hadn’t already done to him. Nonetheless, Viacom ordered YouTube to yank the clip – in which Knight waves a light sabre at federal legislation – and our hero received a digital form letter threatening to destroy his account.
But Jedi Knight filed a counter-complaint, risking a lawsuit from Sumner Redstone and company, and for once, YouTube justice was served. Viacom eventually bowed to internet common sense, and late Tuesday night, the clip was restored.
The fact that the guy’s name is Knight adds a certain,uh, coincidence to the story.

Google Public Policy Blog: “The Economic Value of ‘Fair Use’”
“The study — which I encourage you to check out — concludes that the “fair use economy” in 2006 accounted for $4.6 trillion in revenues (roughly one-sixth of total U.S. gross domestic product), employed more than 17 million people, and supported a payroll of $1.2 trillion (approximately one out of every eight workers in the US). It also generated $194 billion in exports and significant productivity growth. Using a methodology similar to a previous World Intellectual Property Organization guide, the results of the study demonstrate that fair use is an important economic driver in the digital age.”