Here are some recent links of interest from around the web on various topics:
Copyright term and the public domain
Raizel Liebler, LibraryLaw Blog: The Tale of One Bunny, Copyright Statements, & Public Domain: A Cautionary Tail: "This intellectual property cautionary tale starts because I was puzzled by the copyright notice in a historical mystery novel. Published in the United States in 2004, ‘Tale of Hill Top Farm’ by Susan Wittig Albert is based on the life of Beatrix Potter and includes references to many of her famous characters, including Peter Rabbit, his friends, and relations."
Photography and Copyright fair use, Trademark fair use, Right of privacy/publicity
Lien Verbauwhede, WIPO: Legal Pitfalls in Taking or Using Photographs of Copyright Material, Trademarks and People: "Photographers and users of photographs face certain risks when taking and publishing photographs. This article provides an overview of the general legal principles applicable to taking photographs of copyright works, trademarks and people." (Via I/P Updates.)
Copyright and search
Fred von Lohmann, EFF Deep Links: Copyright v. Indexing, Part 1: TorrentSpy: "A prediction: the world of copyright law is about to collide with the world of digital indexing and search, and the collision will be among the most important digital copyright issues of the next several years."
Trademark and corporate formation/naming
Martin Schwimmer, The Trademark Blog: Why Did I Get A Demand Letter If I Was Allowed To Incorporate Under That Name?: "The problem is that a corporate name is the name that the Secretary of State (which oversees incorporation in a state), allocates to a legal entity, after conducting an idential or near-identical search of the name, in that state. The availability of a corporate name means only that there is no other legal entity by that name in that state, and there is no trademark significance to this fact…"
Copyright, music and mixtapes
Record store owner Alan Berry in the NY Times on mixtapes: The Tale of the Tapes: " Illegal products should not be sold. But it's disingenuous for the recording industry to compare hip-hop mixtapes to a bootleg recording of, say, a Dave Matthews Band concert. After all, mixes aren't bootlegs at all— they're advertisements."