[In connection with something I’m writing about the Supreme Court’s decision in the videogame case (Brown v. EMA), I stumbled upon this while doing some Lexis research] Q: What is the holding of the Court in Alabama v. North Carolina, 130 S. Ct. 2295 (U.S. 2010)? Please note the lineup of the Justices: Scalia , […]
Author Archive | David Post
I’m Not – Really – Making This Up:
Yesterday I posted a story from Techdirt about a series of photographs of macaque monkeys taken, supposedly, by the monkeys themselves, and I asked, with tongue at least partially in cheek, whether the apparent copyright claim to these photos (Caters News Agency) held any water, given that the photos were taken by monkeys. Well, now […]
My career comes full circle:
Techdirt asks: Can A Monkey License Its Copyrights To A News Agency? Apparently, David Slater, a well-known nature photographer, left his camera on the ground in an Indonesian national park, and a macaque monkey walked over and snapped a bunch of photos, including this (remarkable!) self-portrait: Two of the photos in the set of monkey […]
Soccer Update:
So I know that faithful readers have been patiently waiting for my take on the current goings-on in the world of international soccer … Though this is the off-season, of course, for most of the world’s leagues (other than our own MLS), there’s a fair bit of action out there, in particular (a) the Women’s […]
New Internet Top-Level Domains Coming:
After many, many years of debate and discussion, ICANN — the rather peculiar hybrid policy/technology private/public institution that manages the Internet’s naming system — has finally approved a process to open up the Internet’s list of “top-level domains” (TLDs) [Stories here and here and here give some of the details] ICANN will begin accepting applications […]
And Speaking of the Inalienable Right to the Pursuit of Happiness . . .
. . . Happy Fourth to you all! Along with 90 (and still counting) other Internet law and IP law professors, I have signed a letter (drafted by Dave Levine, Mark Lemley, and me) in opposition to Sen. Leahy’s “PROTECT IP Act.” [The letter is posted below – the text of the bill, if you’re […]
For the “Life Imitates Law School Exam” File: Tattoo Copyright
Precisely mirroring a hypothetical I have often used in my Intro to IP class, along comes the “Mike Tyson tattoo” case. Tattoo artist Victor Whitmill apparently designed a distinctive tattoo for Mike Tyson’s face (see photo here), and the tattoo adorning actor Ed Helms’ face in the upcoming Warner Brothers’ film “Hangover 2” looks an […]
What’s Malcolm Gladwell Talking About?
So help me out here. I was leafing through Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” recently, and at the very beginning, in the introductory chapter, he writes this, as a way to illustrate the “geometric progression”: “Consider, for example, the following puzzle. I give you a large piece of paper, and I ask you to fold […]
More on DHS and Copyright Enforcement:
Fellow Blogger Orin Kerr, in several comments on my posting yesterday, has asked some questions deserving a response: David, If DHS is just making a request and has no legal authority to enforce its request, then of course Mozilla is free to ignore the request. At the same time, I wonder: If you were in […]
Homeland Insecurity, At It Again:
The Dep’t of Homeland Security is indeed at it again. I’ve blogged about their campaign on behalf of US copyright holders to “seize” the domain names of websites (irrespective of the actual location of the site, provided that it is registered in one of the databases of a US domain name registrar or registry). It’s […]
You Knew I’d Say Something About This:
A somewhat dispirited series of highly-anticipated matches between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid was elevated to high art through the remarkable play of the remarkable Lionel Messi. If you didn’t see his goals in Wednesday’s game — the second one in particular is a thing of sublime beauty — check them out here (the UEFA […]
How We’ll Know When the Machines are Taking Over:
Michael Eisen, over on “It is NOT Junk,” has uncovered a pretty remarkable phenomenon on Amazon. Looking for an out-of-print book on developmental biology, he saw that Amazon had 17 copies for sale: 15 used from $35.54, and 2 new from $1,730,045.91 (+$3.99 shipping). Hmm. The next day, the price had gone UP — $2.8 […]
DC Theater Recommendation:
My wife and I went last night to see the Synetic Theater production of “King Lear” at the Lansburgh Theater in downtown DC. If you are within striking distance of DC over the next couple of weeks (it closes April 24), and have even the slightest interest in theater, I can’t say enough about how […]
Copyright Tail Trying to Wag Internet Dog, Take 153:
As I’ve noted before on a number of occasions, a possible landmark copyright case is now before the 2d Circuit, Viacom et al. v. YouTube. On behalf of 44 co-signatory law professors, Annemarie Bridy and I wrote an amicus brief urging the court to affirm the lower court’s decision that YouTube is immune from copyright […]
If It Seems Too Good To Be True, It Probably . . .
. . . is.** [see note below] But on a day when our sports pages are filled up with loads of nonsense — about whether Barry Bonds knew what every 12 year-old in America knew (that Bonds was taking steroids), and about whether Kobe Bryant’s utterance of an “anti-gay epithet” that is apparently so nasty […]