The Second Circuit has finally released its long-awaited decision in the appeal of the Viacom v. Youtube lawsuit, about which I’ve blogged a great deal [starting here, here, here, and here] over the past couple of years. Viacom “won” — in that they got the reversal of the district court’s comprehensive judgment in YouTube’s favor […]
Archive | Copyright
Do Lexis and Westlaw Infringe Copyright When They Post Briefs Filed in Court?
I briefly blogged about this question in 2009; now there’s a lawsuit, White v. West Publishing Corp. & Reed Elsevier Inc. (S.D.N.Y. filed Feb. 22, 2012) that argues that such posting does indeed infringe copyright. Here’s my summary from 2009, very slightly edited: The argument for infringement is actually moderately strong. Like most other documents, […]
Bill Patry Guest-Blogging
I’m delighted to say that Bill Patry will be guest-blogging this week about his new book, How to Fix Copyright. I’ve known Bill for 18 years, from the time that he was copyright counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. He has also been a Policy Planning Advisor to the Register […]
Copyright Law and European Compilations of U.S. Jazz Recordings
I recently noticed that some U.S.-based merchants, such as Amazon, are selling imported collections of U.S. jazz recordings from the 1950s and early 1960s at extremely cheap prices: Typically, sets of 8 different albums put on 4 CDs are being offered at $15 for the entire set. For example, there’s “Hank Mobley: Eight Classic Albums,” […]
Stopping the Stop Online Piracy Act
In several recent postings (here and here, for example) I called on all interested persons to come to the Internet’s defense against a spate of truly dreadful bills now making their way through Congress (the “Protect IP Act” and SOPA, the “Stop Online Piracy Act”). Larry Downes, always a thoughtful voice on tech matters, has […]
Second-Hand Music?
Here’s an interesting development: the ReDigi Used Digital Music Store. Application of copyright law’s “first sale doctrine” — which allows you to re-sell or give away copies that you have purchased of books, records, or other copyrighted works without the copyright holder’s permission (the doctrine that allows, for instance, used book stores or video rental […]
How About Occupy Hollywood?
One of the obvious dangers of the Internet Age is that we’ll be so distracted by everything going on around us – lots of it interesting, complicated, and even important (not to mention all the stuff that’s idiotic and unimportant and fundamentally uninteresting) — that we will fail to recognize the truly important stuff when […]
Elf on the Shelf v. Elf off the Shelf
A new copyright and trademark parody case, CCA and B, LLC v. F + W Media, Inc. (N.D. Ga. Sept. 22, 2011), which finds that defendants’ Elf off the Shelf parody is likely not an infringement of the copyright or trademark in plaintiffs’ Elf on the Shelf. The judge, by the way — Amy Totenberg […]
Losing Copyright Plaintiff (Mattel, in the “Bratz” Litigation) Must Pay Defendant $137 Million Dollars in Attorneys’ Fees and Costs
So District Judge David O. Carter held Thursday in Mattel v. MGA (though I assume that the case will either be appealed, or will settle for something less than the total amount in lieu of an appeal). The Copyright Act specifically provides that the loser — whether plaintiff or defendant — may be ordered to […]
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 […]
History Program’s Use of Another’s Video Footage of Real Events = Fair Use
So holds Fuentes v. Mega Media Holdings, Inc. (S.D. Fla. Jun. 29, 2011), adopting a Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendations, though of course in such fair use cases the decision is closely focused on the facts of the case, and offers only a limited precedent for future cases. Note that there’s apparently some controversy about […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]