The United States Supreme Court recently brought final resolution to Mandeville-Anthony v. Walt Disney Co., a dispute over the ownership of Disney and Pixar’s animated movies “Cars” and “Cars 2,” and the spin-off television series “Cars Toon.” The plaintiff originally filed the case in 2011 in the Central District of California alleging two claims. First,… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Subscribe to Uncategorized RSS FeedPotential Bad News for UGC Music Sites: Pre-1972 Tracks May Not Be Covered By the DMCA’s Safe Harbor
Posted in UncategorizedCo-authored by: Julian Darwall When you think of “Peggy Sue” by Buddy Holly, “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry, and “My Girl” by the Temptations, you think classic, iconic, rock and roll. Now, in light of the most recent legal setback against music sharing website Grooveshark, these songs may also represent a potentially significant limitation… Continue Reading
Texas Court Allows Defamation Claim Against Landowner to Proceed
Posted in UncategorizedLast Monday, Texas’s Second District Court of Appeals partially affirmed a District Court order allowing Range Resources Corporation’s defamation and business disparagement claims against a landowner to proceed. This is the latest development in a case that gained notoriety when a video purporting to show water from the landowners’ well ignite went viral. See full blog… Continue Reading
Appropriation Art Alive and Well after Second Circuit Ruling in Cariou v. Prince
Posted in UncategorizedToday, the Second Circuit handed down its much anticipated decision in Cariou v. Prince regarding the legality of appropriation art by artist Richard Prince. Just over two years ago, in federal district court in New York, Judge Batts ordered that paintings by Richard Prince be destroyed. She did so on the basis that the art,… Continue Reading
Federal Judge Orders Service of Process through Facebook
Posted in UncategorizedIn March, Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York ordered service of process on several international defendants through novel means—Facebook. The case, FTC v. PCCare247, Inc., involves a group of individuals based in India who allegedly “tricked American consumers into spending money to fix non-existent problems with their computers.” After problems with… Continue Reading
The New FTC Dot Com Disclosures – the FTC Updates its Digital Advertising Guidelines for the Twitter and Facebook Age
Posted in UncategorizedAuthored by: Fernando Bohorquez Editor’s Note: This post is a joint submission to BakerHostetler’s Data Privacy Monitor blog. In what seems like a lifetime ago –and in the fast moving world of the Internet maybe it is – in May 2000 the Federal Trade Commission issued “Dot Com Disclosures: Information about Online Advertising” to provide guidelines on… Continue Reading
Federal Circuit Affirms Finding of Infringement in SynQor v. Artesyn Techs.
Posted in Uncategorized“This court also sees no reason why [the plaintiff's] decision not to argue pre-verdict willful infringement at trial should preclude the district court from finding willful infringement for post-verdict sales.” On March 13, 2013, in SynQor, Inc. v. Artesyn Techs., Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Rader,* Lourie, Daniel) affirmed the… Continue Reading
Know Your Remedy: ICANN’s New gTLD Objection Procedure and String Contention Auctions
Posted in UncategorizedLast month we wrote about ICANN’s new gTLD objection procedure. Another aspect of the procedure is the possibility that disputing parties could be forced into an auction for the right to operate their applied-for gTLDs. For Legal Rights, Limited Public Interest, and Community Objections, the result of winning an objection is relatively straightforward—the application is… Continue Reading
Creative, But Perhaps Too Creative, Lawyering
Posted in UncategorizedU.S. District Judge Rakoff ruled on whether copying legal filings amounts to copyright infringement. His verdict: it does not. Judge Rakoff granted summary judgment to defendants Lexis and Westlaw, dismissing plaintiffs’ allegation that reposting legal documents infringed plaintiffs’ copyrights. Though the Court’s Order does not state the basis for the ruling, the defendants argued that the… Continue Reading
Protecting Your “.trademark”: ICANN Clarifies Procedure for Objecting to New gTLDs
Posted in UncategorizedIt has been almost two years since the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that it would accept applications for the registration of new generic top level domain names (gTLDs), increasing the number of domain name endings beyond .com, .net, and .gov. ICANN currently is conducting its initial evaluation of the approximately… Continue Reading
Publish or Perish: Sony Releases Compilation of 50-Year-Old Bob Dylan Bootlegs to Comply with EU Directive
Posted in UncategorizedAuthorship credit: David McMillan Exploiting a recent European Union Directive extending the term of copyright for sound recordings, Sony released an 86-track collection of Bob Dylan recordings, including studio outtakes and live recordings from 1962-63. The Directive, issued September 2011, extends the term of protection for sound recording copyrights by 20 years—from 50 years… Continue Reading
Google Search and Free Speech
Posted in UncategorizedOn Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission announced that, after its inquiry of almost two-years, it is ending its antitrust investigation into Google. It finds that Google has not violated antitrust laws in its ordering of search results. Google began its search service with its original “ten blue links” organic search results. Since that time, Google… Continue Reading
Girl Under Fire: Alicia Keys Sued for Copyright Infringement over Girl on Fire
Posted in UncategorizedSongwriter Earl Shuman sued Alicia Keys for allegedly “sampling” parts of the composition “Hey There Lonely Boy” (“Lonely”) that he co-wrote in 1962. According to the complaint, Keys’ recording of “Girl on Fire” (“Fire”), which is the lead single on her same-titled album, misappropriates a few notes of the composition. Shuman’s composition was recorded by… Continue Reading
Court Gives Cold Shoulder to Hot Yoga, Finding Yoga Sequences Not Copyrightable
Posted in UncategorizedOn Friday, the Central District of California held that a series of yoga poses designed to improve health is not copyrightable, dismissing claims of copyright infringement bought by Bikram Choudhury against Evolation Yoga. This ruling followed in the footsteps of the Copyright Office’s recent announcement that it will no longer issue registration certificates for sequences… Continue Reading
Leveson on Data Protection in the UK: What Do Allegations of Phone Hacking Have to Do With Data Protection?
Posted in UncategorizedEditor’s Note: This post is a joint submission to BakerHostetler’s Data Privacy Monitor blog. The much-anticipated Leveson Inquiry on the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press (“Leveson Report” or “Report”) was released on November 29, 2012. The inquiry leading to the Report was initiated as a response to ongoing reports and allegations of systemic… Continue Reading
Controversial “Six-Strikes” Copyright Alert System Debut Delayed
Posted in UncategorizedThe Center for Copyright Information, an organization founded and funded by media industry organizations, their members and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), yesterday announced that it would push back the start date and will likely begin to roll out its long anticipated “Copyright Alert System” in the early part of 2013. The announcement comes on the… Continue Reading
Fifty Shades of Gray Market Artwork
Posted in UncategorizedDroit moral – the legal doctrine that grants artists a moral right to dictate certain treatment of their artwork even after sale – has a firm foundation in European law and elsewhere, but has never found much support in U.S. jurisprudence. Certain moral rights are recognized under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, 17… Continue Reading
The Need for Careful Diligence in Drafting License Agreements Reinforced By Eighth Circuit Affirmation That a Perpetual, Royalty-Free Trademark License is an “Executory Contract”
Posted in UncategorizedOne of the most powerful tools a chapter 11 debtor has is the ability to assume or reject executory contracts under section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code. In bankruptcy parlance, when a debtor “rejects” an executory contract, it is considered as though the debtor breached the agreement as of the date it filed for bankruptcy… Continue Reading
Hulkamania is Running Wild: Let the Battle Begin (in Court)
Posted in UncategorizedTerry Bollea, better known as the professional wrestler with the stage name Hulk Hogan (“Hogan”), is involved in an unattractive legal battle that presents an unusual intersection of the First Amendment, copyright law, and privacy/publicity issues. Hogan filed two lawsuits arising out of a 2006 sexual encounter with Heather Clem (“Heather”), then the wife of… Continue Reading
Art Sale Transactions: Consign Your Design
Posted in UncategorizedMost working artists make a living by creating valuable one-of-a-kind or limited-edition pieces. They then hand those pieces to a stranger to sell or display. Entrusting artwork to a gallery, auction house, or museum is an intimidating process, but artists, buyers, secondary-market sellers, and agents all benefit from a common understanding of the language of… Continue Reading
Demise of Rebecca a Sign of Murkier Waters
Posted in UncategorizedMuch has been made in recent weeks of the demise of the Broadway production of “Rebecca,” which was to open at the Broadhurst Theater on November 18, 2012. The fascination with “Rebecca” is primarily attributable to the bizarre events surrounding its collapse. A Long Island business man, Mark Hotton, allegedly received $60,000 in consulting fees… Continue Reading
Artist Resale Royalties: U.S. Copyright Office Seeking Comments
Posted in UncategorizedShould artists have the opportunity to benefit from the increased value of their works? At the request of Congress, the U.S. Copyright Office is considering whether artists and/or their heirs should be granted a percentage of the proceeds from the resale of their original works of art. On Dec. 15, 2011, Senator Herb Kohl and Representative Jerry Nadler introduced the… Continue Reading
Google Responds to Suit by Hendrix Photographer Against It and Mr. Brainwash
Posted in UncategorizedLast month, Google, Inc. responded to the Third Amended Complaint of Jim Marshall Photography, LLC against Thierry Guetta, Guetta’s affiliated company It’s a Wonderful World, Inc., Google, Inc. and John Doe defendants in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Google denied the claims of copyright infringement and contributory and vicarious copyright infringement… Continue Reading
The Use and the Fury: Faulkner Estate’s New Enforcement Efforts
Posted in UncategorizedIn a pair of lawsuits filed about a week ago, Faulkner Literary Rights, LLC (“Faulkner Literary”), the owner of the literary rights to the late William Faulkner’s works, sued Sony Picture Classics (“Sony”), as well as Northrop Grumman Corporation (“Northrop Grumman”) and Washington Post Company (“Washington Post”) in the federal district court for the district… Continue Reading