43(B)log: “Copyright and California’s Anti-SLAPP Law“: Duncan sued defendants, including the Sierra Club, based on Thomas Cohen and Kristi Cohen’s attempts to make a film of Duncan’s book The River Why. He alleged copyright infringement and various state-law claims. The court first rejected the argument that California’s anti-SLAPP statute applied to federal claims. It then […]
Category Archives: First Amendment
Dilution, Liquidation, Run-off
Designboom: “‘Liquidated Logos by Zev“: “zevs is a young french artist who lives and works in paris. he doesn’t typically display his work in galleries, preferring instead to use the urban environment as the canvas for his street art. he has pioneered his own style of french street art that blurs the line between vandalism […]
General Steel v. Hogan & Hartson
WSJ.COM: “Hell Hath No Fury Like a Dissatisfied Hogan & Hartson Client“: Have you recently been represented by the law firm of Hogan & Hartson? Were you expecting that your case would have the representation of a senior partner, but you found that your representation was handled by a less experienced junior member of the […]
9th Cir: You May Continue To Discuss Trademarks Amongst Yourselves
Freecycle Network v. Oey – Defendant stated that Freecycle Network’s FREECYCLE mark was generic. District Court issues an injunction that such claims were a violation of the Lanham Act without doing much of an analysis of any particular provision of the Lanham Act. People like me participated as amici pointing out various problems with the […]
"Golan v Gonzales — How The First Amendment Limits Copyright Law"
Balkinization: Golan v. Gonzales — How The First Amendment Limits Copyright Law The Tenth Circuit has handed down a very important copyright case, Golan v. Gonzales, which holds that section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act– which implements the Berne Convention on copyrights– may violate the First Amendment because it takes some materials out […]
Use Of Politician's Names In Domain Names
We have reported previously on what I would refer to as the mess regarding the use of politician’s names in domain names. A bad actor can benefit by aprropriating a politician’s name, either by diverting traffic through initial interest confusion, or by simply foreclosing the targeted politician from obtaining desirable names. However a politician tends […]
Volokh: The First Amendment and Cockfight Videos
Volokh: “The First Amendment and Cockfight Videos”
BongHits 4 Jesus
Balkinization on the BongHits 4 Jesus decision: “Roberts’ opinion creates a new rule allowing schools to ban student advocacy of illegal drug use– but this rule would apparently not extend to student advocacy of changing the drug laws. (Which raises the obvious question: How can we tell whether “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” is advocacy of […]
Worth Watching
James Goodale’s show: Digital Age.
Speech and Tarnishment
There is a brouhaha going on about a docudrama regarding 9/11, that will be aired by ABC (owned by Disney). I guess this ‘logo’ is a pretty good illustration of the fact the law does not protect against all forms of tarnishment. The logo was an illustration to editorial content from the Eschaton blog, discussing […]