Oregon v Justia re Oregon Statutes con't
Boing Boing: "Archivists to Oregon: your laws aren't copyrighted, so there!"
May 03, 2008
April 21, 2008
Oregon v Justia re Oregon Statutes
Justia makes various legal materials available. I'm able to provide trademark complaints because of the useful RSS Feed Justia makes available. Justia has received a demand letter from the state of because of its reproduction of annotated Oregon statutes.
April 18, 2008
"YouTube's Filtering Issues Still Not 'Moot'"
News.com: "YouTube's Filtering Issues Still Not Moot":
A year ago Wednesday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt delighted an audience of TV and radio broadcasters when he promised to roll out a system that would mean the end of piracy at YouTube.com"We are in the process of developing tools which are called 'Claim Your Content,'" Schmidt said at the National Association of Broadcasters 2007 conference. "If people tell us this is a licensed copy, our computers will automatically detect that an illegal copy has been uploaded and then automatically delete it."
Schmidt went on to say YouTube was "close to turning this (system) on" and once that happened, copyright violation at the site "becomes a moot issue." But following through on that promise has proven a challenge.
April 17, 2008
"Still, We Should Run As If It Was Godzilla"
Godzilla sues Subway for use of Godzilla in ad. Complaint here. Clearly defendants did not take sage advice from Austin Powers.
February 11, 2008
"Running Over Fair Use Like The Hogwarts Express?"
WSJ.Com: Running Over Fair Use Like The Hogwarts Express?:
"Warner and Rowling filed a lawsuit against RDR Books, a small publishing house in Michigan, over its plans to publish a print edition of The Harry Potter Lexicon website, a compendium of all things Harry that looks, well, rather daunting to neophytes like us. In December Stanford Law School’s Anthony Falzone — a former Bingham McCutchen litigator and the heir apparent to Lawrence Lessig’s Fair Use Project — agreed to help defend RDR Books against the suit.Last month, Wu defended RDR in another Slate piece, writing, “There is a necessary and healthy line between what the initial author owns and what follow-on, or ’secondary,’ authors get to do, and Rowling is running over that line like the Hogwarts Express.”
January 22, 2008
Scientologists Protest Gawker Use of Cruise Video
MediaPost: Scientologists Threaten Gawker Media With Legal Action Over Cruise Video:
WHEN A NINE-MINUTE VIDEO OF Tom Cruise touting the Church of Scientology hit the Web recently, the group quickly sent out takedown notices. Many publishers complied, but not Gawker Media's Nick Denton.Now, the notoriously litigious Scientologists have complained to Gawker that the video was pirated, and have demanded its removal. Denton argues that posting the video constitutes a fair use. "[I]t's newsworthy, and we will not be removing it," Denton wrote on the site last week. A spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology said the group is considering taking legal action.
January 20, 2008
Debate On Copyright And Fair Use
NY Times: Bits Debate: Copyright:
Throughout the debate this week on copyright issues, the question of fair use has come up repeatedly. On Wednesday, the topic for Rick Cotton, the general Counsel of NBC Universal, and Tim Wu, the Columbia law professor, was the legal concept of fair use: how much of a copyrighted work can be included in a review or other sort of work. But in many of the comments we received all week, readers have asked about their own broader sense that when they buy a CD or movie, they purchase rights that include making copies for their personal use.
January 15, 2008
Boing Boing: Car Owners Are Pirates If They Distribute Pictures Of Their Own Cars
Boing Boing: Car Owners Are Pirates If They Distribute Pictures Of Their Own Cars:
"The folks at BMC (Black Mustang Club) automotive forum wanted to put together a calendar featuring members' cars, and print it through CafePress. Photos were submitted, the layout was set, and... CafePress notifies the site admin that pictures of Ford cars cannot be printed. Not just Ford logos, not just Mustang logos, the car -as a whole- is a Ford trademark and its image can't be reproduced without permission. So even though Ford has a lineup of enthusiasts who want to show off their Ford cars, the company is bent on alienating them. 'Them' being some of the most loyal owners and future buyers that they have. Or rather, that they had, because many have decided that they will not be doing business with Ford again if this matter isn't resolved."
January 13, 2008
Look, It's About Driving Traffic
Connection between the Wonder Woman character and Playboy's content discussed here. More reaction here.
Any excuse to recall the Air Pirates case.
September 26, 2007
Prof Lessig on the Flickr/Virgin/Creative Commons Suit
Prof Lessig: "On the Texas Suit Against Virgin and Creative Commons."
"Slashdot has an entry about a lawsuit filed this week by parents of a Texas minor whose photograph was used by Virgin Australia in an advertising campaign. The photograph was taken by an adult. He posted it to Flickr under a CC-Attribution license. The parents of the minor are complaining that Virgin violated their daughter's right to privacy (by using a photograph of her for commercial purposes without her or her parents permission). The photographer is also a plaintiff. He is complaining that Creative Commons failed "to adequately educate and warn him ... of the meaning of commercial use and the ramifications and effects of entering into a license allowing such use." (Count V of the complaint)."
September 21, 2007
Lawsuit Over Use of Flickr Photo - And Creative Commons Is Named
Dallas News: "... Mom Sues Virgin Mobile Over Teen's Photo"
What would you do if a company grabbed a goofy picture of your kid off the Internet, slapped some snarky text on it and used it to sell mobile phone service half a world away?
Susan Chang decided to sue.
Extremely muddled legal discussion in article that misses the significance that Creative Commons, promulgator of the Creative Commons license, is a named party.
September 14, 2007
Google: The $4.6 Trillion Fair-Use Economy
Google Public Policy Blog: "The Economic Value of 'Fair Use'"
"The study -- which I encourage you to check out -- concludes that the "fair use economy" in 2006 accounted for $4.6 trillion in revenues (roughly one-sixth of total U.S. gross domestic product), employed more than 17 million people, and supported a payroll of $1.2 trillion (approximately one out of every eight workers in the US). It also generated $194 billion in exports and significant productivity growth. Using a methodology similar to a previous World Intellectual Property Organization guide, the results of the study demonstrate that fair use is an important economic driver in the digital age."
June 20, 2007
Another Argument For A Gore/Obama Ticket
This is the link to Hillary Clinton's Soprano parody video. It starts out well with a shot of a diner in Mt. Kisco near my old office. It then proceeds to refer to the final scene of the Sopranos (complete with cameo by Vince Curatola, the actor who played Johnny Sack), with Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing' playing through-out. I tried to have an argument with my M&S colleague Paul Fakler but couldn't, as we both agree as to the analysis.
Assuming that there is no authorization (and we have no information one way or the other on that point), the Sopranos reference is most likely permissible and the use of the Journey song is not. Without doing a shot by shot analysis, it seems that the video only borrows common ideas also used by the Sopranos finale (which itself borrowed bits from, among others, the Godfather). The idea of a razor cut ending instead of an anticipated event (in this, case the announcement of the winning song) is the same; the expression is different.
As for the Journey song, again, bearing in mind that we don't know if permission was granted, we can't think of a reason why a sync license wouldn't be required. No fair use factors come reasily to mind as to why this would be a fair use.
June 19, 2007
Are Britney's Lawyers Crazy (Like Foxes)?
A Florida radio station ran billboards (pictured above) showing Britney Spears and one of the station's DJs, suggesting that she and DJ were 'nuts.' Ms. Spears contested the use. The radio station is pulling the billboards. Unfortunately, the Smoking Gun has printed only one of Britney's lawyers letters, not the one that contains 'many legal authorities.' However this letter does site Florida statutes and law. Interestingly, the two cases cited do not apply to media defendants.
There is some precedent for media defendants to utilize someone's name or likeness if the person was the subject of the media's product. In Velez v. VV Pub. Corp., the Village Voice used an unflattering photo of local politico Ramon Velez (a subject of Voice exposes), in an advertisement for the Voice. The use of the photo fairly represented the Voice's news coverage. 135 A.D.2d 47, 50, 524 N.Y.S.2d 186, 187 (1st Dept. 1988) ("[T]he incidental use in an advertisement by a news disseminator of a person's name or identity does not violate the statutory proscription, if it had previously published the item exhibited as a matter of public interest."
In Montana v San Jose Mercury News, the newspaper sold posters of Joe Montana following a Super Bowl victory, which posters were held to have news value due to their 'relatively contemporaneous' publication. Because the use was in connection with merchandise rather than a mere advertisement for the newspaper, this ruling seems like a bit of an outlier. 34 Cal.App.4th 790 (1995).
See more discussion by Stanford University Library here.
If you're aware of Florida caselaw that would suggest how a media defendant using a name or likeness in advertisement for its services might fare, send it on in.
June 12, 2007
Backgrounds Move To The Foreground
As Thomas Pynchon once wrote: Some people can't see the a great work of architecture without thinking "chase scene."
Such people will be troubled by this BBC Report that the Church of England is planning legal action against Sony, for use of Manchester Cathedral as a background for a video game scene.
Info/Law runs down some U.S. case law on 'incidental' or 'background use of places and things.
The Seattle Trademark Lawyer points to a brief discussion of the Australian take on the general issue of building protection, in the context of photographs of the Sydney Opera House.
Prof Patry wonders what the UK law would be here so I asked world-famous UK lawyer and foremost authority Jane Mutimear , who replies:
" . . . [P]eople who comment on news stories of this nature might find
it worthwhile checking when Manchester Cathedral was built, and remind
themselves as to how long copyright lasts. Even if they can't remember
the difference lengths for the different types of copyright, they might
remember that the longest term is life plus 70, so it would be safe to
assume that architectual copyright didn't last forever and then work out
how old the architect would have to have lived for copyright still to
subsist . . . (Unless they think that God is the architect and believe he is not dead)
It's a passing off issue, if anything, obviously."
May 23, 2007
"Newspapers Want Google News' Quarter'
News.com: "Newspapers want Google News' quarter" (discussing Google's indexing of newspapering content).
May 21, 2007
Must See For Those Interested In Copyright
Video explaining fair use using Disney snippets (somewhat reminiscent of a kidnapper's note read aloud). Hat tip to AT.
March 23, 2007
"Viacom Sued Over Colbert Parody on YouTube"
News.com: "Viacom Sued Over Colbert Parody on YouTube":
"Viacom is misusing U.S. copyright law by forcing YouTube to remove a parody video of The Colbert Report, according to a lawsuit filed against the media conglomerate Thursday. However, Viacom denies the accusation and said it does not object to the video being on YouTube."
March 16, 2007
Sex, Gender and Fair Use
March 09, 2007
And I'm Sitting Here On Capitol Hill
Let me anticipate two questions.
C-Span is not a government entity, but a not-for-profit consortium backed by the cable industry, and, all other things being equal, can own and assert copyright.
Second, a congressperson showing a bit of C-Span footage of a congressional hearing on the congressperson's website, would seem to be fair use.
OK, C-Span asked Speaker Pelosi to remove a clip of its coverage of a House committee hearing on global warming from her blog. This apparently after Republicans accused Pelosi of violating C-Span copyright.
Now C-Span has changed its policy to allow the Speaker of House to show footage of congressional hearings on her website.
Schoolhouse Rock materials available here.
February 05, 2007
Some Posts On the Viacom/YouTube Spat
NewTeeVee: 'YouTube Should Call Viacom's Bluff'
Mark Cuban: 'Gootube Terrorizes Copyright Owners by Withholding Filters' (in which he advocates the uploading of porn to YouTube to test its filtering abilities.
Reel Pop: "YouTube's inability to remove copyrighted clips could get it sued" (in which it monitors Google's progress in removing Viacom clips).
February 01, 2007
GEMA v. YouTube and MySpace?
NewTeeVee: "YouTube, MySpace Face European Copyright Clash":
"Collective licensing organizations throughout the continent have been demanding compliance in recent months, seeking their share of the potential billions generated by online video. At the forefront of this movement is GEMA – a German organization that now now has its sights on YouTube and MySpace."
January 29, 2007
"Google's Moon Shot"
The New Yorker: "Google's Moon Shot: The Quest For The Universal Library" by Jeff Toobin.
January 15, 2007
YouTube Statistic Of The Day
NBC Universal has three employees who view YouTube everyday for studio-owned material, and sends 1,000 requests a month to YouTube to take down such material. From: "Hollywood Asks YouTube: Friend or Foe?"
December 18, 2006
Media Companies Plan Rival To YouTube?
"Now, a handful of giant media companies, like NBC Universal, News Corp., Viacom and possibly CBS, are close to announcing a new Web site that will feature some of their best-known television programming and other clips in an attempt to build a business for distributing video on the Internet to rival YouTube. The new business could be announced as soon as this week."
December 06, 2006
Gower Report On IP In The UK Released
Her Majesty's Treasurer has released the Gower Review of Intellectual Property. IPKat took a quick look and notes highlights in the recomendations: NO copyright extension; Fast-track trademark registration process for small business; enhanced safe-harbors against copyright infringement. Attention UK practitioners: after you've had a chance to mull, send me links to your comments.
Managing Intellectual Property article on Gower.
December 04, 2006
Discussion of Pre-Loaded IPods
As the price of digital-playback devices (i.e. iPods) plumment, we may see more and more 'pre-loaded' offerings. Here a discussion of Load 'N Go, a company that pre-loads iPods with video content (and bundles the related DVD). However the question arises whether it is cricumventing DRM sfotware to do so. Via IP Due Diligence Blog.
November 17, 2006
Other People's Mail: YouTube Sends TechCrunch C&D
TechCrunch: "Huh? YouTube Sends TechCrunch a Cease and Desist."
November 13, 2006
"The Farce Behind 'Digital Freedom'"
News.com: "Perspecitve: 'The Farce Behind 'Digital Freedom'" - Op-Ed on Consumer Electronic Associations' digital freedom campaign, written by Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA.
June 15, 2006
Unauthorizing Streaming Of UEFA Games
Out-law: "Streaming video site had 'cyncial disregard' for UEFA's Rights." BSkyB and UEFA protest unauthorized streaming of Champions League games.
June 09, 2006
Cablevision Suspends DVR Experiment
MercuryNews.com: "Cablevision suspends network DVR experiment" (Cablevision is developing a server-based, as opposed to set top based (such as Tivo), digital video recording service. It has been sued for copyright infringement by the major movie studios and TV networks).
June 08, 2006
You're On Your Own As To What To Make Of All This
Gawker: "Battle of Shiloh:"
Gawker: "We Fought The Good Fight"
Gawker: "Does This Mean We're Off The Hook?"
June 05, 2006
Defendant 'Borrows' Customer's Copy To Compete With Plaintiff
Southern District of Georgia: Plaintiff, Gulfstream, leases its copyrighted manual to its customers. Defendant borrows customer's copy to provide maintenance service, and in so doing copies portions of plaintiff's manual. Fair use.
Prof Patry discussion here.
April 24, 2006
Google's Commemorative Logos
Google modifies its logos to honor holidays or famous individuals. Last week it created a logo that alludes to (but, Google alleges, did not copy), Joan Miro's work, in honor of Miro's brithday. The Miro estate complained, and Google, without admitting wrong-doing, pulled the logo by noon.
Some reaction was, in effect, gimme a break, either because there was no cause of action, or the use was de minimis, or the resulting press will be bad for the Miro estate.
With regard to trademark, consider whether there is confusion as to endorsement. If the user is aware of Google's commemorative logo pattern, then confusion seems unlikely. However, not everyone is aware, and Google is pretty cryptic about it. In fact, I think part of the allure of the commemorative logo is that it functions somewhat as a puzzle.
Consider the copyright fair use analysis. In a case such as Ringgold v. Black Entertainment Television, Inc. 126 F.3d 70 (2d Cir. 1997), the owner of copyright in a poster argued that using a poster seen for 27 seconds as a decoration on a set of a TV show, was not de minimis use. Furthermore, plaintiff argued that were use of its poster to be deemed fair use, it would destroy any potential market for licensing its poster for set design usages. Is there a market for the Miro estate to license Miro-style fonts, and what effect might Google's use have on such a market?
How is Google using the artwork? It seems clear that Google could clearly state that such and such a day was a great artists's birthday, and then display a thumbnail image of that artist's work as a link to information on that artist, searchable through Google. Its commemorative logo makes that point much more elegantly and subtly; however it leaves it vulnerable to the charge that it is appropriating a third-party's copyrightable designs in order to decorate its home page.
Good exam question.
UPDATE: An anonymous reader advises that there has been a dispute in the past regarding use of MIRO-style fonts.
2d UPDATE: PRof. Patry weighs in heavily in favor of Google, in a post entitled "How Copyright is Getting a Bad Name."
March 01, 2006
Shameless Self-Promotion
February 23, 2006
More On Perfect 10 v. Google
February 21, 2006
Perfect 10 Obtains Injunction Against Google's Use of Thumbnail Images
Perfect 10 v. Google, 04-9484 (C.D. Cal Feb 17, 2006). via News.com.
Initial reaction from two different leading Internet figures: wow.
The holding turns on the fair use analysis of Google's display of thumbnail images (the Court held that Google neither displayed nor distributed full size images, as it utilizes inline linking to, and does not nost nor serve, full size images).
An essential fact here is that P10 now sells thumbnail images of its photos for the cellphone market. Thus, Google making such images available for download made its use 'consumptive' (in addition to transformative), with a negative effect on P10's market.
The thought occurs as I read this section that Google makes this go away by cropping a corner off the thumbnail (or perhaps reproduces thumbs using sepia tone).
The second half of the decision discusses P10's theory of vicarious and contributory infringement. P10 asserted that Google directly benefits from third-party sites that infringe P10's copyrights, through its Googel AdSense program. However P10 did not substantiate this allegation with sufficent evidence and the Court did not buy the basic premise, noting that adult-oriented websites existed before Googe Image Search, and would likely continue were it to go away.
The decision contains a useful analysis of Google's indexing activities in a post-Grokster 'incuding infringing' context.
Trademark Blog Perfect 10 v. Google archives here.
February 20, 2006
Can I Copy My CD To My IPod?
February 14, 2006
Patry on AFP v. Google Fair Use Case
February 02, 2006
World Newspaper Org Wants Cut
January 28, 2006
Marantz Turntable
Discussion by Saatchi Gallery here.
November 07, 2005
'Free Expression In The Age Of Copyright Control'
The Free Expression Policy Project of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School Of Law has released a report 'Will Fair Use Survive? Free Expression in the Age of Copyright Control.'