Copyright

March 15, 2007

Music Copyrights Being Enforced On Campus

Colleges are turning into an IP battleground. Many of them now provide their students with computer terminals and network and Internet access. When the students then use them to share files with copyrighted songs or video games, the college authorities find themselves in the unlikely and uncomfortable position of enforcing the intellectual property rights of outside corporations against their own...

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July 25, 2006

YouTube Following In Grokster’s Footsteps?

The IP Blawg is following a recent copyright complaint filed in the Northern District of California that may help clarify the contours of on-line file sharing liability after the Supreme Court’s decision in MGM v. Grokster. Recall that last June the Supreme Court ruled in Grokster that distributors of peer-to-peer file-swapping software could be held liable for the actions of...

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June 10, 2006

Copyright Obstacles Loom For Cablevision’s DVR Technology

Keep your eyes on the recently-filed Cablevision copyright litigation pitting several movie studios and the three big television networks against the cable television provider’s efforts to roll out new digital video recorder technology. The case looks like it could address key questions about the legal limitations upon emerging technologies designed to let consumers time-shift and space-shift digital content. The lawsuit,...

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May 30, 2006

Illicit Copyright Infringement Resolution – Senate Resolution 488

Did you see where the United States Senate unanimously passed by consent last week a resolution “expressing the sense of Congress that institutions of higher education should adopt policies and educational programs on their campuses to help deter and eliminate illicit copyright?” Senate Resolution 488 has no legal authority, but it suggests the strength of the entertainment industry in keeping...

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May 24, 2006

Second Circuit Upholds Copyright Fair Use Defense For Grateful Dead Biography

In a ruling giving heart to fair use advocates, the Second Circuit recently found that the defendant’s unauthorized use of entire images of seven Grateful Dead concert posters and tickets within “Illustrated Trip,” a 480-page biography of the Dead, constituted fair use, and not copyright infringement. In Bill Graham Archives v. Dorling Kindersley Ltd., et al., 05-2514-cv (2d Cir. May...

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April 27, 2006

Senate Ponders New Rules For Satellite Music Services

A new and controversial bill introduced in the U.S. Senate would require satellite radio companies to pay fair market value for the performance of digital music and would require them to use readily available technical means to prevent music copying. S. 2644, dubbed the “Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders In Music Act”, has bipartisan support -- it was...

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April 03, 2006

We Can't Work It Out

The trademark dispute between Apple Corps Ltd., the UK company that was the recording label for the Beatles, and Apple Computer Inc., developer of the iPod digital music players and iTunes music store, took center stage in a London courtroom last week. Apple Corps Ltd. is owned by former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and the heirs of deceased...

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March 31, 2006

Moving Your TiVo Offsite - Would Copying Video Still Fair Use?

Some of you may remember the VCR, a then-revolutionary predecessor to TiVo that permitted people to record television shows in their homes, even (gasp) when not at home. In the early 1980s, the entertainment industry said VCRs would lead to the downfall of television as we knew it because viewers would be able to do such things as fast-forward through...

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March 24, 2006

Is It Time To Scrap The DMCA?

It has been almost eight years since the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) became law, and throughout its relatively short life, the use of the DMCA has sparked controversy between digital content providers who are trying to protect their works from ever-easier copying and those who advocate greater access to information. One of the more contentions provisions of the DMCA...

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February 06, 2006

Google Reveals A Cache Of Defenses To Copyright Claims

In an intriguing ruling on the application of copyright principles to internet search engines, a district court in Nevada has ruled that Google is not liable for copyright infringement for allowing internet users to access copies of works stored by Google in an online repository. The plaintiff had argued that Google’s practice of storing HTML code from Web pages operated...

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