Another Defense-Favorable Righthaven Ruling–Righthaven v. Choudhry
By Eric Goldman Righthaven v. Choudhry, 2011 WL 1743839 (D. Nev. May 3, 2011) This lawsuit involves the “Vdara Death-Ray” image published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which has been the basis of numerous Righthaven lawsuits. In this case, Choudhry…
Cease & Desist Letter to iTunes Isn’t Covered by 17 USC 512(f)–Red Rock v. UMG
By Eric Goldman Rock River Communications, Inc. v. Universal Music Group, Inc., 2011 WL 1598916 (C.D.Cal. April 27, 2011) We continue to get more cases telling us what 17 USC 512(f), the cause of action for bogus copyright takedown notices,…
Copyright Takedown Notice Isn’t Actionable Unless There’s an Actual Takedown–Amaretto v. Ozimals
By Eric Goldman Amaretto Ranch Breedables, LLC v. Ozimals, Inc., 2011 WL 1753479 (N.D. Cal. April 22, 2011). My initial blog post on this case. The virtual horses and bunnies are back. This is the lawsuit between two vendors of…
Republishing Entire Newspaper Story is Fair Use–Righthaven v. CIO
By Eric Goldman Righthaven, LLC v. Jama, 2011 WL 1541613 (D. Nev. April 22, 2011). See my comprehensive blog post on Righthaven from October. [Note: A month ago, the judge orally dismissed the defendant in this case. Yesterday, the judge…
YouTube and its Amici File Their Briefs in the Viacom v. YouTube Appeal
By Eric Goldman I’m catching up with the YouTube-side briefs in the Viacom v. YouTube appeal. (See my analogous post on the Viacom-side briefs). Once again, Michael Barclay has been kind enough to organize the briefs into a single post….
Announcing DoctoredReviews.com, a Website Against Doctors’ Efforts to Squelch Online Patient Reviews
By Eric Goldman I’m pleased to announce the launch of DoctoredReviews.com, a website that addresses Medical Justice’s form contract that seeks to restrict patients’ online reviews of doctors by taking a prospective copyright assignment in the patients’ unwritten reviews. Medical…
Court Smacks Down Lawyer Who Tries to Enforce Copyright in 23 Word Email — Stern v. Does
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Stern v. Does, 09-cv-01986 (C.D. Cal.; Feb. 10, 2011) Professor Goldman mentioned this case in his quick links roundup, but I think it’s worth a standalone post. A lawyer sends an 23 word email to a…
March 2011 Quick Links, Part 1 (Special Copyright Edition)
By Eric Goldman * Big news #1: Judge Chin rejected the Google Book Search settlement. The opinion. If you read only one commentary about the rejection, it should be James Grimmelmann’s recap. My 2008 comments on the settlement. * Big…
Photo Hosting Site Gets DMCA 512 Safe Harbor–Wolk v. Photobucket
By Eric Goldman Wolk v. Kodak Imaging Network, Inc., 2011 WL 940056 (S.D.N.Y. March 17, 2011) Wolk (is this her?) is a visual artist whose work was allegedly infringed on Photobucket. She sent some 512(c)(3) takedown notices to Photobucket, which…
Copyright Take-Backs? Supreme Court Grants Cert in Golan v. Holder
by Ethan Ackerman The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a long-running copyright dispute over a 1994 law that retroactively restored copyright in some expired foreign works. In what ScotusBlog is calling “a major test of copyright power,” the Supreme…