Copyright Owners Are Still Suing Over Embedding
I thought the legality of embedding was definitively resolved when the Ninth Circuit reaffirmed the “server test” in the Hunley v. Instagram case (note: the 9th Circuit has reaffirmed Hunley twice). Not so. Plaintiffs are still regularly bringing lawsuits over…
Another N.D. Ill. Judge Balks at SAD Scheme Joinder–Zaful v. Schedule A Defendants
Zaful is an online retailer with a trademark that seemingly rhymes with…awful? It claims copyright in 1,800+ product shot photos and says TEMU merchants are infringing those product shots in their listings. (Longtime readers know how I feel about copyright…
512(c) Helps Vimeo Defeat the Record Labels. It Only Took 15 Years–Capitol v. Vimeo
This case is a throwback in every way. We rarely see lengthy (this one clocks in at 46 pages), detailed, and philosophical Section 512(c) opinions any more, and we only get this one because of the case’s extreme age. Capitol…
Catching Up on the Heavyweight Scraping Battle Between X and Bright Data (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy Last year, I wrote about how Elon Musk had inadvertently become web scrapers’ most powerful legal advocate. Not because he wanted to advocate for them. But rather, in seeking to enforce a no-scraping ban in…
Copyright Battles Over City Council Videos
As the maxim goes, all politics are local. A corollary is that few political disputes are as nasty or vitrolic as local politics. When local disputes devolve into total warfare, the parties grasp for any legal leverage against their sworn…
The “Winning Isn’t Normal” Copyright Enforcement Campaign Is More “Abusive” Than “Winning”–Bell v. Kiffin
A few years ago, I summarized Keith Bell’s copyright enforcement efforts: Bell published a short book in 1982. It contained a passage that has become a meme in the sports community. Bell has separately registered a copyright in the passage….
Does IP Law Protect Influencers’ Aesthetics?–Gifford v. Sheil (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Alexandra J. Roberts It’s become known as the “sad beige lawsuit” or the case that asks the question “can you ever really own an aesthetic?” But the suit, in which 24-year-old influencer Sydney Nicole Gifford accuses another…
Another Judge Balks at SAD Scheme Joinder–Xie v. Annex A
[Note: the defendants in this case are enumerated on an “Annex A” instead of “Schedule A.” It’s a non-substantive difference in nomenclature, but it’s one of several reasons why I prefer the more general “SAD Scheme” appellation for the practice…
When a Copyright Owner Gets Only a $1,000 Judgment in Federal Court, They’re the Real Losers–McDermott v. KMC
Matthew McDermott is a freelance photographer. The New York Post hired him to take photos of NYC police commissioner Keechant Sewell, paying him a day rate of $470. McDermott kept the copyright to those photo and granted NY Post a…
A 27-Month Check-In on the Copyright Claims Board (CCB) (Guest Blog Post)
By guest blogger Tyler Ochoa This month, the Copyright Claims Board released its quarterly report of “Key Statistics,” covering the period from June 2022 (when it began operation) through September 2024 (9 quarters, or 27 months). Here are a few…