A Short Summary of the CASE Act (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Tyler Ochoa [Eric’s intro: The following is an excerpt from Joyce, Ochoa and Carroll, Copyright Law (2021 Supplement). In a future post, Prof. Ochoa will do a deep dive on the CASE Act for the geeks.] [C]…
A New CJEU Judgment on Copyright-Related Geoblocking – One Step Forward or One Step Back in the EU Commission’s Fight Against Geoblocking? (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Marketa Trimble May a licensor limit a copyright license to a certain part of the European Union? The answer lies at the intersection of EU copyright law, EU anti-geoblocking law, and EU competition law. The three areas of…
2H 2020 Quick Links, Part 1 (Copyright)
* UMG Recordings v. RCN Telecom Services, LLC, 3:19-cv-17272-MAS-ZNQ (D.N.J. Aug. 31, 2020): Plaintiffs have made allegations sufficient to satisfy the knowledge requirement at the pleading stage. As to actual knowledge, Plaintiffs aver that the five million notices sent to…
Jury Will Decide If Videogame Character Infringes a Wrestling Persona–GI Bro v. Call of Duty
The plaintiff is a wrestler, primarily known as Booker T. When he wrestles for WWE, he used the stage name G.I. Bro. There’s also a comic book line based on the G.I. Bro character. The defendant makes the Call of…
Fair Use Permits Newspaper to Republish Photo Taken By Drone–Castle v. Kingsport Publishing
Yes, this is another defense-favorable fair use ruling produced by a Richard Liebowitz lawsuit. 🙏🙏🙏 The case relates to a construction site for a proposed new school, which may have sinkholes. This concern sparked substantial community debate. The plaintiff flew…
Another Court Says Embedding Instagram Photos May Be Fair Use–Boesen v. United Sports
This is another Instagram embed case. For my most recent post on that topic, see this post. Plaintiff Boesen is a professional photographer. He captured an image of professional tennis player Caroline Wozniacki near the beginning of her career. Ms….
It’s Meshugenah to Operate a Streaming Mixtape Site–Atlantic v. Spinrilla
[Note: Meshugenah is Yiddish for “crazy.”] This is a brutal opinion. No matter how successful this defendant has been in the marketplace, copyright owner lawfare will almost certainly take it down. R.I.P. Spinrilla. Spinrilla is “a streaming and downloading service…
512(f) Claim Against Robo-Notice Sender Can Proceed–Enttech v. Okularity
Okularity “represents” several photography clearinghouses. This means that Okularity’s robots scour the Internet looking for clearinghouse photos and then send automated takedown notices for alleged infringements. “Okularity waits until the notices accumulate to the point when a social media platform…
Who Owns Vacation Photos of You? Probably Not You–Hubay v. Mendez
A perennial copyright law professor hypothetical: who own the copyright to a person’s vacation photos? Obviously the vacationer owns the photos they take, including any selfies. But if you hand over the camera to a stranger/passerby, who owns that photo?…
Copyright Plaintiffs Can’t Figure Out What Copyrights They Own, Court Says ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This is one of several cases where major copyright owners are trying to punish Internet access providers (IAPs) for alleged infringements by their subscribers. Earlier this year, the court refused to dismiss the lawsuit in an opinion I described as…