It Takes a Default Judgment to Win a 17 USC 512(f) Case–Automattic v. Steiner
In enacting the DMCA’s notice-and-takedown system, Congress knew copyright owners and others might send takedown notices overzealously. To discourage abuses of the notice-and-takedown system, Congress enacted 17 USC 512(f) to create a new cause of action for sending bogus takedown…
Use of Iconic 9-11 Photo in TV Show’s Facebook Stream Not Fair Use
Plaintiff owns an iconic 9-11 photo. A producer of Defendants Fox News and Jeanine Pirro’s television show posted an image consisting of the 9-11 image juxtaposed with the iconic World War II photograph of Marines raising the flag at Iwo…
One Is Not Enough, How Many Is Too Many? How Many Countries’ Copyright Laws Should and Actually Do Apply to Copyright Infringements on the Internet? (Guest Blog Post)
By Marketa Trimble By now, activities on the internet should have generated a very large number of cases in which copyright owners claimed simultaneous infringements of their copyrights in multiple countries – claims based on the copyright laws of each…
Top 10 Internet Law Developments of 2014 (Forbes Cross-Post)
It’s time for my annual recap of the top Internet Law developments of the year. #10: Copyright Fair Use Tilts To Defense. Larry Lessig has famously said that “fair use in America simply means the right to hire a lawyer…
Are Takedowns in 48 Hours “Expeditious” Enough?–Square Ring v. UStream
This case involves the March 21, 2009 boxing match between Roy Jones Jr. and Omar Sheika, broadcast as a pay-per-view. (Spoiler alert: Jones won a TKO in the 5th round). Anticipating users would live-stream the fight, promoter Square Ring contacted…
Top 10 Fair Use Cases of 2014 (Guest Blog Post)
[Eric’s introduction: in my blog post on the copyrightability of resumes, I observed that “2014 has been a terrific year for fair use” and mused that “It would be great if someone did a ‘top 10 fair use rulings of 2014’…
Fair Use Protects Sending Expert Witness’ Resume to Opposing Counsel–Devil’s Advocate v. Zurich Insurance
Most of us probably have never thought about the coprightability of our resumes or curriculum vitae. Most resumes are highly functional documents, i.e., we don’t write them for fun; and they are just an input into a more important output…
Will A ‘Cast Of Thousands’ Become A ‘Cast Of Thousands…Of Plaintiffs’? A Preview of Garcia v. Google (Forbes Cross-Post)
[Note: I wrote the following post on Monday before the oral arguments. I haven’t had a chance to view Monday’s oral arguments, but from the news reports and Twitter feeds, it sounds like Kozinski and McKeown will be squaring off….
Lawsuit Over User-Posted Celebrity Photos Survives Dismissal–BWP v. Hollywood Fan Sites
The plaintiffs own copyrights in celebrity photos. The defendants run the Hollywood.com “fan site network” with 1,500+ websites dedicated to celebrities, TV shows, etc. The complaint alleges that the entire fan site network is predicated on republishing stolen photos, and…
Perfect 10 Loses Copyright Suit Against USENET Service Provider–Perfect 10 v. Giganews
Giganews acts as a USENET service provider. Perfect 10 is the litigious pornographer that has helped define Internet copyright law for the last 15 years. It sued Giganews because Perfect 10’s copyrighted images are distributed on USENET. After over three…