What Happens to BitTorrent After Grokster?
By Mark Schultz, Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois School of Law Thanks to Eric for the chance to guest blog here. And congratulations to Eric for predicting the decision right. He called it about a month ago–I was there, under a…
Grokster Ruling Commentary
In this post, I’ll summarize some of the various blog reactions to Grokster that I’ve come across. You should start with my own, of course! For another good roundup (with some overlap to this post), see Ernest Miller’s The Importance…
Grokster Supreme Court Ruling
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd, Case No. 04-480. (US Supreme Court June 27, 2005). What Happened The Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Ninth Circuit’s upholding of summary judgment for the defendants, sending the case back to the lower courts…
Is Copyright Infringement “Theft”?
The BBC reports on a study that the British do not equate downloading copyright material with theft. The British have specifically rejected one of the standard analogies that downloading copyrighted music is just like shoplifting a CD of the music…
Copyright Office to Have “Public Roundtables” About Orphan Works
The Copyright Office has announced that it will have public roundtables to discuss orphan works in DC July 26-27 and Berkeley August 2. This is interesting because, after receiving almost 900 submissions regarding orphan works already, I would have thought…
Grokster Press Releases
The Grokster media frenzy has reached a fever pitch. Not only is the war of words taking over the mainstream press, but we’re seeing a bubble of activity in the press release databases. A couple of examples. Orrick’s Press Release…
No Grokster Opinion Today
The Grokster Watch continues–no opinion today. This releases the anxiety for today, but the anxiety hardly has gone away. My prediction on Grokster (if you came from the NY Times, this link leads to the referenced post). NY Times article…
New Reality TV Show IP Case
RDF Media Ltd. v. Fox Broadcasting Co., 74 USPQ2d 1769 (C.D. Cal. May 11, 2005) [BNA subscription required]. The producers of “Wife Swap UK” sued Fox for its “Trading Spouses” TV show, alleging copyright infringement and direct/contributory trade dress misappropriation….
Grokster Watch
So just about all of my professional peers are on a Grokster opinion watch. Unless something weird happens, the opinion should come out either this Monday (June 20) or next (June 27). As this Monday grows closer, our collective anxiety…
Public Domain Enhancement Act (HR 2408)
I’m a little late catching this, but Rep. Lofgren has introduced the Public Domain Enhancement Act (HR 2408). The law would require copyright owners to pay $1 after 50 years (and each 10 years thereafter) to maintain their copyright; otherwise,…