512(f) Preempts Tortious Interference Claim–Copy Me That v. This Old Gal
“Copy Me That” (I’m pretty sure no IP lawyer recommended that name–it’s like a confession for copyright defendants) makes an app to help users manage recipes. “This Old Gal” (again, who comes up with these names?) publishes recipes. This Old…
U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Fair Use in Google-Oracle Software Battle (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Tyler Ochoa [BONUS: Prof. Ochoa will be speaking on this case April 13, 6pm Pacific. Free registration.] On April 5, the U.S. Supreme Court held 6-2 that Google’s copying of 11,500 lines of code from the Java…
Section 230 Preempts Contract Breach Claims–Morton v. Twitter
This case involves the model Genevieve Morton. She created nude images and sold them at her website. An interloper, SpyIRL, tweeted some of the images. Morton asked Twitter to remove the images and suspend the accounts. Twitter removed the images…
Udemy Qualifies for 512(c) Safe Harbor for User-Uploaded Courses–Kinsley v. Udemy
This case involves two videos by Kinsley that third parties uploaded to the education site Udemy. Udemy promptly honored Kinsley’s takedown notices, but he sued anyways. In a fairly efficient opinion, the court grants summary judgment that Udemy qualifies for…
Blogger Loses Copyright Ruling Over Photo…But No Mention of the CC-BY-SA License!–Von Der Au v. Imber
Von Der Au is a professional photographer. The photographer took a photo of the Semperoper opera house in Dresden, Germany. The defendant blogs at MichaelGImberBlog.com and republished the photo in a post. The court claims the “value of a license…
Blogger’s Photo Republication Isn’t Fair Use–Golden v. Grecco
This case involves a photo of Lucy Lawless as Xena. The TV studio hired Michael Grecco to take the photo and paid him $25k for his services. Grecco retained the photo’s copyright, and he made the photo available for licensing…
Pinterest Defeats Contributory Copyright Infringement Claim–Davis v. Pinterest
This is a copyright infringement case against Pinterest for allegedly infringing “pins” by users. The plaintiff alleged claims for direct and contributory copyright infringement. Pinterest moved to dismiss the claim for contributory infringement. The court grants the motion. In addition…
More Confirmation That RSS Feeds Aren’t Just “Really Simple Stealing”–MidlevelU v. Newstex
The plaintiff made the full text of its blog posts available via RSS. Newstex, an aggregator, subscribed to the RSS feed as part of its “Index” service (which it ultimately discontinued because it wasn’t profitable). The service automatically generated summaries…
IP Lawsuits Against Print-on-Demand Vendors Continue to Vex the Courts–OSU v. Redbubble & More
[This post covers three recent print-on-demand cases. After the Ohio State writeup, keep reading for more fun and confusion.] Redbubble operates in the print-on-demand industry, but it’s adopted a different organizational structure than some of its competitors. Redbubble outsources manufacturing…
Internet Law Year-in-Review for 2020
[I know 2020 feels like it was 100 years ago, but I’ve been busy in 2021 so far. I did year-end roundups of developments in Section 230 and emoji law.] My top Internet Law developments from 2020: 8. TSPA/TSF Launch….