This Copyright Fair Use Opinion Discusses Jon Hamm’s Crotch 25 Times–Schwartzwald v. Oath
TL; DR: fair use supports another motion to dismiss a photo copyright case. A ruling of mild interest to copyright lawyers. However, the real reason you’re going to want to read this blog post is to learn why a court…
512(f) Claim Fails in the 11th Circuit–Johnson v. New Destiny Christian Center
This is a long-running and complex copyright takedown dispute that has been triggering my Westlaw alerts for years. I only blogged it once, in 2017, when the 512(f) claim survived a motion to dismiss. At that time, I wrote “given…
Infringing Polish Website Isn’t Subject to Personal Jurisdiction in the United States–AMA v. Wanat
AMA Multimedia sued Marcin Wanat, Maciej Madon, and MW Media, a Poland-based partnership. AMA was only able to serve Wanat, so he’s the only defendant in the lawsuit. He moved to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction in the United…
Want to Write a Story About Tardigrades in Space? Make It So!–Abdin v. CBS
This is a fun opinion for four reasons. First, it deals with the always-interesting idea/expression dichotomy. Second, it deals with tardigrades, the cute microscopic “water bears” with extraordinary physical properties. Third, it deals with Star Trek, one of my favorite…
Court Orders Rightsowner to Withdraw DMCA Takedown Notices Sent to Amazon–Beyond Blond v. Heldman
This case involves an Amazon seller, the plaintiff, who packages and republishes public domain cartoon videos, like Bugs Bunny, Popeye, and Mighty Mouse. The defendant is a rightsowner who claims that the Amazon seller infringes its rights. On that basis,…
A Second Circuit Panel Misunderstands the Copyright Act’s Statute of Limitations (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Tyler Ochoa In Sohm v. Scholastic, Inc., 959 F.3d 39 (2d Cir. 2020), a Second Circuit panel held that “the discovery rule applies for statute of limitations purposes in determining when a copyright infringement claim accrues under the…
IAP Defeats Vicarious Copyright Infringement Claim–UMG v. Bright House
In a good ruling for Internet access providers (IAPs), a court said that the IAP Bright House wasn’t vicariously liable for its users’ copyright infringing activity because the IAP lacked a direct financial benefit. The court says that the legal…
Data Center Avoids Copyright Liability By Forwarding DMCA Notices to Its Customer–ALS Scan v. Steadfast
Steadfast operates data centers. Imagebam is one of its customers. Imagebam provides image hosting services. Allegedly, Imagebam has “become an unauthorized hub of copyrighted adult material.” ALS Scan, which owns many copyrights in pornographic works, sent Steadfast DMCA takedown notices…
Print-on-Demand Vendor Doesn’t Qualify for DMCA Safe Harbor–Feingold v. RageOn
This case involves two copyright-protected photos that users submitted to the RageOn print-on-demand service. Among other defenses, RageOn invoked the DMCA safe harbor. The Greg Young v. Zazzle case held that Zazzle qualified for the 512(c) safe harbor for displaying…
Why Are Pizzerias Arguing Whether Web Browsing Is Copyright Infringement?–Imapizza v. At Pizza
“&Pizza” runs an East Coast pizzeria chain. “@Pizza” runs a UK pizzeria chain. Let’s disregard that both brands are terrible (the & and @ symbols plus the generic term–UGH) and that @Pizza may not own its eponymous Twitter account (the…