Reminder: The Copyright Office Will Be Yanking Eligibility for the DMCA Online Safe Harbor (Again)
In 2016, the Copyright Office rejiggered how it handles DMCA Online Safe Harbor agent designations. Instead of an indefinite designation, a service could only designate an agent for 3 years, after which the designation would automatically expire unless renewed. The…
Domain Name Registrar Isn’t Liable for Counterfeit Goods–InvenTel v. GoDaddy
InvenTel makes security cams for cars. It is trying to crack down on Chinese counterfeiters. It brought a prior lawsuit against a wide range of defendants, including GoDaddy. InvenTel voluntarily dismissed GoDaddy from that suit. It brought a second round…
Copyright Protection for Banana Costumes Is, Uh, Bananas–Silvertop v. Kangaroo
The Third Circuit has held that a banana costume qualified for copyright protection (the blog reference to the district court opinion). The plaintiff’s design is on the left. The defendants’ designs are in the middle and on the right. The…
![Claim Over Takedown Notice Triggers Anti-SLAPP Law & a Fee Shift--Complex v. X17 [EDITED TO CORRECT A MAJOR ERROR]](https://blog.ericgoldman.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/512f-tombstone-150x150.jpg)
Claim Over Takedown Notice Triggers Anti-SLAPP Law & a Fee Shift–Complex v. X17 [EDITED TO CORRECT A MAJOR ERROR]
*** CRITICAL UPDATE*** Ugh, I’m embarrassed to admit that I made a serious error in reading the opinion. I cannot edit the post to correct the error. The mistake infects the entire post and the main point. I’m leaving up…
1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 1 (Copyright & More)
Copyright * Long v. Dorset, 2019 WL 861424 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 22, 2019). Dorset allegedly locked Long out of his Facebook page. Access was restored in 5 business days. The court says that’s expeditious enough for DMCA notice-and-takedown purposes: Plaintiff’s…
![[Statute of] Queen Anne’s Revenge? Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Allen v. Cooper](https://blog.ericgoldman.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Queen_Annes_Revenge-150x150.jpg)
[Statute of] Queen Anne’s Revenge? Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Allen v. Cooper
By guest blogger Tyler Ochoa If your literary or artistic work is copied by a state government or state officials, can you sue those defendants for copyright infringement? Section 511 of the Copyright Act says that you can, but conventional…
HuffPost Gets 512(c) Defense for Contributor-Uploaded Photo–Downs v. Oath
A Huffington Post contributor, Kim, uploaded a post with a photo. The day after Kim posted, HuffPost’s editor, Cohn, reviewed the post for offensive or unlawful content, added content tags, and linked to a related video; but Cohn didn’t modify…
A Fight for Authorship and Ownership of 150+ Quilt Patterns, and Bad Business Planning (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Elizabeth Townsend Gard, Professor of Law (Tulane Law School); Lepage Faculty Fellow (A.B. Freeman School of Business); and host, Just Wanna Quilt podcast Quilts are a little bit in the (copyright) news. What is a quilt? There are three parts…
Second Circuit Judges Brawl Over the Meaning of “Volition” in Copyright Cases–BWP v. Polyvore
This is an appeal of a summary judgment ruling in favor of Polyvore, an image clipping and sharing site, also known as a “mood board” app. (The site itself was acquired and, as the court notes, is now shut down.)…
Photographer Sues for Failure to Provide Creative Commons-Required Attribution–Philpot v. WOS
“Philpot has been a professional photographer, in his view, since 2008.” (“in his view” = ouch). He has not found financial success. For example, “he once earned $0.88 for an image of Prince that he took at a concert he…