Print-on-Demand Services Face More Legal Woes–Canvasfish v. Pixels
In the ongoing legal battles over print-on-demand services, RedBubble and (more recently) Printify have sometimes achieved favorable results by disaggregating all of the functions and acting solely as a marketing agent for the disaggregated vendors. These defense-favorable outcomes may work…
Reaction Videos Are Fair Use–Thiccc Boy v. Swindelles
Thiccc Boy produces The Fighter & the Kid podcast, led by Brendan Schaub (the titular “fighter”). Swindelles (a/k/a Yew Neek Ness…uniqueness, get it?) broadcast at SaiyanZStream on YouTube (the stream appears to be gone). Swindelle made and posted reaction videos…
Internet Access Providers Can Be Contributorily Liable for Subscribers’ Infringements–Sony Music v. Cox
As I’ve previously written, for many years after the DMCA passed, everyone assumed that 17 USC 512(a) completely shielded Internet access providers from liability for subscribers’ copyright infringements. Then, about a dozen years ago, the rightsowners coerced Internet access providers…
Fourth Circuit Issues a Bummer Fair Use Ruling–Philpot v. IJR
Larry Philpot is a repeat copyright plaintiff. We’ve blogged some of his cases before (1, 2), including the lower court ruling in this case. In 2016, the defendant IJR published an article/listicle titled “15 Signs Your Daddy Was a Conservative.”…
Retweeting as Copyright Infringement–Prepared Food Photos v. Chicken Joe’s
The issue is, what is (the copyright implication of retweeting a photo of) chicken? (head nod to Judge Friendly). * * * The plaintiff allegedly licenses a photo database to grocery stores for $12k/yr. The case involves one of those…
Courts Still Have No Clue How to Determine Who Owns Social Media Accounts–JLM v. Gutman
This is the latest entry in a long-running legal battle between Hayley Paige Gutman, a bridalwear designer, and JLM Couture, her one-time employer. Gutman created a Pinterest account in 2011 and an Instagram account in 2012, shortly after she began…
N.D. Cal. Judge Pushes Back on Copyright SAD Scheme Cases–Viral DRM v. YouTube Schedule A Defendants
My SAD Scheme paper provided some data indicating that 88% of SAD Scheme cases involved trademarks, with only 6% each in copyright and patents. So SAD Scheme copyright cases aren’t unheard of, but they are rare. * * * A…
2023 Internet Law Year-in-Review
My roundup of the top Internet Law developments of 2023: 10) California court bans targeted advertising (?). Regulators have sought to suppress online targeted advertising for years, with only minimal success. Then, in Liapes v. Facebook, a California appeals court…
Cloned-and-Revised Legal Documents Aren’t Copyrightable–UIRC v. William Blair
This case revisits the venerable topic of if, and when, cloning-and-revising a legal document can be copyright infringement. The plaintiff gets an expensive lesson in the law of derivative works. * * * UIRC offers bonds using a private placement…
Web Page Framing Isn’t Trespass to Chattels–Best Carpet Values v. Google
This case is an old-school turn-of-the-century throwback (and not the good kind). Google’s search app framed the web pages users visit, and the frame included ads. Some screenshots depicting the framing (the first image shows Google’s superimposed frame on the…