Ninth Circuit Revives Choreography Copyright Claims Over Fortnite Emotes–Hanagami v. Epic
Hanagami is a celebrity choreographer. He has over 4.5M YouTube followers and nearly 1B video views. He posted a video entitled “CHARLIE PUTH – How Long | Kyle Hanagami Choreography” that contained 480 “counts” of choreography, composed of 96 counts…
This Blog Has Jumped the Shark: I’m Covering a Copyright Opinion About a Tattoo of Tiger King’s Joe Exotic–Cramer v. Netflix
In the early days of the pandemic, tattoo artist Cramer created this tattoo and tattooed it onto her husband: The tattoo depicts Joe Exotic of Tiger King “fame,” a can of Lysol, some coronaviruses, and the words “Quarantine 2020.” None…
Copyright Lawsuits Over Product Shots Are Still Stupid–SMS v. Pharmaaid
SMS has copyright registrations in photos of its pump dispensers. It claims that a rival, Pharmaaid, is selling identical products and displays SMS’s photos in its Amazon store and on product packaging. Here’s SMS’s purported visual proof of Pharmaaid’s infringements:…
Think Kiwi Farms Is Legally Unassailable? Copyright Law Might Disagree–Greer v. Moon
Kiwi Farms, operated by Joshua Moon, is best known for coordinating cyberattacks on individuals, especially people with disabilities. Few people would lament the site’s demise, but to date it has avoided legal exposure (1, 2) and survived multiple deplatformings (e.g.,…
Photo Licensing Service Qualifies for DMCA 512(c) Safe Harbor–McGucken v. ShutterStock
McGucken is a professional photographer who has appeared on the blog before. He claims that third party “contributors” uploaded his copyrighted photos to ShutterStock as part of ShutterStock’s licensing program. Specifically, McGucken claims that a total of 337 images were…
Schedule A (SAD Scheme) Plaintiff Sanctioned for “Fraud on the Court”–Xped v. Respect the Look
This is one of the thousands of “Schedule A” cases, a phenomenon I’ve labeled the “SAD Scheme.” (Technically, the defendants in this case are enumerated on “Exhibit 1” instead of “Schedule A,” but same thing). The court describes the phenomenon:…
My Comments to the USPTO About the SAD Scheme and Anticounterfeiting/Antipiracy Efforts
[I submitted the following comments to the USPTO] __ To: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of Commerce From: Prof. Eric Goldman, Associate Dean for Research, Santa Clara University School of Law Date: August 22, 2023 Re: Comments regarding…
Court Says No Human Author, No Copyright (but Human Authorship of GenAI Outputs Remains Uncertain) (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Heather Whitney To the surprise of no one, a D.C. district court granted summary judgment for the Copyright Office in Thaler v. Perlmutter, No. 1:22-cv-01564 (D.D.C. Aug. 18, 2023), affirming the Copyright Office’s position that “a work…
512(f) Once Again Ensnared in an Employment Ownership Dispute–Shande v. Zoox
DMCA Section 512(c), the notice-and-takedown provision, codifies a simple paradigm. Copyright owners are in the best position to spot and redress infringement, so they should identify alleged infringement to services and seek intervention when they see infringements. This paradigm, however,…
How A Century-Old Insight of Photography Can Inform Legal Questions of AI-Generated Artwork (Guest Blog Post)
A new breed of artists is using generative artificial intelligence tools like DALL·E, Midjourney, Firefly, and ChatGPT to create artistic works. Do these creations belong to the artists or the public domain? Do creators who use generative AI maintain copyright…