Schultz on Copyright, Social Norms and “Jam Bands”

By Eric Goldman Mark Schultz, a guest blogger here, has loaded his new paper Fear and Norms and Rock & Roll: What Jambands Can Teach Us about Persuading People to Obey Copyright Law onto SSRN. The paper looks at “jam…

Why I hope Google loses

By Mark McKenna The blogosphere is abuzz with discussion of the Authors Guild’s lawsuit against Google. See here, here, and here, in addition to Eric’s post here. UPDATE: this post collects the reaction of a number of commentators. I don’t…

My Comments on Google Print

By Eric Goldman I have been thinking a lot about Google Print, Google’s plan to scan in and index all of the books of some of the largest libraries in the world. This program has some obvious benefits to society;…

City of Heroes Lawsuit–New Ruling on False DMCA Takedown Notices

By Eric Goldman Marvel Enterprises v. NCSoft Corp., CV 04-9253-RGK (C.D. Cal. Aug. 23, 2005). Given the interest in this case, I’m surprised that this ruling appears to have been overlooked (I found it through BNA [subscription required]). In late…

Details on Marquette’s Participation in BSA’s “Define the Line” Program

By Eric Goldman Back in May, I blogged about Marquette being the first participant in the Business Software Association’s “Define the Line” campaign against on-campus copyright infringement. The details were sketchy, but the Marquette Tribune student paper ran an article…

IP and Cognitive Psychology

By Mark McKenna William Patry has an interesting post over at his blog about how courts go about determining substantial similarity in copyright infringement actions. The post resonated with me for a couple of reasons. First, I always have great…

Blizzard and Arizona Cartridge

By Mark McKenna There are several thoughtful posts on other blogs criticizing 8th and 9th Circuits’ recent decisions in Davidson & Associates (d/b/a Blizzard) v. Jung and Arizona Cartridge Remanufacturers Ass’n Inc. v. Lexmark International respectively. See here and here…

Student Sues Term Paper Website (and its Host)

Macellari v. Carroll, no. 4:05-CV-04161-JPG (S.D. Ill. complaint filed Aug. 31, 2005). Blue Macellari, a student at Duke and Johns Hopkins, has sued a term paper vendor (Rusty Carroll/R2C2, Inc.) operating three websites (doingmyhomework.com, freeforessays.com and freefortermpapers.com) for copyright infringement,…

Fair use and documentaries

By Mark McKenna Thanks to Eric for inviting me to post here. It’s my first real blogging experience, so I’m hoping it goes smoothly. Most of the press related to copyright law these days has to do with filesharing. There…

LA County Busts Warez Trader

Internet News reports that Jed Frederick Kobles, a Los Angeles warez trader, pleaded guilty to a single count of grand theft after being busted by Los Angeles County High Tech Crimes Unit. I am having a hard time understanding this…