Copy of Marvel v. NCSoft Ruling
CE Petit has posted a copy of the court’s March 9 opinion in Marvel Enterprises v. NCSoft Corporation (CV 04-9253-RGK). The opinion is rather unremarkable—mostly it deals with motions to dismiss, so the standard for upholding the pleadings is pretty…
Ruling in Marvel v. NCSoft
NCSoft has won some favorable rulings in its lawsuit with Marvel. Marvel sued NCSoft because users could use NCSoft’s software in its City of Heroes MMORPG to generate characters that looked like Marvel characters. From the news/press reports, it appears…
Google AutoLink and Copyright Law–A Fuller Explanation
There’s been a lot of discussion about Google’s AutoLink tool, including some questions about why I think it might violate copyright law. I can understand why this is confusing, particularly because the AutoLink tool raises two discrete questions. First, what…
Student Convicted for File Downloading
Parvin Dhaliwal convicted of a state crime for downloading movies. I believe the article is correct that this is the first state prosecution, although I was able to find a couple of federal prosecutions for merely downloading items from the…
More Amicus Briefs in MGM v. Grokster
Yesterday was the deadline for respondents’ briefs in MGM v. Grokster. So far, EFF’s website shows 18 amicus briefs filed in the case on respondents’ side, making for a total of 46 amicus briefs. I joined the brief drafted by…
Old TV Shows, Music Licensing and DVD Releases
Katie Dean writes a nice article about how the need for music licenses is inhibiting the release of classic TV shows on DVD, both because of the license fees and the sheer transaction costs of obtaining proper licenses. She also…
RIAA Settlement Tactics
Great article describing the RIAA’s tactics in trying to demand settlements with alleged file-sharers. I have had some conversations with people who have been RIAA targets, and this article is dead-on. The RIAA generally doesn’t bend or compromise beyond its…
The Long Tail
I recently caught up with Chris Anderson’s excellent Wired article The Long Tail from October 2004. This article discusses the consequences of disaggregating copyrighted content from the physical manufacturing/distribution/retailing chain that historically has been required to get that content to…
Google’s AutoLink tool
Google’s AutoLink tool has been in the news. AutoLink picks certain words on a web publisher’s page and turns those into hyperlinks of Google’s choosing. I’m struck by how often this idea has come up. I remember a client pitching…
Copyright Case on Photos and Descriptions
SMC Promotions, Inc. v. SMC Promotions, 2005 WL 292492 (C.D. Cal. Feb. 7, 2005). Plaintiff is a product distributor that relies on affiliate marketing. Plaintiff grants a copyright license to affiliates to use catalog photos and descriptions on the affiliates’…