Copyright Law

After debate, ABA House calls for publication of privately drafted standards used in legislation

A resolution calling on Congress to make privately drafted parts of the law freely available attracted accusations in the House of Delegates that the ABA was trying to give away other people’s intellectual property. When federal agencies incorporate privately drafted standards into their rules by reference, Resolution 112, passed by…

Aug 9, 2016 3:20 PM CDT

Photographer sues Getty Images, alleging it is wrongly selling licenses to her public-domain photos

Photographer Carol Highsmith started donating copyrights to her photos to the Library of Congress in 1988. So when she got a letter demanding $120 for the use of one of her own photos, she knew something was wrong. According to the lawsuit Highsmith filed this week in Manhattan federal court,…

Jul 28, 2016 3:47 PM CDT

Federal court suspension upheld for lawyer who sued Led Zeppelin; sanction stems from Usher case

The lawyer who lost a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement won’t be able to practice in Philadelphia federal court temporarily as a result of a federal appeals court decision last Thursday. The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court upheld a suspension of three months and a day from practice…

Jul 5, 2016 7:30 AM CDT

Led Zeppelin wins ‘Stairway’ copyright case; losing lawyer sees ‘obviously appealable issues’

Federal jurors on Thursday found for Led Zeppelin in a copyright suit claiming the band had copied the beginning guitar riff of “Stairway to Heaven.” Jurors found for Led Zeppelin after a weeklong trial, the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.), Courthouse News Service…

Jun 24, 2016 8:00 AM CDT

9th Circuit upholds sanction against ‘copyright trolling’ lawyers who sued porn downloaders

A federal appeals court has upheld a federal judge’s $81,000 sanction against three lawyers who made millions of dollars by pursuing porn downloaders for minor cases of copyright infringement. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the sanction imposed against three lawyers who operated Prenda Law: John…

Jun 14, 2016 5:45 AM CDT

Lawyer who won $5.3M ‘Blurred Lines’ verdict files $20M suit over Ed Sheeran’s ‘Photograph’

A lawyer who represented singer Marvin Gaye’s family in last year’s monster $5.3 million “Blurred Lines” copyright verdict is back in court in another high-profile case over a hit song. This time attorney Richard Busch is seeking $20 million for two veteran California songwriters, contending that Ed Sheeran’s smash song…

Jun 8, 2016 4:46 PM CDT

9th Circuit strikes copyright suit against Madonna over horn sample in ‘Vogue’

Madonna was sued for plagiarism over her 1990 hit “Vogue.” However, a federal appellate court has sided with the Material Girl after finding that the lawsuit had nothing to it. Reuters, the Los Angeles Times and the Hollywood Reporter’s THR, Esq. blog reported Thursday that a divided three-judge panel for…

Jun 3, 2016 5:15 PM CDT

Google wins copyright battle over its use of Java software code in Android

A federal jury in San Francisco ruled for Google on Thursday in a suit alleging the company violated Oracle’s copyright by using Java software code to allow software developers to create Android apps. Oracle, which had sought as much as $9 billion in damages, plans an appeal, report the New…

May 27, 2016 7:51 AM CDT

Attorney in ‘Stairway to Heaven’ case asks to compel attendance from Led Zeppelin stars

An attorney suing Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement has asked a Los Angeles judge to compel the attendance of the band’s biggest stars, according to the Hollywood Reporter’s THR, Esq. blog. Attorney Francis Malofiy represents the estate of Randy Wolfe, the former guitarist for the band Spirit, who performed as…

May 20, 2016 2:30 PM CDT

Fastcase seeks summary judgment in case over claimed copyright in Georgia regulations

Legal publisher Fastcase Inc. has moved for summary judgment (PDF) in a federal case seeking a declaratory judgment that competitor Lawriter LLC has no copyright in the Georgia state regulations at issue. Lawriter, which does business as Casemaker, has argued that Fastcase “improperly downloaded electronic files and data” from Casemaker,…

May 13, 2016 11:15 AM CDT

Copyright settlement could be reached over nanny’s photographs purchased in storage unit auction

A settlement regarding who has rights to the work of the late street photographer Vivian Maier is near, the Chicago Tribune reports. A former Chicago nanny who died at a nursing home in 2009, Maier’s photography was purchased at a storage-locker auction in 2008, the New York Times reported. The…

May 4, 2016 10:00 AM CDT

SCOTUS takes cheerleader uniform case that would also affect ‘cosplayers’ at comic conventions

Nominally, a federal appeals court decision that the nation’s top court agreed Monday to review is about whether the design elements and color blocks in a cheerleading uniform can be copyrighted. But a U.S. Supreme Court decision could affect a broad array of costumes, including those made and worn by…

May 3, 2016 7:00 AM CDT

SCOTUS to mull Federal Circuit refusal to apply top court’s copyright laches ruling in patent case

Does the same laches standard recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 2014 copyright infringement case also apply in a patent infringement case? In an en banc decision last year, a divided 6-5 panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit crafted its own hybrid…

May 2, 2016 2:00 PM CDT

Two reluctant entrepreneurs tackle challenge of copyright duration

Elizabeth Townsend Gard was researching British literature when it became clear that she would have to learn something about copyrights. It was 1994, and Gard was trying to start her dissertation on the author Vera Brittain, who is best known for her work set during World War I. She didn't…

May 1, 2016 4:00 AM CDT

The Examiner isn’t liable for infringing content posted by its independent contractors, court says

The company that owns Examiner.com is shielded from liability for copyright infringement by independent contractors who posted celebrity photographs, a federal appeals court has ruled. Examiner.com is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which protects online and Internet service providers from liability for copyrighted content posted at the direction…

Apr 28, 2016 10:36 AM CDT