Record industry tussles over whether a resale market for online music violates the Copyright Act

Aug 1, 2013 8:20 AM CDT

Lawyer uses copyright law to attack negative Web reviews

A Boston lawyer is using copyright law as a way to avoid a federal statute that grants immunity to website operators for third-party posts. Richard Goren persuaded Massachusetts courts to award him the copyright to posts on the Ripoff Report deemed libelous, and now he has filed an infringement suit…

Jul 19, 2013 3:18 PM CDT

1st Circuit upholds $675K award against Tenenbaum in long-running RIAA file-sharing case

Still fighting a $675,000 verdict awarded in 2009 in a copyright suit spearheaded by the Recording Industry Association of America, onetime Boston University graduate student Joel Tenenbaum asked a federal appeals court to find that the hefty sum—which amounted, he said, to $22,500 for each illegally downloaded song—violated his due-process…

Jun 26, 2013 8:40 PM CDT

Is ‘Happy Birthday’ in the public domain? Suit seeks return of license fees

A filmmaker who set out to make a documentary about the “Happy Birthday” song balked when told she would have to pay a $1,500 licensing fee for the music to be performed in her film. Now the filmmaker’s company has filed a would-be class action that contends the song is…

Jun 20, 2013 11:09 AM CDT

Copyright case upholds the rights of purchasers to buy abroad and sell in U.S.

Jun 1, 2013 8:40 AM CDT

Not a Star Trek fan? Former DOJ lawyer provides a guide to judge’s opinion blasting Prenda lawyers

U.S. District Judge Otis Wright—or one of his clerks—is a huge Star Trek fan, considering the number of references in a recent opinion to the original series and the spinoffs that followed. That’s the conclusion of former Justice Department lawyer Angelo Spenillo, a Star Trek aficionado who currently works at…

May 13, 2013 11:29 AM CDT

Judge boldly uses ‘Star Trek’ references in opinion blasting lawyers who sued porn downloaders

Updated: Lawyers who pursued illegal porn downloaders, offering to settle copyright infringement claims for $4,000, are experiencing the wrath of a federal judge. In an opinion peppered with Star Trek references, U.S. District Judge Otis Wright sanctioned four lawyers $81,000, double the cost of attorney fees for two defense lawyers,…

May 7, 2013 1:21 PM CDT

Artist’s ‘new and different’ take on copyrighted photos was fair use, 2nd Circuit rules

An artist to who altered copyrighted photos of Jamaican Rastafarians to create collages and paintings generating $10 million in sales has largely won a battle before a federal appeals court. The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that 25 of 30 artworks by artist Richard Prince were…

Apr 26, 2013 12:51 PM CDT

Judge allows suit challenging contract intended to squelch bad online reviews

A federal judge in Manhattan has refused to dismiss a proposed class-action lawsuit challenging a dentist’s confidentiality agreement that barred negative online reviews by patients. U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty refused to dismiss the suit filed by patient Robert Lee, report Forbes and Legal Blog Watch, which summarized a story…

Apr 23, 2013 11:10 AM CDT

Turow: SCOTUS decision and digital advances devalue copyrights, putting literary discourse at risk

Legal-thriller author Scott Turow is blasting last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision against a publisher fighting the resale of books purchased cheaply overseas. The ruling will allow a surge of cheap imports, Turow writes in an op-ed for the New York Times, and the authors won’t get royalties for the…

Apr 10, 2013 11:30 AM CDT

A victory for commerce? SCOTUS rules for student who bought texts abroad and sold them on eBay

The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with a former California grad student who purchased books cheaply overseas and then resold them on eBay for a profit. The student, Supap Kirtsaeng, had contended he was protected by the first-sale doctrine, which holds that copyright owners can’t ban resales of their products.…

Mar 19, 2013 3:37 PM CDT

Artists say ‘Harlem Shake’ sampling done without permission

Surprised to hear themselves on the track of the viral sensation “Harlem Shake,” two music artists are seeking a financial share of the pop chart hit. Hector Delgado, now an evangelical minister in Puerto Rico, and rapper Jayson Musson, say they didn’t give permission for their records to be sampled…

Mar 11, 2013 11:15 AM CDT

Inside the mind of Faulkner estate’s lawsuit-filing watchdog

Mar 1, 2013 10:30 AM CST

Judge tosses suit against West and LexisNexis for reproducing lawyer briefs

A federal judge in Manhattan has dismissed a lawsuit that claimed Westlaw and LexisNexis were violating copyright law by reproducing lawyers’ briefs and documents. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff granted summary judgment to the legal publishers Feb. 8, the New York Law Journal and Reuters report . The suit was…

Feb 21, 2013 7:23 PM CST

New copyright-free birthday song revealed after contest judged by law prof

A New Jersey radio station has sponsored a competition for a new “Happy Birthday” song—one that doesn’t require payment of a licensing fee. The winner, “It’s Your Birthday,” was selected by a panel of judges that included Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, Bloomberg Law reports. Radio station WFMU teamed with…

Feb 21, 2013 6:02 PM CST