Apple Ordered to Say on Its UK Site, in British Papers That Samsung Didn’t Copy iPad; Appeal Planned

Unhappy about the prospect of having to post material on its own United Kingdom website and in newspapers there saying that a competitor didn’t copy its iPad design, Apple Inc. is planning to appeal a British judge’s ruling that imposes the penalty, for a six-month period, in a copyright infringement…

Jul 18, 2012 7:48 PM CDT

Playwright Says He Can’t Afford ‘Fancy Lawyer’ to Fight ‘Three’s Company’ Copyright Claim

A playwright who re-imagined Three’s Company for an Off Broadway play says he gave in to a cease and desist demand, promising at the end of the run that he won’t produce the play again or circulate the script. David Adjmi told the New York Times that he feared the…

Jul 18, 2012 1:55 PM CDT

Letters: Copyright Conundrums

Jul 1, 2012 9:40 AM CDT

Facebook OKs $10M Settlement in Class Action re User ‘Likes’ in Site’s ‘Sponsored Stories’

Facebook has agreed to pay $10 million to charity to settle a class action suit over the social media site’s inclusion of a user’s “likes” of certain advertisers on “Sponsored Stories” that appeared on other members’ Facebook pages. The plaintiffs contended that Facebook’s use of their names and profile pages…

Jun 18, 2012 5:12 PM CDT

Google Seeks Mistrial After Jury Deadlocks on Fair Use Question in Battle with Oracle

Google’s lead lawyer in a battle over smart phone technology is seeking a mistrial after jurors found the company infringed the overall structure of Oracle’s copyrighted work, but deadlocked on whether the violation was fair use. At issue in the three-phase San Francisco federal trial is whether Google infringed Oracle’s…

May 8, 2012 4:06 PM CDT

The Righthaven Experiment: A Journalist Wonders If a Copyright Troll Was Right to Sue Him

Almost anyone who uses the Internet and is slightly curious about their own digital existence has, over the past decade, had what might be termed a Google moment. These are times, as you type your name into the search engine box, that you realize you don’t have control, that whatever…

May 1, 2012 10:20 AM CDT

Reliving the Golden Oldies: Rockers Reclaim Tunes After Revised Copyright Laws

May 1, 2012 8:20 AM CDT

Who Owns Copyright to Falling Bear Photo? Probably the Enterprising Student Who Took It, Lawyer Says

A photo of a tranquilized bear falling loose-limbed out of a tree at the University of Colorado-Boulder went viral after it was distributed via the Associated Press. But it now appears that the CU Independent, a student publication that provided the photos to the AP, may not have owned the…

Apr 30, 2012 10:11 PM CDT

Federal Judge in Oracle-Google Fight Displays Irritation for Coughing and Clacking

The San Francisco federal judge overseeing Oracle’s infringement claim against Google likes a quiet courtroom. Coughing lawyers and typing reporters beware. U.S. District Judge William Alsup interrupted voir dire on Monday when someone at Google’s counsel table started coughing, the Recorder blog Legal Pad reports. “Who is hacking and coughing?”…

Apr 18, 2012 11:38 AM CDT

Supreme Court Grants Cert in Copyright Case Involving EBay Sales of Texts Bought Overseas

After splitting 4-4 in a case involving discounted Omega watches, the U.S. Supreme Court is revisiting copyright protections for gray market goods in a case accepted today. This time the case involves discounted textbooks purchased cheaply overseas then resold in the United States, SCOTUSblog reports. The case will be heard…

Apr 16, 2012 3:29 PM CDT

Fake Law Firm Seeks Cash from Those Who May Have Violated Copyright Law by Using Megaupload

After a raid by the feds that shut down Megaupload, enterprising criminals are reportedly trying to make a profit from those who may have used the file-sharing site to obtain copyrighted material without permission. A nonexistent German law firm, Dr. Kroner & Kollegan, has been contacting former users to offer…

Mar 21, 2012 10:38 PM CDT

Pin with Caution, Says Lawyer Who Deleted All Her Pinterest Posts

Updated: Pinterest is a great place to find new ideas for almost every topic imaginable, but if you’re posting images of those ideas, you’d better have permission, says a lawyer who recently deleted all her posts. Pinterest, a social sharing website where users “pin” things they like on “boards,” launched…

Feb 29, 2012 9:29 PM CST

Artist Held in Contempt for Lying, Now Admits Basing Iconic Poster of Barack Obama on AP Photo

Shepard Fairey, a Los Angeles artist whose red, white and blue “Hope” poster of Barack Obama became iconic during the 2008 presidential campaign, has admitted that he initially lied to a federal court about the Associated Press photograph on which the poster, he now agrees, was based. He pleaded guilty…

Feb 27, 2012 10:04 PM CST

Two Lawyers Sue West and LexisNexis for Reproducing Legal Briefs

Two lawyers have filed a class action suit claiming West Publishing and Reed Elsevier are violating the copyrights of lawyers by reproducing their lawsuit documents in Westlaw and LexisNexis databases. The plaintiffs, Oklahoma lawyer Edward White and New York City lawyer Kenneth Elan, filed suit on Wednesday in Manhattan federal…

Feb 23, 2012 12:49 PM CST

‘Megaretrieval’ Effort Launched to Help Users Get Access to Files on Website Raided by Feds

Customers and other users who stored personal materials on Megaupload have another two weeks to retrieve their files, under an agreement negotiated by the embattled website and its hosting companies. However, it isn’t clear whether and how individuals can access their property since the raid by the U.S. that shut…

Jan 31, 2012 6:56 PM CST