Prenda copyright trolls arrested
Monday, December 19, 2016
Prenda Law “copyright trolls” Steele and Hansmeier arrested Justice.copyright
'Happy Birthday' copyright held invalid
Thursday, September 24, 2015
‘Happy Birthday’ copyright held invalid Until now, Warner has asked for royalties from anyone who wanted to sing or play "Happy Birthday to You" --- with the lyrics --- as part of a profit-making enterprise. Royalties were most often collected from stage productions, television shows, …"Happy birthday" lawsuit takes a(n unexpectedly interesting) turn
Friday, July 31, 2015
“Happy birthday” lawsuit takes a(n unexpectedly interesting) turn Did you know copyright lawyers have waged a legal battle over ‘Happy Birthday’ for a long time? They have, and, somehow, it recently got interesting. If this proposition is accepted by the judge, …Popcorn Time, Netflix, HBO and the future of digital media
Thursday, April 30, 2015
This story about a U.K. court ordering Popcorn Time blocked has been knocking around in my brain for a couple of days now. When stuff knocks around in my head for days, chances are it will end up in written form, right here. So here we go.
How the DMCA criminalized DIY farm equipment repair
Friday, February 6, 2015
How the DMCA criminalized DIY farm equipment repairKyle Wiens, writing at Wired: Manufacturers have every legal right to put a password or an encryption over the tECU. Owners, on the other hand, don’t have the legal right to break the digital lock over their own equipment. The Digital Millennium …What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2015?
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2015? Duke Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain: Current US law extends copyright for 70 years after the date of the author’s death, and corporate “works-for-hire” are copyrighted for 95 years after publication. But prior to the …Houston, We Have A Public Domain Problem
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Houston, We Have A Public Domain ProblemParker Higgins of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, lamenting the recent removal of a public domain NASA clip he posted on the audio sharing site SoundCloud: The real goofy bit is that before I started at EFF, I worked at SoundCloud. I actually uploaded …Popcorn Time streams movie torrents, but maybe it’s more than that
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
The image above is the first screen you see when you open Popcorn Time. The app, available on Mac, Windows and Linux, streams movies from the peer-to-peer file sharing protocol BitTorrent. The technology is similar to what old school music swapping service Napster used from about 1999 to 2001, …CrossFit sends trademark takedown demand
Monday, February 17, 2014
CrossFit sends trademark takedown demand The lesson here: the Digital Millennium COPYRIGHT Act contains no enforcement mechanism for TRADEMARK rights.What is Intellectual Property Law?
Sunday, February 16, 2014
What is Intellectual Property Law?It’s not surprising that more scholarship self-identifying as IP-focused is about patents. After all, they drive much of commerce and innovation (and arguably the problems with the two) in the industrial and technology sectors. It’s worth noting though that, unlike …10 misconceptions about copyright and fair use
Saturday, November 16, 2013
10 misconceptions about copyright and fair useEveryone on the Internet should have to read these.Judge calls Google book-scanning fair use
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Judge calls Google book-scanning fair useGreat news for fair use doctrine, and a big win for word geeks. Judge Denny Chin said much in his ruling granting Google’s motion for summary judgment, but this part stuck out to me: Google Books permits humanities scholars to analyze massive amounts of data …Poetic copyright troll illustrates need for reform
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Poetic copyright troll illustrates need for reformLinda Ellis, copyright troll: If protecting my rights in your eyes makes me a “troll,” then I’ll wear the badge proudly and keep fulfilling my role. Current law does allow hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for sharing drivel like the …Select YouTube partners exempt from fair use policy
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Select YouTube partners exempt from fair use policyYouTube’s well within their rights to refuse to leave a video up, or to re-post it after fair use has been reasonably well-defended. But it’s another reminder that when stuff is free for consumers, the interests of the producers providing the …The trolls are now trolling themselves
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
The trolls are now trolling themselvesThis great post by Seattle attorney John Whitaker sums up the state of affairs in the absurd debacle that is Prenda Law’s trainwreck porn-infringement trolling.2nd Circuit: Aereo streaming of individual over-the-air TV feeds via internet doesn't violate copyright law
Monday, April 1, 2013
2nd Circuit: Aereo streaming of individual over-the-air TV feeds via internet doesn’t violate copyright lawThe Second Circuit has held in WNET v Aereo (PDF) that sending a unique stream of over-the-air TV signal to customers via the internet isn’t a copyright violation. Aereo assign each of …OUYA and Emulation
Monday, March 25, 2013
OUYA and EmulationDarrell Etherington, reporting at TechCrunch: OUYA forum admin and owner Ed Krassenstein said in a post on his site that EMUya, a NES emulator, has been submitted to OUYA for review and should definitely be available at launch, and a couple of SNES emulation options are confirmed, …Prenda Law's dismissing some cases following ID theft claim
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Prenda Law’s dismissing some cases following ID theft claimThis stuff just gets better and better. It feels like Lady Justice Herself is suddenly trolling the trolls.Porn troll Prenda Law angers judge with shady behavior
Friday, March 15, 2013
Porn troll Prenda Law angers judge with shady behaviorEarlier this week I mentioned that the EFF was going to represent a couple of anti-trolling websites in a case brought by porno copyright troll Prenda Law. The Ars Technica article by Megan Geuss is well-written and really conveys the absurdity …EFF will represent targets of copyright troll Prenda Law
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
EFF will represent targets of copyright troll Prenda LawCopyright trolls sue lots of people to extract settlements from those who can’t afford to litigate in the face of potentially massive statutory damages. Their claims are often facially lacking in merit and instead leverage intimidation and …Antigua responds to US gambling ban with government-backed infringement plan
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Antigua responds to US gambling ban with government-backed infringement planThe Carribean nation Antigua and Barbuda and the World Trade Organization say a US ban on online gambling is costing jobs and “billions of dollars.” The WTO has approved a plan to allow infringement of US-based copyright …Lions Gate abusing DMCA and ignoring fair use doctrine
Friday, January 11, 2013
Lions Gate abusing DMCA and ignoring fair use doctrineYou’ve got to click through and read this Techdirt article by Jonathan McIntosh of Rebellious Pixels. Also consider reading my article "The Pinterest (Er, Tumblr) Problem, Fair Use, and a Suggestion for Change". I argue that fair use, which is an …Professor David Post on the Republican Study Committee's prematurely-released-then-removed copyright critique
Monday, November 19, 2012
Professor David Post on the Republican Study Committee’s prematurely-released-then-removed copyright critiqueDavid Post, writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: The Report proposes a series of rather radical — in the Jeffersonian sense — reforms, from dramatically shortening the copyright term (a …Pandora suing ASCAP for lower licensing fees
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Pandora suing ASCAP for lower licensing feesDon Jeffrey of Bloomberg: Pandora also claims that it’s entitled to lower rates because some large music publishers have announced they are withdrawing new media rights from Ascap and negotiating licensing fees directly with Web radio services. The …Professor David Post: Copyright is meant to benefit the public
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Professor David Post: Copyright is meant to benefit the publicProfessor Post, writing at The Volokh Conspiracy about the brief he helped write in the Aereo case: copyright law does not exist for the benefit of authors; it uses the benefit granted to authors because that is a means to increase the …Gamers confront copyright law
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Gamers confront copyright lawProfessor Greg Lastowka of Rutgers-Camden Law School, in a press release earlier this week about his current research: User-generated content can make a game very valuable, but developers have a legal obligation to look out for copyright infringement. I’m interested to …Blog Post Cited in a Ninth Circuit Opinion
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Blog Post Cited in a Ninth Circuit OpinionMr. Eugene Volokh congratulates my former copyright law professor David Post of Temple Law on having a blog post of his cited in a 9th Circuit opinion (PDF).Portland Press Herald plagiarized a photo they didn’t even need
Saturday, August 18, 2012
This is a story within a story. The outer story is about Reverend Robert Carlson, who killed himself recently amid a sexual abuse investigation. This post isn’t about that story. It’s about the inner story, about a reporter using a copyrighted photo without attribution, and claiming fair use when …The Pinterest (Er, Tumblr) Problem, Fair Use, and a Suggestion for Change
Monday, May 7, 2012
I wrote the article below for Temple Law’s student newspaper, Prima Facie. While my views on the topic of copyright liability in the modern Internet’s “sharing economy” continue to evolve, I haven’t made any edits to the version that ran in Prima’s April issue. This is a long post, but I would …