In a somewhat unsurprising move, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied an interlocutory appeal (28 U.S.C. §1292) requested by publisher defendants in Heavy, Inc. v. Goldman.[1] The order can be found here 18-910_goldman-CA2_intapp_dend. As discussed in an earlier posting on this blog, the district court case, Goldman v. Breitbart News Network, LLC, held …
Category: copyright
SCOTUS Watch: Supreme Court to Hear Case of What “Registration” Means
On June 28, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition for writ of certiorari in Fourth Estate Pub. Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC. The justices took up the case to resolve a split in the circuits surrounding the definition of “registration” within the meaning of 17 U.S.C. §411(a), the copyright infringement statute. Currently, the …
IP & Nonhumans: Lessons of Naruto the Monkey on AI
A particular copyright case, although not dealing directly with technology, has fingerprints that lead to one area of technology that shares some legal issues with animals: artificial intelligence. On April 23, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued Naruto v. Slater,[1] in a ruling that was not entirely unexpected since the parties …
Geoblocking Required to Avoid Copyright Liability, per D.C. Circuit
Geoblocking is the practice of digitally embedding territorial access restrictions into content distributed across the Internet. At a time when the European Union is legislating anti-geoblocking regulations, it appears the U.S. is going in the opposite direction. In Spanski Ents., Inc. v. Telewizja Polska, S.A.,[1] on March 2, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the …
Fed Circuit Watch: Google Use of Java APIs Not Fair Use
One of the most important copyright cases was recently decided by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, addressing Google’s use of Java code owned by Oracle. On March 27, 2018, in Oracle America, Inc. v. Google LLC,[1] the Fed Circuit held that Google’s use of Oracle’s Java code was not fair use. This …
9th Circuit Serves Up Blurred Lines of Copyright Protection for Musical Works
On March 21, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in a split decision in Williams v. Gaye,[1] that the Estate of Marvin Gaye was entitled to broad copyright protection over Gaye’s 1977 hit song “Got to Give it Up,” including its distinctive musical groove, and the substantial similarity of the hit …
Snippets Not Fair Use According to Second Circuit
In another fairly big copyright decision by a federal court of appeals, another seeming technological innovation in the digital space was viewed as copyright infringement. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in Fox News Network, LLC v. TVEyes, Inc.,[1] on February 27, 2018, in a case that will most likely have broader …
Embedded Tweet Can Be Copyright Infringement, According to NY Court
On February 15, 2018, a federal judge sitting in the Southern District of New York issued an opinion that could have profound ramifications for the average Internet user. In the case, Goldman v. Breitbart News Network LLC,[1] Judge Katherine Forrest ruled that the linking party responsible for a tweet with an embedded photo had committed …
New Deposit Requirement Rule for Copyright Registrations
On January 17, 2018, the United States Copyright Office issued a final rule simplifying the deposit requirements for certain literary works and musical compositions. Specifically, during copyright registration, an applicant had to submit two copies of the best edition of the printed format of the creative work, one to satisfy the registration requirement and the …
Blurred Lines of Musical Copyright Infringement: The “Blurred Lines” Case
Introduction On March 10, 2015, a federal jury found singers Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams infringed the copyright of Marvin Gaye’s song “Got to Give It Up.”[1] The jury verdict is the first significant copyright infringement ruling involving songwriting and music since 1994.[2] Almost immediately, criticism of the ruling appeared on the Web and social …