Fair Use or Just Plain Stealing? “Transformative” Art in a Digital World
A recent New York Times article discussed the case of an artist was sued for copyright infringement after he created paintings and collages based on photographs without crediting or obtaining...
View ArticleMegaUpload – Where is my Data?
A not-insignificant consequence of the federal government’s move in January to shut down the popular file-sharing site MegaUpload is that customers are blocked from being able to access their files....
View ArticleSaaS: Software License or Service Agreement? Start with Copyright
SaaS, short for “Software as a Service”, is a software delivery model that grants users access to a program while the software itself and its accompanying data are stored off-site, on a vendor’s (or...
View ArticleCan I Print This? 3D Printing and Intellectual Property (Q&A)
My colleague, Miguel Abaunza, works in design and recently purchased a 3D printer. Miguel started bringing me and my roommate jewelry, some small trinkets and this really cool bulb cover I was...
View ArticlePinterest: Fair Use of Images, Building Communities, Fan Pages, Copyright
When using Pinterest (and Flickr and YouTube and Facebook and on and on), what copyright, fair use, trademark and other issues weigh on building communities and fan pages and social media generally? A...
View ArticleCopyright of “Public Facts”: Craigslist v. PadMapper (updated)
Craigslist was meant for the common good, or as founder Craig Newmark puts it, “doing well by doing good”. At least, that has been its announced mission since it began as an email distribution among...
View ArticleE-SIGN and Copyright: Uploading Photos to Website Equals Consent (and...
Does use of a website constitute implicit consent to the site’s Terms of Use (TOU)? And if the TOU provides for copyright assignment, does that use thus constitute a valid assignment of copyright...
View ArticleCopyright from Beyond the Grave: William Faulkner Sues … Woody Allen?
How can Woody Allen infringe the copyright of William Faulkner, who has been dead since 1962? Wouldn’t Faulkner’s works be in the public domain? Turns out … no, and the case illustrates many aspects...
View ArticleEmployers Should Not Assume IP Assignments are Valid, and Employees Should...
An interesting IP assignment and employment case comes out of Wyoming. Yes, you heard that right, Wyoming. A nice summary of the issue was given by William Lenz and Jessica Rissman Cohen: It is a...
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Did the Richard Prince Fair Use Case Just Swallow Copyright Law? Add Some...
Fair use update: I wrote last year about the fair use case in New York involving photographer Richard Prince, where a federal district court rejected Prince’s claim of fair use of photographer Patrick...
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