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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of internationally successful hip-hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis in a music sampling suit brought against them by New Orleans jazz musician Paul Batiste. Batiste v. Lewis, 19-30400 (5th Cir. 2020). The decision is notable for the Fifth Circuit’s use of the “widespread dissemination” and “chain of events” tests to determine whether the defendants had access to Batiste’s works, neither which approach it said it had previously expressly adopted. In the opinion, the 5th Circuit also weighed in on the controversial Sixth Circuit opinion in Bridgeport Music Inc. v. Dimension Films, 383 F.3d 390 (6th Cir. 2004), which held that any sampling — even if digitally altered — from a pre-existing sound recording is automatic copyright infringement.
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New York Federal District Court Dismisses Investor Lawsuit Over Tencent Music IPO
By Stan Soocher
In December 2018, China-based titan Tencent Music Entertainment launched a U.S. initial public offering (IPO). But the IPO resulted in an investor’s class action suit alleging TME violated federal securities laws. This is part of a trend of increasing such securities suits against foreign companies, though the U.S.
Legal Triggers In NFT Crypto Craze
By Michael A. Mora and Alaina Lancaster
The latest cryptocurrency craze has litigators closely watching from the sidelines. Buyers of digital non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are ready to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes more, but when disputes start to hit the scene, litigators said there is little to no case law as precedent.
Supreme Court on APIs and Fair Use
By Scott Graham
Google didn’t get an answer from the U.S. Supreme Court on whether the Java Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) it copied from Sun Microsystems were copyrightable. But it got just about everything else it could have hoped for in a decision that ended its 11-year copyright clash with Sun's successor, Oracle.
2d Cir. Issues Two Notable Copyright Fair Use Decisions
By Tom McParland
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently issued decisions in two closely watched copyright fair use cases involving photographs. In the…
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