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Columns & Departments

Bit Parts

Stan Soocher

Mash-Up of Dr. Seuss/Star Trek Components Is a Fair Use

Features

Drake Wins on Sampling Fair Use; Plaintiffs' Song Ownership Muddy Image

Drake Wins on Sampling Fair Use; Plaintiffs' Song Ownership Muddy

Vincent Peppe

While copyright registration normally constitutes prima facie evidence of copyright ownership, the court noted that the estate had registered the song copyright 31 years after it was originally published and only in response to the defendants' sampling of the song on Drake's album.

Features

Supreme Court Won't Take 'Who's on First' Copyright Case Image

Supreme Court Won't Take 'Who's on First' Copyright Case

P.J. D'Annunzio & Stan Soocher

First the copyright infringement case over the use of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First" routine in a Broadway play was dismissed by a New York federal judge. Then it rounded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, but was tagged out again. Now, in its third at bat, the lawsuit struck out with the U.S. Supreme Court declining to review the case.

Features

Angry Fed. Judge Throws Out Song Infringement Suit Image

Angry Fed. Judge Throws Out Song Infringement Suit

Celia Ampel

A Miami company's decision to defend a small-potatoes copyright case all the way to trial paid off when the case was dismissed after a few hours — by an angry federal judge.

Features

Fourth Circuit to Weigh ISP Copyright Liability for Peer-to-Peer File Sharing by Subscribers Image

Fourth Circuit to Weigh ISP Copyright Liability for Peer-to-Peer File Sharing by Subscribers

J. Alexander Lawrence & Abigail L. Colella

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals is gearing up to hear argument in <i>BMG Rights Management v. Cox Communications</i>, one of the first attempts by the music industry to hold an ISP liable for unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing by its subscribers.

Features

Can Instagram Post of Photo Become Transformative? Image

Can Instagram Post of Photo Become Transformative?

Andrew Denney

An enlarged print of an Instagram post containing a copyrighted photo counts as a transformative use, an attorney for "appropriation artist" Richard Prince — whose use of other artists' material in his own works has made him no stranger to the courts — argued before a New York federal judge in April.

Features

Supreme Court Rules on Design of a Useful Article Image

Supreme Court Rules on Design of a Useful Article

Samantha Barber

Fashion, furniture, and other design-oriented companies will take note of the Supreme Court's recent decision in <i>Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc.</i>, which resolved a division among the federal circuits on the issue of the separability of designs of useful articles under the Copyright Act.

Features

<i>Decision of Note</i><br>Suit Seeking Public Doman Status for 'Buck Rogers' Can Move Forward Image

<i>Decision of Note</i><br>Suit Seeking Public Doman Status for 'Buck Rogers' Can Move Forward

P.J. D'Annunzio

Team Angry Filmworks' lawsuit seeking public domain status for science fiction hero "Buck Rogers" adventures is set to blast off now that the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania denied a request to dismiss filed by the trust that licenses Rogers material.

Features

<b><i>Online Extra</b></i><br>Free Online Access to Georgia's Legal Code Violates Copyright, Judge Says Image

<b><i>Online Extra</b></i><br>Free Online Access to Georgia's Legal Code Violates Copyright, Judge Says

R. Robin McDonald

One day after a federal judge in Atlanta ruled that the state of Georgia may copyright its official legal code and pursue infringers, a California public records activist who had made Georgia's code available for free to the general public began work on an appeal.

Features

Pre-1972 Recordings Case Against Sirius In GA Hits Spotlight Image

Pre-1972 Recordings Case Against Sirius In GA Hits Spotlight

Katheryn Hayes Tucker & Zack Needles

A few days before the Second Circuit published its decision ordering the dismissal of Flo & Eddie's closely watched class-action lawsuit against Sirius XM Radio over the use by the satellite provider of pre-1972 sound recordings, the Georgia Supreme Court heard arguments in a class action case against iHeartMedia over its use of pre-1972 sound recordings.

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