Copyrights

Supreme Court Grants Cert to Resolve Circuit Split on Registration Prerequisite for Filing Suit under Copyright Act

Although the term “registration” as used in the Section 411(a) of the Copyright Act does not immediately appear to be ambiguous, courts have reached differing conclusions as to its meaning.

Jerry Lee Lewis Gets Extended Discovery Time in Management Litigation Against His Daughter
Three-Year Statute of Limitations Argument Doesn't Bar Claims to Copyright Renewal Terms
Ticketmaster Prevails With “Striking Compatibility” Claim in Copyright Suit Over Ticket Bots

Broadcasters around the globe know that Americans want access to digital content and that they often ignore who provides it to them. For business reasons, tax reasons or to try to avoid liability under copyright law, many of these broadcasters intentionally do not set up operations in the United States. However, when these broadcasters transmit content for which they do not have authorization, they may be in violation of the copyright holder's rights.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed a district court's award of attorney fees to Sony Corp. under §505 of the Copyright Act for winning a ruling that a lawsuit over a Sony Music songwriting contest should be sent to arbitration.

The hotly disputed legal issue between the majority and dissent in the recent, highly-publicized “Blurred Lines” decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concerned whether Marvin Gaye's 1976 hit song “Got to Give it Up” was entitled to “broad” or “thin” copyright protection.

Pop musicians may be running out of creative space. And this problem is being exacerbated by the behaviors of what we might call the “legacy” interests — parties who own copyright interests in already-created songs but who won't be making any new music.

Brief Use of Graffiti Art in HBO's Vinyl Show Found De Minimis
Chinese Film Company Subject to Personal Jurisdiction in Location Security Company's Colorado Lawsuit

Only a small fraction of television news broadcasts are made available online. For a party to monitor and view all news coverage of an event, it would essentially have to watch and record all news broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's exactly what media-monitoring service TVEyes did. Fox News filed suit against TVEyes, claiming copyright infringement of 19 of its hour-long programs and alleging that TVEyes would divert Fox News's viewership and its ability to license its news clips to third parties.