Grabbing Customers' Copyrights
March 29, 2011
What's at issue is control, obviously, and the great lengths to which some will go to maintain, it even as they benefit from the wide-open, free-flowing viral information torrent of the Internet. These copyright acquisitions are not primarily motivated by the desire to exploit the works and make money, but rather by the desire to stop the public circulation of texts and images the new owners do not like.
Ninth Circuit Vacates Injunction In Advertising Keywords Case
March 29, 2011
Remember U.S. Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart's famous line about hardcore pornography? Stewart said it was tough to define, "but I know it when I see it." The quip came to mind after a ruling last month by the U.S Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a trademark infringement case involving Internet advertising keywords. In essence, the Ninth Circuit concluded that there's no strict standard for determining infringement in the Internet age, so judges have to know it when they see it.
New Net-Use Tracking Tactics Capture Privacy Claims
March 29, 2011
The use of new technology makes peoples' efforts to keep Internet behavior private more difficult, has given rise to renewed claims from consumers of unlawful intrusiveness by Internet data-collectors, and has revived the argument that such behavior unlawfully violates privacy expectations.
Small Impact on Practice Predicted from White House IP Recommendations
March 29, 2011
When the White House's intellectual-property enforcement coordinator, Victoria Espinel, submitted a wish list to Congress in March recommending 20 changes to federal intellectual property law largely aimed at ramping up criminal punishment for IP infringement, IP lawyers said the white paper recommendations would likely have only a tenuous effect, if any, on civil IP litigation or patent prosecution.
Judge Changes Mind, Rules for Coca-Cola in Suit by Songwriter
March 29, 2011
Miami Beach songwriter Rafael "Rafa" Vergara Hermosilla bested Coca-Cola in 2010 when a federal judge issued an injunction in Vergara's fight for credit for the international mega hit of "Wavin' Flag" in Spanish. But litigation is a marathon, not a sprint, and Coca-Cola recently won the more important Round 2. Federal District Judge K. Michael Moore, of the Southern District of Florida, has granted Coca-Cola's renewed motion for summary judgment, dismissing Vergara's claim of copyright infringement by noting that when Vergara wrote the Spanish translation version of "Wavin' Flag," he assigned the rights of his work to Universal Music Group.
<i><b>When the Show Can't Go On</i></b> Seeking Insurance Recovery for Concert Cancellations
March 29, 2011
Concert tours can generate significant income for an artist. Yet every concert tour carries a risk that some event outside of the artist's control ' health issues, physical injuries, adverse weather or safety concerns, to name a few ' could force the cancellation of a single show or even an entire tour, thereby resulting in lost revenue to the artist and unrecoverable costs. To protect against this risk, many performance artists elect to obtain event cancellation and/or non-appearance insurance (which may be covered under the same or separate policies) prior to going on tour. This insurance coverage often covers financial losses, including lost guaranteed income, that result from cancellation of the event.
