Secondary Liability for Copyright Infringement At the Supreme Court
December 01, 2024
In February 2024, the Fourth Circuit addressed a jury’s 2020 damages award of $1 billion finding Cox secondarily liable for its subscribers’ copyright infringement through illegal copying of copyrighted songs. Both Cox and Sony filed petitions for certiorari.
Navigating ‘Click to Cancel’ Regulations
December 01, 2024
Automatic renewals have become a preferred method of goods and service delivery for many businesses, particularly in the context of e-commerce. The patchwork of state and federal laws and regulations makes absolute compliance a difficult proposition for many companies. In a purported effort to provide clarity to companies regarding their compliance obligations in this space, the FTC recently finalized its Rule Concerning Recurring Subscriptions and Other Negative Option Programs. While the Final Rule has reached the last stage of the FTC’s rulemaking process, questions remain.
Most Companies Don’t Honor Privacy Opt-Outs
December 01, 2024
Global privacy control lets computer users set privacy preferences in their browsers, automatically sharing those choices whenever users go to a site. It’s supposed to give individuals more control over their personal data, allowing them to opt in or out of cookie usage, data sharing, data selling and targeted advertising.But they only work if companies honor them. And in most instances, they don’t.
Fifth Circuit Rejects Majority 'Independent Economic Value' Test for Infringement Damages
November 01, 2024
Most of the federal circuit courts that have addressed what qualifies either as a "compilation" or as a single creative work apply an "independent economic value" analysis that looks at the market worth of the single creation as of the time when an infringement occurs. But in a recent ruling of first impression, the Fifth Circuit rejected the "independent economic value" test in determining which individual sound recordings are eligible for their own statutory awards and which are part of compilation.
Artist Challenges Copyright Office Refusal to Register Award-Winning AI-Assisted Work
November 01, 2024
Copyright law has long struggled to keep pace with advances in technology, and the debate around the copyrightability of AI-assisted works is no exception. At issue is the human authorship requirement: the principle that a work must have a human author to be eligible for copyright protection. While the Copyright Office has previously cited this "bedrock requirement of copyright" to reject registrations, recent decisions have focused on the role of human authorship in the context of AI.
Compliance and Third-Party Risk Management
November 01, 2024
To gauge the level of risk and uncover potential gaps, compliance and privacy leaders should collaborate to consider how often they are monitoring third parties, what intelligence they are gathering with and about their partners and vendors, and whether their risk management practices have been diminished due to cost and resource constraints.
The Federal Circuit Clarifies Who Can Be an Expert In Patent Cases
November 01, 2024
In September 2024, the Federal Circuit clarified the necessary qualifications for a technical expert to testify in a patent lawsuit, holding that while an expert must possess ordinary skill in the art, they need not have possessed such skill "at the time of the alleged invention."
Artist Challenges Copyright Office Refusal to Register AI-Assisted Work
November 01, 2024
While the Copyright Office has previously cited the "bedrock requirement of copyright" that that a work must have a human author to be eligible for copyright protection to reject registrations, recent decisions have focused on the role of human authorship in the context of AI.
