Copyrights and Work for Hire Doctrine Stan Lee, the co-creator and ambassador of the Marvel Universe, died this week. From a copyright perspective, Lee’s legacy is a complicated mess. Marvel, one of the original comic book publishers introduced over 8,000 characters including those created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon and Steve Ditko. This Read more about Stan Lee’s Copyrights and Work for Hire[…]
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will take on the issue of whether a copyright registration or a copyright application is required before bringing a copyright infringement suit. Currently, depending on the location of your copyright lawsuit, some courts require a copyright registration. Other Courts simply require that you have filed a copyright application Read more about Copyright Application vs. Copyright Registration[…]
Capturing just the right photograph, often is the result of countless hours of time, effort, attention, planning and preparation. While capturing the photograph can represent countless hours, stealing the photograph off the internet takes only seconds. In today’s digital world, many photographers try to promote their best work on the internet where they can showcase Read more about Stolen Photos Costs Company[…]
The Metropolitan Museum announced access to nearly 400,000 images – for free. The Museum provides these images under an Open Access license for all public-domain works in the Met collection. The Creative Commons Zero (“CC0”) license allows use of the images without restriction. Entrepreneurs, artists, and business owners can now use and share these images Read more about Free Use Images[…]
The Ninth Circuit has ruled that prior to seeking a Takedown under the DMCA, copyright holders must perform a fair-use evaluation of the alleged infringement. Failure to do so, may expose the copyright owner to damages for wrongfully seeking a DMCA takedown. By its definition, fair use includes non-commercial portions of a work which do Read more about When a Takedown is used Wrongly[…]
In a controversial ruling, the 9th Circuit found that an actress had an independent copyright interest in her performance within a short film – a finding directly contrary to the majority view. Or at least, that is how many are interpreting the Court’s opinion. The unique facts of the case help explain the decision. The Read more about Of Fatwas and Copyrights[…]
In the modern world, intellectual property protection is becoming ever more important. We are constantly seeing headlines about billion dollar intellectual property disputes between tech giants like Google, Samsung and Apple. Most often, these articles jump right into the details that grab our attention and fail to explain what intellectual property is and how something Read more about Intellectual Property: the Types, the Benefits, and How We Can Help[…]
Last week, the 9th Circuit ruled that video game developer EA’s use of the likeness of former college athletes in its NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball video games was not protected under the First Amendment or under Copyright Law’s Fair Use Doctrine. The court also rejected EA’s claim that the use was protected under State Read more about Software Fair Use[…]
On March 19, 2013, the Supreme Court issued the much-anticipated decision in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., holding 6 to 3 that Copyright First Sale Doctrine applies to “foreign-made works, and that the authorized manufacture and sale of a copyrighted work abroad exhausts the copyright owner’s rights to control the distribution of the Read more about Copyright First Sale Doctrine – Worldwide[…]
It was announced that the company suing thousands of BitTorrent movie downloaders under a profit making litigation scheme has dismissed thousands of alleged downloaders from suit, including those who downloaded The Hurt Locker. The makers of The Hurt Locker have now announced a cease-fire in the BitTorrent cases, together with the alleged sharers of Call Read more about Movie file-sharing suit dropped[…]