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Stanford Copyright & Fair Use – Key Overview Updates

Q: Thank you for updating the copyright overview on this site. What are the most important changes that you want us to know? A: Because the update reflects changes from 2014 through 2016 it includes a few decisions that readers may be familiar with such as the Google book scanning decision (Author’s Guild v. Hathitrust, […]

How much of a photo do you need to alter to avoid copyright infringement? Hint: Cheshire Cat

Bloggers and artists often ask, “how much of a photo do you need to alter to avoid copyright infringement?” Five changes? Fifteen? The Seventh Circuit addressed the issue in the Kienitz v Sconnie Nation case recently. According to the court, Sconnie Nation made t-shirts displaying an image of Madison Wisconsin mayor Paul Soglin, using […]

Guidance on websites and copyright registration from the U.S. Copyright Office

As part of its new draft Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition, we have guidance on registration for websites. The draft of the full compendium is over 1200 pages and covers publication, recordation, notice, deposits, along with other topics. Members of the public may make comments anytime before (or after) the Third Edition […]

Who’s the Owner: A White Paper on “Improving Copyright Information Management: An Investigation of Options and Areas for Further Research”

The U.S. Copyright Office came to Stanford Law School yesterday to conduct a roundtable on Recordation Reengineering, The Stanford Law School Law and Policy Lab submitted comments and a thoughtful White Paper, and live tweeted the proceeding along with us (see @slspolicylab and @fairlyused). The Law and Policy Lab was represented at the roundtable by Peter Holm, third year law […]

Deadline: April 14th. Public invited to weigh in on orphan works – US Copyright Office

ORPHAN WORKS is red hot again. After a number of failed legislative attempts and a couple of high profile court cases, its back to the drawing board, albeit a better defined drawing board. On the one hand, most everyone agrees that for true orphans, it would be great for us all to be able to […]

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Copyright Case Opinion Summaries

Source: Justia Daily Opinion Summaries (feed)

Digital Drilling Data Systems, LLC v. Petrolink Services, Inc.

Published on: July 2, 2020

Digidrill filed suit against its competitor, Petrolink, alleging that Petrolink hacked into its software at various oil drilling sites in order to “scrape” valuable drilling data in real time. The district court granted Petrolink’s motion fo…

UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Kurbanov

Published on: June 26, 2020

Plaintiffs, twelve record companies, filed suit against defendant alleging claims for five separate violations of the Copyright Act. Plaintiffs are Delaware corporations, with eight having their principal place of business in New York, three…

Timothy B. O’Brien LLC v. Knott

Published on: June 17, 2020

Apple owns Madison, Wisconsin vitamin stores. Knott, a former Apple employee, was fired in 2017. Knott founded his own vitamin shop, Embrace Wellness, in Middleton, Wisconsin. Embrace allegedly shared design features and a similar layout wi…

Pablo Star Ltd. v. The Welsh Government

Published on: June 8, 2020

The Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of the Welsh Government’s motion to dismiss claims of copyright infringement brought by Pablo Star over two photographs of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and his wife, Caitlin Macnamara, o…

Unicolors, Inc. v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz, LP

Published on: May 29, 2020

The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s judgment after a jury trial and award of attorneys’ fees in favor of Unicolors in a copyright infringement action against H&M, where Unicolors alleged that a design it created in 2011 is remark…

Copyright Case Dockets

Source: Justia Dockets and Filings (feed)

Duffy Archive Limited v. SpaceDustLA et al

July 8, 2020

Filed: July 8, 2020 as 2:2020cv06094

Plaintiff: Duffy Archive Limited

Defendant: DOES 1 through 10, SpaceDustLA, Michelle Rose

Cause Of Action: Copyright Infringement

Court: Ninth Circuit › California › US District Court for the Central District of California

Type: Intellectual Property › Copyright

STARLINE MEDIA, INC. et al v. STAR STATUS GROUP et al

July 8, 2020

Filed: July 8, 2020 as 6:2020cv01210

Defendant: ELISHA TRICE, STAR STATUS GROUP, JOMY STERLING

Plaintiff: STARLINE MEDIA, INC., DAVID NDALAMBA

Cause Of Action: Copyright Infringement

Court: Eleventh Circuit › Florida › US District Court for the Middle District of Florida

Type: Intellectual Property › Copyright

Affordable Aerial Photography, Inc. v. Realty Center Florida LLC et al

July 7, 2020

Filed: July 7, 2020 as 9:2020cv81058

Defendant: David William Skillman, Realty Center Florida LLC

Plaintiff: Affordable Aerial Photography, Inc.

Cause Of Action: Copyright Infringement

Court: Eleventh Circuit › Florida › US District Court for the Southern District of Florida

Type: Intellectual Property › Copyright

Philpot v. The Real Market Investors, Inc.

July 7, 2020

Filed: July 7, 2020 as 3:2020cv01268

Plaintiff: Larry G. Philpot

Defendant: The Real Market Investors, Inc.

Cause Of Action: Copyright Infringement

Court: Ninth Circuit › California › US District Court for the Southern District of California

Type: Intellectual Property › Copyright

Diossy v. Mulligans Acquisition Inc. et al

July 7, 2020

Filed: July 7, 2020 as 2:2020cv14229

Plaintiff: Istvan Diossy, Steve Diossy

Defendant: Mulligans Sebastian Acquisition LLC, Mulligans Melbourne Acquisition, LLC, George Hart and others

Cause Of Action: Copyright Infringement

Court: Eleventh Circuit › Florida › US District Court for the Southern District of Florida

Type: Intellectual Property › Copyright

Published on: January 30, 2019

For the first time in twenty years, published works in the U.S. expired into the public domain. This anomaly was the direct result of the Copyright Term Extension Act that extended the length of copyright for works still in their renewal term at the time of the Act to 95 years. This effectively froze the […]

Stanford Copyright & Fair Use – Key Overview Updates

By Mary Minow

Published on: April 11, 2017

Future of Libraries – Need First Sale for ebooks

By Mary Minow

Published on: February 19, 2017

How will libraries hold onto ebooks and other digital files like mp3s so that readers and scholars in the future can still read them? The current state of affairs relies on license agreements with publishers who in turn license to vendors, who in turn, license to libraries. Hardly sustainable when files can and do disappear […]

protect your site from copyright lawsuits

By Mary Minow

Published on: November 16, 2016

Everyone who thought they were protected from copyright lawsuits based on user postings, read this and take action on December 1st 2016 and no later than December 2017. lawofthelevel.com/2016/11/articles/intellectual-property/dont-lose-dmca-safe-harbor-protection/

Happy Birthday – ruling plus full court docket filings

By Mary Minow

Published on: September 25, 2015

Justia has made the full docket of legal filings in the Happy Birthday case available for free online at https://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/cacdce/2:2013cv04460/564772