On Monday, in the shadow of then-Hurricane (now-Superstorm) Sandy, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., a case involving the applicability of U.S. copyright law to copies of works created and legally acquired abroad and subsequently imported into the United States. In…
Articles Posted in Copyright
Last week, Sprint filed several requests for the issuance of subpoenas in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The purpose of the subpoenas, according to the declarations accompanying them, is to reveal the identity of one who identifies him/herself as a 'mole' or insider in the…
Judges know fair use and parody when they see it. Especially when it comes to South Park's "distinct animation style and scatological humor" as seen through the eyes of a 4th grade character. That was the conclusion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Circuit today (read…
A continuing legal education company headed by Joseph Marino (inset, left), the legendary force behind a 65-year-old family-owned New York and New Jersey bar exam course, sued a former employee for alleged theft of "invaluable data" from his more recent CLE company's business. The Marino Institute of Continuing Legal Education,…
Today Oracle asked U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup to sidestep whatever verdict the jury ultimately reaches in the company's Java code copyright trial against Google. Oracle alleged that Google violated copyright law by refusing to license Sun's Java software code, and allegedly incorporating copyright-protected source code into its Android…
"Trust me, my pungent friend. You'll get what's coming to you!" Disney's new copyright infringement lawsuit against an alleged eBay purveyor of counterfeit movies appears to be dispensing advice from Aladdin's Jafar. According to the lawsuit (read it below), Atlanta resident Michael Jones has allegedly been selling 'obviously counterfeit' Disney…
Aerosoft GMBH, the German software company that makes the 'Airbus X' game, add-on program to Microsoft's Flight Simulator, sued a host of unknown 'Does' in federal court, claiming the defendants engaged in copyright infringement via peer-to-peer ('P2P') file-sharing of plaintiff's game. The Airbus X might have been a game that…
A federal appeals court in New York reversed a lower court ruling in Viacom's copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube and Google over user uploads of thousands of popular TV shows like South Park and 'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." "A reasonable jury could find that YouTube had actual knowledge…
East Bay soul funk legend Tower of Power filed a class-action lawsuit against Warner Music on Tuesday, charging that the record label Warner Music, Inc. stiffed them out of music royalties by mischaracterizing digital downloads as sales, instead of licenses that pay artists a much higher premium. Tower of Power…
Watch out, Facebook users. Mark Zuckerberg's social network giant recently modified the company's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (i.e., Terms of Service ['TOS']) to now allege that Facebook claims trademark rights to the word 'Book.' (Read it below) Oh, and in case you forgot, Facebook also claims intellectual property rights…