Friday’s Endnotes – 01/15/21

By , January 15, 2021.

‘The Police Didn’t Know What Was Going to Happen’: 5 Photographers on What It Was Like to Document the Storming of the US Capitol — “[T]he uprising marked the first time since the British invaded during the War of 1812 that Washington was so overrun. The scene was documented by a fearless press corps that braved tear gas, pepper spray, and attacks to record the day’s events, which so far have left five dead. We spoke to five photographers about their experiences capturing this dark moment in US history.”

U.S. Copyright Office Releases Updated Version of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition on January 28, 2021 — The update of the comprehensive and invaluable guide includes changes made in light of the Supreme Court decisions in Georgia v. Public Resource and Fourth Estate along with discussion of regulatory changes made to registration practices. The Office this week also announced that updates to its website are coming later this month.

Claims Tribunal, Music Rates Headline 2021 Copyright Issues — Bloomberg Law‘s Kyle Jahner reviews what may be the most significant copyright issues expected in 2021. They include implementation of a U.S. copyright small claims court, a Supreme Court decision in Google v. Oracle, and draft legislation amending the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The Mechanical Licensing Collective Begins Full Operations as Envisioned by The Music Modernization Act of 2018 — In a little over two years after the MMA was enacted, the Mechanical Licensing Collective has begun administering the blanket license for mechanical reproductions by digital music services. Here, The MLC provides an overview of what that means, including tools and resources for songwriters and musicians to ensure they are collecting the royalties they are entitled to.

Ninth Circuit Clarifies Transformative Fair Use in Dr. Seuss v. ComicMix — CPIP’s Devlin Hartline analyzes last month’s decision from the Ninth Circuit finding that ComicMix’s unauthorized mashup of Seuss’s Oh the Places You’ll Go and the Star Trek universe was not a fair use.

Friday’s Endnotes – 05/08/20

By , May 08, 2020.

Symposium: Exploring Copyrightability and Scope of Protection — The Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts has published its issue dedicated to Columbia Law School’s Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts annual symposium, held last October. The symposium covered such topics as “whether and how copyright attaches to new and emerging forms of creative expression, as well as doctrines, such as merger and scènes à faire, which may render unprotectable key elements of an otherwise copyrightable work.”

Places a Seuss-Trek Mashup Will Go May Include Back to Court — Bloomberg Law‘s Kyle Jahner covers the recent Ninth Circuit oral arguments in Dr. Seuss Enterprises v. ComicMix. The court is reviewing the lower court’s decision holding defendants’ mashup of Dr. Seuss and Star Trek to be a fair use.

21 and illegal in all states? The German Pelham court confirms when sampling is illegal — In a sad bit of irony, the decision finding the use of a two-second sample of Kraftwerk’s “Metall auf Metall” (Metal on Metal) infringing came out just days before the world lost Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider.

Copyright in the Age of Artificial Intelligence — The U.S. Copyright Office has posted videos from an all day symposium it co-sponsored with the World Intellectual Property Organization. Tune in to hear discussions regarding “the relationship between AI and copyright; what level of human input is sufficient for the resulting work to be eligible for copyright protection; the challenges and considerations for using copyright-protected works to train a machine or to examine large data sets; and the future of AI and copyright policy.”

YouTube Rippers and Record Labels Clash in US Appeals Court — The question of when U.S. courts have personal jurisdiction over operators of foreign websites took center stage as the Fourth Circuit heard oral arguments in UMG v. Kurbanov.

Finally, a copyright hypo: A Webcam Company Is Demanding Payment From an Artist Who Used Screenshots From Its Feeds to Document Italy’s Deserted Streets. Are these images protected by copyright?

Friday’s Endnotes – 05/01/20

By , May 01, 2020.

Opinion analysis: Sharply divided bench rejects Georgia’s copyright in annotations of Georgia statutes — Writing for SCOTUSBlog, Ronald Mann looks at Monday’s Supreme Court decision in Georgia v. Public.Resource.org, which considered when works by government officials are precluded from copyright protection. Read the full opinion here.

Appeals Court Reviews ‘Star Trek’/Dr. Seuss Mashup — Later that same day, the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments in Dr. Seuss Enterprises v. ComicMix. Eriq Gardner takes a look at what went down. View a recording of the arguments yourself here.

Preparing for 2021 — January 1, 2021, is the date the new blanket license created by the Music Modernization Act becomes available. The Mechanical Licensing Collective, which was designated to administer the unprecedented license, has been hard at work gearing up for the launch. Here, they provide some essential steps songwriters and publishers can start taking now to ensure they are getting the royalties they are entitled to when the license becomes available. Be sure to also check out the Copyright Office’s own update on developments regarding the MMA, including a set of notices soliciting public comment that were recently published and an entire page of printed and video materials to explain the MMA and what it means for musicians.

Infogroup $21.2 mln judgment against DatabaseUSA and ousted founder is upheld — Reuters reports on a recent decision from the Eighth Circuit regarding the copyrightability of databases. Read the full decision in Infogroup v. DatabaseLLC here.

Friday’s Endnotes – 03/13/15

By , March 13, 2015.

Harvey Weinsten, Matthew Weiner, Kurt Sutter Urge Congress to Support Strong Copyright System — They and over 1500 other creators and artists of all types sent a letter to Congress this week saying, in part, “Our copyright system is not perfect but, like democracy, it is better than the alternatives. It works. We urge Congress to resist attempts to erode the right of creatives to determine when and how they share their works in the global marketplace.”

Free trade benefits businesses here in Tennessee — David Macias, president of indie musician management, marketing, and distribution company Thirty Tigers, pens this op-ed in The Tennessean on the need to pass trade promotion authority and finalize negotiations on free trade agreements. Says Macias, “We have recently expanded our services to all of Europe and Australia, and the ease of which we can gain access to those markets, thanks to free trade agreements, helps not only my business but the artists who we represent. When my business grows, I employ more American workers. When my artists are able to grow their careers and tour in those markets, they employ guitar techs and road managers who live and pay taxes in Nashville.”

Turning a Profit From Music Mashups — More evidence that the current legal framework for remixes works. “Dubset Media Inc. has developed technology to track how much of each song is used in any given DJ-made track or mix. It can then calculate royalties owed to artists like Lady Gaga or Jay Z whose music was sampled. The New York-based startup is in discussions with the major record labels—Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, Sony Corp.’s Sony Music Entertainment and Access Industries’ Warner Music Group—to license music that DJs have mixed. Such deals could pave the way for Dubset to distribute such mixes to streaming services such as Spotify.”

ICLE White Paper: Broad fair use exceptions could discourage innovation worldwide — This week, the International Center for Law & Economics released a white paper arguing that “if broad fair use exceptions are infused into trade agreements they could increase piracy and discourage artistic creation and innovation — especially in nations without a strong legal tradition implementing such provisions.”

The Lines of Copyright Infringement Have Always Been Blurred — We’ve heard a lot about the Blurred Lines verdict this week. Here, Rick Sanders makes a number of important points about the trial and its outcome, many of which have been overlooked by the deluge of superficial analyses found elsewhere.

Friday’s Endnotes – 11/04/11

By , November 04, 2011.

Return of the AmeriKat I: Berne takes a bite out of the US Constitution — The Supreme Court’s opinion in Golan v. Holder, which was argued last month, likely won’t be out for several months. In the meantime, IPKat offers a substantial look at the background and issues raised in the case.

Where are all those mashers and mixers we keep hearing about? — One of the central tenets of some “copyfighters” is that remixing and mashing up somehow represents the new paradigm of culture, replacing “traditional” notions of authorship. The takeaway being that corporations like Google should be given free reign to profit off the aggregation of such remixes and mashups without any regard to the original creators. John Degen points to a recent study that reveals that, contrary to this tenet, only 12% of the respondents said they engage in remixing.

Public Safety Community Overwhelmingly Supports Rogue Sites Legislation — The Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Fire Fighters join an array of public safety organizations backing legislation aimed at online copyright infringement and counterfeit goods. Counterfeit safety equipment is a very real public safety issue.

Copyright Small Claims? — The US Copyright Office has recently begun seeking comments on possible remedies for small copyright claims. Attorney David Lizerbram takes a deeper look at the issue.

Does Culture Really Want to be Free? — Salon sits down with Robert Levine to discuss many of the issues he raises in his new book Free Ride. Full of choice quotes like this one: “I don’t think anyone is going to go to hell for downloading ‘Iron Man 2.’ But saying you have the right to download it is also pretty silly.”

5 Steps to Understanding Bill C-11 and “Digital Locks” — As Canada moves toward reforming its copyright law, concern has been raised over provisions dealing with technological protection measures. James Gannon explains what these provisions do and why they are needed.

The Entire $1.65B Acquisition of YouTube Took a Week, Was Negotiated at Denny’s — “Schmidt basically promised the founders unlimited resources in return for an “infinite amount of happy users” and an “infinite amount” of good content.” (Sadly, Schmidt could only promise a finite amount of Moons Over My Hammy.)

More Than Just a Formality: Instant Authorship and Copyright’s Opt-Out Future in the Digital Age — UCLA law student and friend of the site Brad Greenberg penned this forthcoming law review article about proposals to bring back copyright formalities in the digital age. Ultimately, he concludes that “returning to an opt-in copyright system via formalities would actually disincentivize authors who are presently motivated by copyright.”