By , January 20, 2017.

VidAngel: It’s Not About Filtering — Jonathan Bailey takes a look at a case that has so far flown a bit under the radar. Currently on appeal to the 9th Circuit after a District Court granted the plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction, Disney v VidAngel raises a number of issues, including Section 1201, first sale, and fair use, but defendants argue their video on demand service is authorized by an obscure provision in the Copyright Act that allows viewers to filter out mature elements from authorized copies of movies.

Digital copyright laws must protect content creators — Neil Turkewitz writes, “In a recent Hill op-ed, Public Knowledge’s Charles Duan and R Street’s Sasha Moss call for the Supreme Court to weigh in on a ten-year-old copyright case involving notice and takedown, copyright and a dancing baby. But their piece dances around inconvenient truths, and is predicated upon a rather ‘transformative’ use of reality.”

Lee staying on as patent chief under Trump administration — Yesterday, news broke that the Obama-nominated Michelle Lee will remain on board as Director of the US Patent and Trademark Office in the incoming administration. Despite its name, the USPTO also advises other Federal agencies on copyright policy.

Newman on Vested-Use Privileges in Property & Copyright — A common criticism of copyright is that it impinges on a person’s personal property rights. That is, if a copyrighted work is embodied in some material object like a book or a toaster, the owner of that object is limited by copyright law by what they might otherwise be able to do with that object. In this law review article, Christopher Newman offers a compelling argument in response to that criticism.