Oracle v Google Copyright Case Slated For Supreme Court Arguments — Originally scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court this past March, oral arguments in Oracle v Google were first postponed because of the pandemic and then delayed until next term. The Court has now set a date—October 7—to hear from both sides in the long-running litigation over software copyright. The Court has also called for supplemental briefing on the standard of review for jury verdicts of fair use, with briefs due August 7.
9th Circ. Revives Disney ‘Pirates’ Script IP Suit — An unpublished decision reversing a motion to dismiss on substantial similarity is not on its face a big case law development, but the case here—involving allegations that a 20 year old, multi-billion dollar film franchise infringed on plaintiff’s work—raises the profile of the decision. Worth noting the court’s discussion of whether pirate movie tropes are unprotectable or whether “the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise may itself have shaped what are now considered pirate-movie tropes.”
No Easy Fix Seen for Digital Copyright Law Amid Content Flood — Writing for Bloomberg Law, Kyle Jahner explores the state of play for potential reform of the DMCA’s provisions on intermediary liability and notice and takedown. “Rightsholders decry ineffective DMCA ‘whack-a-mole’ enforcement where infringing content pops back up almost as soon as it’s removed. But public interest groups and some lawyers say legitimate speech gets removed over mere allegations, and the system for fighting that and getting content restored is ineffective.”
TikTok and National Music Publishers Association Strike Multi-Year Deal — Video sharing app TikTok has emerged as a new avenue for music discovery, and this week, as Variety reports, it has signed an agreement with music publishers that “accounts for TikTok’s past use of musical works and ‘sets up a forward-looking partnership.'”
Could ISNI be Metadata’s Missing Link? — “Getting metadata right has become priority number one for the rights management community. In the music sector, ISRCs (recordings) and ISWCs (compositions) are the key identifiers, but what if ISNIs were the missing link? Such is the belief of French metadata expert FX Nuttall (FX stands for François-Xavier), who sees himself as an ISNI evangelist. ISNI, or International Standard Name Identifier, is an International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO 27729) – a certified global standard number for identifying the millions of contributors to creative works, including researchers, inventors, writers, artists, visual creators, performers, producers, publishers, aggregators, and more.”