New Copyright Venue Fields Hundreds of Claims, Evoking Optimism — The Copyright Claims Board, a new tribunal created to hear small copyright claims in the U.S., is a little over 6 months old as we start the new year. And so far it seems to be working… good? Riddhi Setty of Bloomberg Law speaks to U.S. Copyright Office leadership and several copyright experts and looks at statistics compiled by the Copyright Alliance to review the early performance of the novel tribunal.
Zara Sues “Responsible” Brand Thilikó for “Passing Off” Zara Wares, Photos as its Own — Typically, fast fashion brands are the ones accused of misappropriating fashion designs, so there’s a touch of irony to see fast fashion brand Zara as the plaintiff in a recently filed lawsuit alleging copyright infringement and other claims against a high-end retailer that it claims engaged in a “serial” scheme of acquiring Zara garments, replacing the tags with its own tags, and passing the goods off as its own, including with “exorbitant mark-ups.” Zara also alleges the retailer copied Zara’s photos for garments and used them on its own site.
Photo Agency Sues Twitter for $228.9 Million Over Copyright Infringement — From Pesala Bandara at PetaPixel: “Photo agency Backgrid and ten anonymous defendants have sued Twitter for allegedly failing to take down more than 1,500 photographs of celebrities owned by them and illegally posted to the platform by users. According to the lawsuit filed on December 30, 2022, Backgrid alleges it sent over 6,700 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices to Twitter requesting the removal of its copyrighted photos, but Twitter failed to respond or take down a single image.”
Copyright Legislation in 2022: A Year in Review — A look back at the U.S. copyright bills that made progress in 2022 but did not pass, as well as the two relatively minor measures that did pass.
The Myth of the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act” Has Reached its “Sell By” Date — Stephen Carlisle writes, “It’s about time for the myth of the ‘Mickey Mouse Protection Act’ to take its final bow. Of course it was never true, but that did not stop people from ginning up publicity (about themselves or their organizations) by declaring that the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, passed in 1998, was all about protecting the property of Disney and particularly Mickey Mouse.”