A few months ago I got an email from Blogger.com regarding a blog I run in my spare time. It read: “Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog infringes upon the copyrights of others.” Blogger had taken down a post that […]
Michael Jackson's death has the surviving members of the Beatles in knots. Not only because they just lost a fellow musician and entertainment icon, but also because Jackson's untimely death has left his estate mired in legal complexities regarding the future ownership of the publishing rights of the Beatles' catalogue. As co-owner of Sony/ATV Music […]
Creative Commons ("CC") is a non-profit corporation "dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright." CC provides free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, […]
Stephen Sharon is a recent graduate of Touro Law School in New York where he focused on intellectual property. Stephen was also the first place winner of the Nathan Burkan Memorial Competition sponsored by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for his submission of a case study about the legal battle between […]
Despite the fact the enforcement of intellectual property rights in the United States fashion design industry, relative to other innovative sectors such as computing, music, television and film, may seem non-existent, fashion accounts for $200 billion in sales annually in the U.S. Two prominent legal scholars, Kal Raustiala and Christopher Springman, have written a series […]
Fashion is everywhere you look. In the US, the fashion industry's annual sales are higher than those of books, movies and music combined. Everyone wears clothes, whether for necessity, the desire to follow current trends, or for any reason in between. Fashion can be an indication of an individual's social status, and also reflects cultural […]
Giovanni Maria Riccio is Professor of Private Comparative Law at the University of Salerno. Professor Riccio is an IP Osgoode Research Affiliate. The French Constitutional Court held that the "Creation and Internet" law - the law promoted by the Olivennes Commission and strictly supported by the President Sarkozy - is unconstitutional. This Act - whose […]
A treaty to improve access to copyrighted materials for the visually impaired was recently introduced at World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) by Brazil, Ecuador, and Paraguay. The treaty received no direct objections, however, different opinions were expressed as to how to treat the proposal and other limitations and exceptions in the future. For many this seems like […]
For nearly two decades, Rob Reger and his company Cosmic Debris have spent millions of dollars developing the fictional character "Emily the Strange" as a gothic rebel who finds nothing more boring than copying everyone else. Over the years, Emily has evolved from a skateboard design to a media empire which includes clothing lines, comic […]
Chris Castle is Managing Partner of Christian L. Castle Attorneys, Los Angeles and San Francisco. On Thursday, May 21, U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel wrapped up hearings on the preliminary injunction she granted in the fall against Real Networks and its "RealDVD" copying software. And the Real "Facet" DVD copying and storage device […]