Digital Commons Network^™

Trends In Fashion Law: Striking The Proper Balance Between Protecting The Art Form And Sustaining A Thriving Online Market, Elisabeth Johnson

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Sample Solution: How Blockchain Technology Can Clarify A Divided Copyright Doctrine On Music Sampling, Angelo Massagli

University of Miami Business Law Review

This article will examine how blockchain technology can clarify the complex and inconsistent judicial approach to the copyright doctrine regarding music sampling. As it stands today, circuit courts are divided over how to handle copyright infringement stemming from unlicensed music sampling. The first approach is simple: if you want to sample, get a license. The second approach is more lenient and applies a de minimis standard that forces courts to make fact sensitive, case–by–case decisions regarding whether or not the sample of the original work is sufficient enough to be defined as an infringement. The reason for this split in …

The Destruction Of Unesco World Heritage Sites Aleppo And Palmyra In Syria Due To Civil War: Accessioning And Cataloging The Satellite And Drone Imagery Into A Museum Collection, Colette P. Militello

Master's Projects and Capstones

This Museum Studies capstone will discuss the civil war inside Syria, and the destruction of UNESCO World Heritage Sites Aleppo and Palmyra. This paper will examine the historical importance of these sites, and the drone and satellite imagery data used to confirm the destruction. This paper will argue that for full preservation of these cultural heritage sites that this imagery data should be accessioned into a museum collection with the use of professionally-trained registrars. This paper will explore this idea further by arguing that this imagery data collected by companies and governments should be handed over with full copyright to …

Freebooting On Facebook -- Should The Social Media Giant Face Liability?, Nicholas J. Tait

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

The Curious Case Of Cady Noland And The Disappearing Cabin, Amanda Hoefer

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Digital Media Redistribution, Licensing, And Copyright Consent Form, Digital E. Kenyon

Instructions, Forms, and Toolkits

No abstract provided.

Location Unaware: Developing A Standard Of Secondary Liability For Location-Aware Technology Developers, Joseph Phillip Sklar

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Ereserves, Annotations, And Registration: Copyright At The 11th Circuit, Stephen Wolfson

Presentations

This presentation discusses eReserves, the 11th circuit and copyright issues surrounding the Georgia State University case heard by Judge Evans in 2008.

The Escalating Copyright Wars, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

Piracy is one of the biggest threats confronting the entertainment industry today. Every year, the industry is estimated to lose billions of dollars in revenue and faces the potential loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. To protect itself against Internet pirates, the entertainment industry has launched the latest copyright war. So far, the industry has been winning. Among its trophies are the enactment of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Vivendi Universal's defeat and purchase of MP3.com, the movie studios' victory in the DeCSS litigation, the bankruptcy and subsequent sale of Napster and its recent relaunch as a legitimate subscription-based …

Trips Enforcement And Developing Countries, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

No abstract provided.

The Costs Of Trademarking Dolls, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Curtin’s article, Zombie Cinderella and the Undead Public Domain, takes a recent case from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) as the basis for an argument that trademark doctrine needs stronger protection against the exclusive commercial appropriation of characters that are in the public domain. In that case, a doll manufacturer sought to register the term “Zombie Cinderella” for a doll that was zombie-ish and princess-like. The examiner refused registration because the term “Zombie Cinderella” for this kind of doll was confusingly similar to the mark for Walt Disney’s Cinderella doll. Although the TTAB overturned the examiner’s …

Revenge Porn, Thomas Lonardo, Tricia P. Martland, Rhode Island Bar Journal

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property In Experience, Madhavi Sunder

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In today’s economy, consumers demand experiences. From Star Wars to Harry Potter, fans do not just want to watch or read about their favorite characters— they want to be them. They don the robes of Gryffindor, flick their wands, and drink the butterbeer. The owners of fantasy properties understand this, expanding their offerings from light sabers to the Galaxy’s Edge®, the new Disney Star Wars immersive theme park opening in 2019.

Since Star Wars, Congress and the courts have abetted what is now a $262 billion-a-year industry in merchandising, fashioning “merchandising rights” appurtenant to copyrights and trademarks that …

A Less-Formalistic Copyright Preemption, Guy A. Rub

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

Federal law plays a central role in the development, distribution, and consumption of information goods but it is not the only player on this field. A mixture of state law doctrines, some originating with the common law and some with statutory law, also affects the lifecycle of intangible property rights. This dual system can create conflicts that invite courts to decide when state laws should be preempted by the supremacy of federal law.

This Essay focuses on the tensions between state laws and federal copyright law. It argues that since the enactment of the express preemption provision of the Copyright …

Equitable Resale Royalties, Brian L. Frye

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

A “resale royalty right” is a legal right that gives certain artists the right to claim a percentage of the resale price of the artworks they created. Many countries have created a resale royalty right, but the United States has not, and a federal court recently held that a resale royalty right created by California was preempted by federal law.

Commentators disagree about the justification of the resale royalty right. Supporters argue that equity entitles artists to a resale royalty right, which also encourages the production of artwork and protects artists from exploitation. Opponents argue that the resale royalty right …

Responsible Use Of Materials For Oer: A Hands-On Workshop For Faculty, Madeline Cohen

Publications and Research

This lightening talk will give an overview of an active-learning workshop at Lehman College for faculty developing OER. The goals of the 90 minute workshop are to provide practical exercises through which faculty learn how to identify, provide attribution for, and reuse materials that are under copyright, open access (public domain) or under Creative Commons licenses. Research Guides and tutorials on copyright and Creative Commons have been provided to faculty, but the content can be difficult for the novice to absorb. In fact, faculty often think of copyright and Creative Commons as more confusing than they are in practice.Therefore, the …

Copyright & Open Access, Dustin Johnston-Green

Open Access Week

No abstract provided.

Open To All: The Public Domain, Laura Burtle, Denise George

University Library Faculty Presentations

On January 1, 2019, works copyrighted in 1923 will enter the public domain. This is the first time works have entered the public domain in 20 years. In this presentation, we will define the public domain and explain how works enter the public domain. We’ll provide some key resources for locating public domain content, and we’ll engage the audience in a brief activity demonstrating the use of public domain works in research and teaching. Finally, we will discuss legislative developments that may impact some works entering the public domain going forward.

2018 Cardozo Life (Fall), Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Life

Table of Contents:

Top News & Events, page 3

Clinics News, page 11

Faculty Briefs, page 13

Faculty With Impact, page 16

A Courtside Seat: Six Former Clerks Share Their Supreme Court Takeaways, page 30

Bridging the Gap, page 35

Notable Case Brings Three Clinics to One Man's Defense, page 36

Student News, page 38

Cardozo Welcomes Two New Deans, page 41

Movers & Shakers, page 42

Alumni News & Class Notes, page 44

End Note, page 53

The User Rights Database: Measuring The Impact Of Opening Copyright Exceptions, Sean Flynn, Michael Palmedo

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

International and domestic copyright law reform around the world is increasingly focused on how copyright exceptions — a.k.a. “user rights” —should be expanded to promote maximum innovation, creativity, and access to knowledge in the digital age. These efforts are guided by a relatively rich theoretical literature. However, few empirical studies explore the social and economic impact of expanding user rights in the digital era. One reason for this gap has been the absence of a tool measuring the key independent variable – changes in copyright user rights over time and between countries. We are developing such a tool, which we …

"Distinctive Sounds": A Critique Of The Transformative Fair Use Test In Practice And The Need For A New Music Fair Use Exception, Kristin Bateman

Seattle University Law Review

The Constitution gives Congress the power “[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts,” resulting in our modern regime of patent, trademark, and copyright law. Over time, however, this artistic tradition of copying has collided with more modern concepts of intellectual property rights, especially copyright protections. The advent of the internet as well as state-of-the-art recording and mixing software has vastly increased opportunities to copy, remix, sample, parody, and otherwise alter the work of other artists, particularly musicians. More than twenty years after Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, transformative fair use has become the predominant test courts have used to …

The Lost Tort Of Moral Rights Invasion, Patrick R. Goold

Akron Law Review

Moral rights are often portrayed as an unwelcome import into U.S. law. During the nineteenth century, European lawmakers, influenced by personality theories of authorship, began granting authors rights of attribution and integrity. However, while these rights proliferated in Europe and international copyright treaties, they were not adopted in the United States. According to a common historical narrative, U.S. courts and lawmakers resisted moral rights because they were deemed incompatible with the copyright tradition of treating expressive works as alienable property. What little moral rights U.S. law provides today is thus seen as a necessary evil, grudgingly accepted, simply to comply …

Super Bowl I, Jazz Radio, And The Glass Menagerie: Copyright, Preservation, And Private Copies, R. Anthony Reese

Akron Law Review

Copyright law is often described as providing incentives to make and disseminate creative works. Copyright law should also seek to foster the preservation of creative works so that people can enjoy, use, study, critique, and build upon them long after they are first created. Traditionally, copyright law fostered preservation largely because most copyright owners principally exploited their works by making and distributing many tangible copies of those works. Those copies could end up in many different hands, and each copy could potentially survive into the future. Some kinds of works, though, were disseminated principally by performance, and as a result, …

Marching To The Beat Of The Eu's Drum: Refining The Collective Management Of Music Rights In The United States To Facilitate The Growth Of Interactive Streaming, Gary W. Hunt Iii

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In the digital era, interactive streaming is now the preferred method for music consumers to access their favorite albums and songs. The traditional copyright system used to administer music rights and royalties has not evolved accordingly, which not only impedes progress by music platform innovators, but also frustrates artist, labels, and composers who are unable to reap the benefits of their music rights. This Note examines the complex process interactive streaming services undergo to obtain the rights necessary to stream music through their platforms, which involves a discussion of collective rights organizations. This Note then argues that the European Directive …

Copyright And Underwater Cultural Heritage, Tyler T. Ochoa

Faculty Publications

This article will focus on three aspects of copyright law as it applies to the photography of underwater cultural heritage. First, to what extent can a salvor claim exclusive rights to photograph a particular site? Second, who is the author (or who are the authors) of such underwater photography, which increasingly involves the use of remote-controlled robotic drones? Third, to what extent can a State control the use of underwater photography that falls within its territorial waters?8 All three of these aspects have been the subject of lawsuits and judicial opinions in the United States; and those opinions shed light …

Revoking The "Get Out Of Jail Free Card": How Mavrix Photographs, Llc V. Livejournal, Inc. Could Revolutionize User-Generated Safe Harbor Protections Under § 512(C) Of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Caitlin Oswald

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

Who's Afraid Of Swiss Cheese? Resolving The Copyright Claims Of Non-Coauthors, D. Sean West

Seattle University Law Review SUpra

No abstract provided.

Transformed, I'M Sure: A (Polite) Introduction To Fair Use In Dh, Jill Cirasella

Publications and Research

This presentation looks at how the words "including" and "such as" in the fair use section of United States copyright law (i.e., Section 107 of Title 17 of the United States Code) allow for unforeseen fair uses, including transformative works made by digital humanists.

Illustrating A Technical Manual: Copyright And Fair Use In A Real World Professional Context, Karyn Hinkle

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

This lesson was developed for students preparing to enter professional practice who were assigned to write and/or illustrate a technical howto manual on a topic of their choice (how to put on ski boots, draw blood, use a fitness tracking app, etc.). The teaching librarian conducts a class session on finding and creating images to illustrate the manuals and teaches differences between using copyrighted and non-copyrighted images. The students work on finding images in the public domain, creating their own images, and incorporating copyrighted images via Creative Commons licenses and the principle of fair use. Librarians can teach this lesson …

A Hole In Need Of Mending: Copyright And The Individual Marking Of Advertisements Published In Collective Works, Randy D. Gordon

Randy D. Gordon

Over 20 years ago, the United States brought its copyright law into sync with international norms through the adoption of the Berne Convention. As a result, copyright notice is no longer a prerequisite to copyright protection. But because Congress implemented the Berne Convention through amendments to the (rather than adoption of a wholly new) Copyright Act, litigants have argued and at least some courts have held that certain works still must be noticed. This Article is concerned to rebut that contention.