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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Story Of A Character: Establishing The Limits Of Independent Copyright Protection For Literary Characters, Samuel J. Coe
The Story Of A Character: Establishing The Limits Of Independent Copyright Protection For Literary Characters, Samuel J. Coe
Chicago-Kent Law Review
Copyright law provides writers with a way to protect their original works of authorship, but courts often disagree over the scope of this protection and how far it can be extended for the fictional characters appearing within literary works. Characters like Holden Caulfield and James Bond have become extremely valuable forms of intellectual property, but even for such iconic figures it can be difficult to separate the character from the story to determine where one work ends and the other begins. To address this issue, the Second Circuit follows the "distinctly delineated" test, which asks whether a character has been …
Heavy Metal Alloys: Unsigned Rock Bands And Joint Work, Michael S. Young
Heavy Metal Alloys: Unsigned Rock Bands And Joint Work, Michael S. Young
Chicago-Kent Law Review
This note uses humorous illustrations culled from the history of popular heavy metal music to facilitate examination of the effectiveness of joint authorship analysis by modern federal courts. The note carefully considers a variety of common contributions made by band members in the absence of any written or verbal agreement about authorship, and concludes (1) that a more equitable regime would do away with the requirement that a co-author make an "independently copyrightable" contribution, and (2) that courts must take greater care not to transform "will to control" into "intent to be a sole author."
Twittering Away The Right Of Publicity: Personality Rights And Celebrity Impersonation On Social Networking Websites, Andrew M. Jung
Twittering Away The Right Of Publicity: Personality Rights And Celebrity Impersonation On Social Networking Websites, Andrew M. Jung
Chicago-Kent Law Review
Within the past couple of years, social networking websites have become an immensely popular destination for people from all walks of life. Websites like Facebook and Twitter now count tens of millions of worldwide users, including world leaders and a number of celebrities. Eventually, users realized that social networking websites lent themselves to the quick and easy impersonation of celebrities through the creation of fake social networking accounts, often as a form of parody. One subject of such impersonation was professional baseball manager Tony La Russa, who took the then-unprecedented step of suing his impersonators and Twitter over the incident. …
Coding Privacy, Lilian Edwards
Coding Privacy, Lilian Edwards
Chicago-Kent Law Review
Lawrence Lessig famously and usefully argues that cyberspace is regulated not just by law but also by norms, markets and architecture or "code." His insightful work might also lead the unwary to conclude, however, that code is inherently anti-privacy, and thus that an increasingly digital world must therefore also be increasingly devoid of privacy. This paper argues briefly that since technology is a neutral tool, code can be designed as much to fight for privacy as against it, and that what matters now is to look at what incentivizes the creation of pro- rather than anti-privacy code in the mainstream …
Peer-To-Peering Beyond The Horizon: Can A P2p Network Avoid Liability By Adapting Its Technological Structure?, Matthew G. Minder
Peer-To-Peering Beyond The Horizon: Can A P2p Network Avoid Liability By Adapting Its Technological Structure?, Matthew G. Minder
Chicago-Kent Law Review
Peer-to-peer networks are often used to infringe copyrights, but they also serve some legitimate purposes consistent with copyright law. In attempting to find a satisfactor solution, this note develops and analyzes two models that future peer-to-peer networks could employ to attempt to avoid liability for copyright infringement. The note then analyzes the law, applies the two models to the relevant legal tests, and analyzes whether a peer-to-peer network operating on each model could avoid liability for copyright infringement. It concludes that modifying their technological structure may help peer-to-peer networks avoid liability, but that some risks remain.