Law Commons^™

Copyrightability Of Music Compilations And Playlists: Original And Creative Works Of Authorship?, Marc Fritzsche

Marc Fritzsche

With the digitalization of music and the increasing popularity of online streaming services, people can conveniently create their own playlists and music compilations at will and share them worldwide. Imagine a world in which any selection and arrangement of songs, whether made by you, a DJ, a radio station, or a record label, is protected under the regime of Copyright Law. The result would be a vast amount of copyright infringements when a playlist or compilation gets mimicked by others. Thus far, only the High Court in London, UK, was confronted with this problem, but the parties settled, leaving the …

The Right To Read, Lea Shaver

Lea Shaver

Reading – for education and for pleasure – may be framed as a personal indulgence, a moral virtue, or even a civic duty. What are the implications of framing reading as a human right?

Although novel, the rights-based frame finds strong support in international human rights law. The right to read need not be defended as a “new” human right. Rather, it can be located at the intersection of more familiar guarantees. Well-established rights to education, science, culture, and freedom of expression, among others, provide the necessary normative support for recognizing a universal right to read as already implicit in …

Transformative Teaching And Educational Fair Use After Georgia State, Brandon C. Butler

Brandon C. Butler

The Supreme Court has said that copyright’s fair use doctrine is a “First Amendment safety valve” because it ensures that certain crucial cultural activities are not unduly burdened by copyright. While many such activities (criticism, commentary, parody) have benefited from the courts’ increased attention to first amendment values, one such activity, education, has been mired for years in a minimalist, market-based vision of fair use that is largely out of touch with mainstream fair use jurisprudence. The latest installment in the history of educational fair use, the 11th Circuit’s opinion in the Georgia State e-reserves case, may be the last …

Invalid Pre-Termination Grants And The Challenge To Obtain A Remedy, Samuel H. Jones

Samuel H Jones

The 1976 Copyright Act created what is now commonly known as the termination right, which allows authors to unilaterally terminate prior grants of their copyrights and reclaim ownership. This right was created, in large part, to liberate authors from unremunerative agreements previously entered into when the value of their copyrighted works had not yet been realized. It can be a powerful tool for authors to leverage more favorable agreements than they were previously able, particularly when those copyrights are highly valued. To ensure authors’ ability to exercise this right, Congress enacted provisions in the 1976 Copyright Act that prohibit authors …

Dissolving Innovation In Meltwater: A Misguided Paradigm For Online Search, Bill D. Herman

Bill D. Herman

With the exponential increases in online information, internet search engines have helped fill a substantial and growing need for the capacity to sort through and manage data. News outlets in general and newspapers in particular are among the most socially important sources of online content being indexed, and these outlets are faring rather poorly in the internet economy. Both of these sectors are thus in a precarious, potentially conflicted relationship, with copyright law serving as the primary legal basis for mediating the relationship. A 2013 decision, Associated Press v. Meltwater, is one recent attempt to mediate this relationship. In …

Dissolving Innovation In Meltwater: A Misguided Paradigm For Online Search, Bill D. Herman

Bill D. Herman

With the exponential increases in online information, internet search engines have helped fill a substantial and growing need for the capacity to sort through and manage data. News outlets in general and newspapers in particular are among the most socially important sources of online content being indexed, and these outlets are faring rather poorly in the internet economy. Both of these sectors are thus in a precarious, potentially conflicted relationship, with copyright law serving as the primary legal basis for mediating the relationship. A 2013 decision, Associated Press v. Meltwater, is one recent attempt to mediate this relationship. In …

Orphans In Turmoil: How A Legislative Solution Can Help Put The Orphan Works Dilemma To Rest, Vicenç Feliú

Vicenç Feliú

The orphan works issue has continued to grow in the U.S. despite strong efforts to find a workable solution. Stake holders on both sides of the issue have proposed and opposed solutions and compromises that could have alleviated the problem, and we are still no closer to an agreement. This paper posits that the solutions offered in the proposed legislation of 2006 and 2008 provide a strong working foundation for a legislative answer to the issue. To make that answer workable, a new legislative effort would have to take into account the questions raised by stakeholders to the previous legislative …

Slaves To Copyright: Branding Human Flesh As A Tangible Medium Of Expression, Arrielle S. Millstein

Arrielle S Millstein

This paper argues why human flesh, because of its inherent properties and its necessity for human survival, should not qualify as a tangible medium of expression under the Copyright Act of 1976. Through policy concerns and property law this paper demonstrates why the fixation requirement, necessary to obtain copyright protection of a “work,” must be flexible and eliminate human flesh as an acceptable, tangible medium of expression, to avoid the disastrous risk of the court falling into the role of “21st Century judicial slave masters.”

Recognized Stature: Protecting Street Art As Cultural Property, Griffin M. Barnett

Griffin M. Barnett

This Article discusses the current legal regimes in the United States implicated by works of "street art." The Article suggests an amendment to the Visual Artists Rights Act that would protect certain works of street art as "cultural property" - thereby promoting the arts and the preserving important works of art that might otherwise be at the mercy of property owners or others who do not share the interests of artists and the members of communities enhanced by works of street art.

Decoding And Resisting Culture: Reception Theory And Copyright Law, Meghan M. Lydon Ms.

Meghan M. Lydon Ms.

Though there has been much academic treatment of the author’s role in copyright law, few academic articles have been published about the reader’s role. Of those articles, only one has examined copyright law through the lens of reader response theory. In her article “Everything is Transformative: Fair Use and Reader Response,” 31 Colum. J.L. & Arts 445, Laura Heyman relied on English professor Stanley Fish’s famous reader response theory to argue that all works are transformative because readers naturally interpret texts from their own perspectives and that copyright law’s transformative use test should measure the use that a community of …

Copyright Tussle And Search Engines, Anoop Kumar Yadav

anoop kumar yadav

The Intellectual Property Laws (I.P. Laws) have, to a great extent, proved to be successful in nipping the copyright infringement in its bud. The I.P. Laws provide umbrella jurisprudence, which seek to protect the creativity of the authors. But despite that, it has been widely observed that the I.P. Laws have failed to cover other aspects of the intellectual property. For example, the liability of the search engines for the copyright infringement has remained out of the ambit of the I.P. Laws. The paper is focused on drawback of the Information Technology laws in various nations. Further, it also suggests …

Copyright Protection For An Exact Digital 3d Model Of A Copyrighted Architectural Work, Justin Kurt Helms

Justin Kurt Helms

No abstract provided.

It's Only A Day Away: Rethinking Copyright Termination In A New Era, Shane D. Valenzi

Shane D Valenzi

January 1, 2013 will mark the beginning of an important shift in US Copyright Law. On that day, for the first time, authors who signed over their creative rights to a producer, publisher, or other “litigation-savvy” grantee under the current Copyright Act will begin to enter a window of time within which they may terminate those prior grants of rights and reclaim their original copyrights. Of course, such actions are unlikely to go unchallenged, as many of these works generate billions of dollars of revenue for their current owners. This Article will examine the “new-works termination” provision of the Copyright …

Managing Content In Virtual Environments: From Music To Machinima, Tamiko R. Franklin

Tamiko R Franklin

Developing an effective rights management strategy in virtual environments requires a close review of current case law especially with respect to ongoing clarifications of mentioned statutory provisions under copyright laws. It is also helpful to be aware of the peculiarities that involve copyright protected content created for use in virtual spaces such as issues involving publication and making available across multiple jurisdictions. There are differences in international systems of protection that affect the intellectual property rights in content; particularly so if the content in question is a work of visual art like a photograph or digital representation of a painting, …

Uncertainty As Enforcement Mechanism: The New Expansion Of Secondary Copyright Liability To Internet Platforms, John Blevins

John F. Blevins

This article examines the role that legal uncertainty plays as a copyright enforcement mechanism against Internet platforms. In recent years, Internet platforms have faced a new wave of copyright enforcement actions arising from their users’ activity. These actions include both civil secondary liability claims and public enforcement actions such as domain name seizures and criminal prosecution. Critically, copyright owners and the government do not necessarily need to prevail in these actions. Instead, the proceedings can be effective so long as they impose sufficient costs upon Internet platforms. In this respect, prevailing is less important than obtaining statutory and doctrinal constructions …

The New News: Challenges Of Monetization, Engagement, And Protection Of News Organizations' Online Content, Christine Katherine Lesicko

Christine K Lesicko

As news organizations continue to struggle with their business models and ways to best employ new technology, advertising and subscription revenues continue to fall or remain stagnant and layoffs continue to rise. This study examines potential ways for news organizations to both protect their content from unwanted piracy and monetize content in order to continue to produce quality and timely news. This paper explores the history of news and protections given to news content by Congress and the courts. The study goes on to examine court cases that influenced the current legal landscape of content protection for news organizations. The …

[Re]Mix And Mash: Toward A Copyright Home For Audio Mashups, Sydney S. Sanchez

Sydney S Sanchez

We are no longer confined to the passive consumption of content, but are enabled and encouraged to participate in its creation. Emerging technologies allow us to interact with material by modifying it and adding our own contributions—this is the “remix” era. The challenge is developing a way to support the growth of the remix culture, and the goals of our copyright system. This paper addresses an aspect of this challenge presented by audio mashups, a relatively new and rapidly evolving genre of music involving the unauthorized sampling of preexisting works. The content industry’s fear of piracy has driven legislators to …

News On The Internet, Robert Denicola

Robert C Denicola

No abstract provided.

News On The Internet, Robert Denicola

Robert C Denicola

No abstract provided.

News On The Internet, Robert Denicola

Robert C Denicola

No abstract provided.

News On The Internet, Robert Denicola

Robert C Denicola

No abstract provided.

News On The Internet, Robert Denicola

Robert C Denicola

No abstract provided.

News On The Internet, Robert Denicola

Robert C Denicola

No abstract provided.

Licensed File-Sharing: Building On A Canadian Proposal To Monetize Music File-Sharing, Yi Liu

Yi Liu

This article suggests that the music industry cannot, and should not try to eliminate online music file-sharing. Instead, it should utilize the technology to recapture this “lost market.” The Songwriters Associates of Canada’s proposal suggests that service providers can offer consumers the option to pay a monthly license fee for legalized file-sharing. Moreover, this article proposes to combine this model with the “tipping jar mechanism,” under which the consumers can determine how much license fee they are paying for the service. Studies and empirical evidence suggest that the two structures work independently. This article contributes a framework for the first …

News On The Internet, Robert Denicola

Robert C Denicola

No abstract provided.

News On The Internet, Robert Denicola

Robert C Denicola

No abstract provided.

News On The Internet, Robert Denicola

Robert C Denicola

No abstract provided.

News On The Internet, Robert Denicola

Robert C Denicola

No abstract provided.

News On The Internet, Robert Denicola

Robert C Denicola

No abstract provided.

News On The Internet, Robert Denicola

Robert C Denicola

No abstract provided.