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Full-Text Articles in Law

Data Scraping As A Cause Of Action: Limiting Use Of The Cfaa And Trespass In Online Copying Cases, Kathleen C. Riley Jan 2019

Data Scraping As A Cause Of Action: Limiting Use Of The Cfaa And Trespass In Online Copying Cases, Kathleen C. Riley

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

In recent years, online platforms have used claims such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) and trespass to curb data scraping, or copying of web content accomplished using robots or web crawlers. However, as the term “data scraping” implies, the content typically copied is data or information that is not protected by intellectual property law, and the means by which the copying occurs is not considered to be hacking. Trespass and the CFAA are both concerned with authorization, but in data scraping cases, these torts are used in such a way that implies that real property norms exist …


Why Copyright Law Lacks Taste And Scents, Leon Calleja Dec 2015

Why Copyright Law Lacks Taste And Scents, Leon Calleja

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.


Of Silos And Constellations: Comparing Notions Of Originality In Copyright Law, Daniel J. Gervais, Elizabeth F. Judge Jan 2009

Of Silos And Constellations: Comparing Notions Of Originality In Copyright Law, Daniel J. Gervais, Elizabeth F. Judge

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Originality is a central theme in the efforts to understand human evolution, thinking, innovation, and creativity. Artists strive to be "original," however the term is understood by each of them. It is also one of the major concepts in copyright law. This paper considers the evolution of the notion of originality since 2002 (when one of the coauthors published an article entitled Feist Goes Global: A Comparative Analysis Of The Notion Of Originality In Copyright Law) and continues the analysis, in particular whether the notion of "creative choices," which seems to have substantial normative heft in several jurisdictions, is optimal …


The Transformation Of Originality In The Progressive-Era Debate Over Copyright In News, Robert Brauneis Jan 2009

The Transformation Of Originality In The Progressive-Era Debate Over Copyright In News, Robert Brauneis

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In the 1991 case of Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., Inc., the Supreme Court held unanimously that only those aspects of works which exhibited a "modicum of creativity" could be protected by copyright, and hence that factual matter was not copyrightable. Feist confirmed and expanded on the Court's statements in the 1918 case of International News Service v. Associated Press that news was not copyrightable apart from its literary form. Yet for the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century, the notion that copyright incorporated an originality requirement which excluded factual matter from protection was unknown to Anglo-American …


Creativity And Copyright, Dennis S. Karjala Feb 2008

Creativity And Copyright, Dennis S. Karjala

Dennis S Karjala

Nearly everyone, from layperson to professional, thinks of copyright as the primary mode of legal protection for the intellectual fruits of creative artists and authors. While necessarily conceding that copyright has been extended in recent decades to cover a large number of highly mundane works, most scholars still see authorial “creativity” as the one element common to the vast array of works that now fall under the copyright umbrella. In the United States, this view has purportedly been elevated to constitutional status with the Supreme Court’s 1991 decision in Feist v. Rural Telephone Service, which stated in dictum that creativity …


Copyright And Creativity, Dennis S. Karjala Sep 2007

Copyright And Creativity, Dennis S. Karjala

Dennis S Karjala

This article challenges the commonly articulated position that copyright is designed for the protection of “creativity” and argues that the Supreme Court in the well known case of Feist v. Rural Telephone Service was wrong in appending, as a constitutional matter, a creativity requirement for copyright protection. The central thrust is that “creativity” is useless in making the basis intellectual property determination of whether a given work should be (a) protected under copyright, (b) protected under patent, or (c) not protected at all under intellectual property law, because all three categories routinely include creative works, even highly creative works, within …


Copyright And Creativity, Dennis S. Karjala Sep 2007

Copyright And Creativity, Dennis S. Karjala

Dennis S Karjala

This article challenges the commonly articulated position that copyright is designed for the protection of “creativity” and argues that the Supreme Court in the well known case of Feist v. Rural Telephone Service was wrong in appending, as a constitutional matter, a creativity requirement for copyright protection. The central thrust is that “creativity” is useless in making the basis intellectual property determination of whether a given work should be (a) protected under copyright, (b) protected under patent, or (c) not protected at all under intellectual property law, because all three categories routinely include creative works, even highly creative works, within …


Copyright And Computer Programs: A Failed Experiment And A Solution To A Dilemma, William F. Patry Jan 2003

Copyright And Computer Programs: A Failed Experiment And A Solution To A Dilemma, William F. Patry

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.


Feist Goes Global: A Comparative Analysis Of The Notion Of Originality In Copyright Law, Daniel J. Gervais Jun 2002

Feist Goes Global: A Comparative Analysis Of The Notion Of Originality In Copyright Law, Daniel J. Gervais

Daniel J Gervais

he 1991 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service Company, Inc. delivered was hailed both as a landmark decision and a legal bomb. Was Feist so original as to deserve all the attention? After all, it did not establish a new originality paradigm as such but only ended a long division among federal circuits concerning the protection under copyright of factual compilations. A number of circuits had adopted a test similar to the one articulated in Feist (i.e., based on creative selection), while others required only evidence of labor, a test known as sweat of the …


Feist Applied: Imagination Protects, But Perspiration Persists—The Bases Of Copyright Protection For Factual Compilations, Denise R. Polivy Mar 1998

Feist Applied: Imagination Protects, But Perspiration Persists—The Bases Of Copyright Protection For Factual Compilations, Denise R. Polivy

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Copyright Preemption After The Procd Case: A Market-Based Approach, Maureen A. O'Rourke Jan 1997

Copyright Preemption After The Procd Case: A Market-Based Approach, Maureen A. O'Rourke

Faculty Scholarship

As information becomes increasingly available in digital form, a little noted yet significant legal change is occurring in the way in which information providers use the law to establish the terms under which they market their products. Electronic information providers, in contrast to their hard-copy counterparts, have continually turned to the private law of contract both to supplement and modify the public law of copyright.' While this trend began when most users were relatively large commercial, academic, or governmental enterprises, it accelerated as software providers began to market pre-packaged software to consumers, using the infamous "shrinkwrap" as a device to …


Interactive Computing: Joint Work Status For User And Programmer, Michelle Lynn Birnbaum Jan 1995

Interactive Computing: Joint Work Status For User And Programmer, Michelle Lynn Birnbaum

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.


Reality As Artifact: From Feist To Fair Use, Wendy J. Gordon Apr 1992

Reality As Artifact: From Feist To Fair Use, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Lawyers more than most people should be aware that what language calls "facts" are not necessarily equivalent to things that exist in the world. After all, when in ordinary conversation someone says "it's a fact that X happened," the speaker usually means, "I believe the thing I describe has happened in the world." But when a litigator presents something as a "fact," she often means only that a good faith argument can be made on behalf of its existence. Two sets of factfinders can look at the same event and come to diametrically opposed conclusions-each of which is binding, but …


Draft Of Reality As Artifact: From Feist To Fair Use - 1992, Wendy J. Gordon Jan 1992

Draft Of Reality As Artifact: From Feist To Fair Use - 1992, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Lawyers more than most people should be aware that what language calls "facts" are not necessarily equivalent to things that exist in the world. After all, when in ordinary conversation someone says "It's a fact that this [ X ] happened," the speaker usually means, "I believe the thing I describe has happened in the world". But when a litigator says something is a "fact" she often means only that a good faith argument can be made on behalf of its existence. Two sets of fact finders can look at the same event and come to diametrically opposed conclusions-- each …