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Full-Text Articles in Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law

The Law And Science Of Video Game Violence: What Was Lost In Translation?, 31 Cardozo Arts & Ent. L.J. 297 (2013), William K. Ford Jul 2015

The Law And Science Of Video Game Violence: What Was Lost In Translation?, 31 Cardozo Arts & Ent. L.J. 297 (2013), William K. Ford

William K. Ford

"[A]s a general rule," writes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes, "courts don't do science very well."' Susan Haack, a professor of law and philosophy, elaborates on why this may be true, offering several reasons for "deep tensions" between science and law. The reasons offered by Haack may be less of a concern where the dispute involves litigation against the government on significant questions of public policy. Recent decisions assessing the constitutionality of laws restricting minors' access to violent video games therefore offer an opportunity to examine how well the courts handled scientific evidence in a situation lacking some of the …


Copy Game For High Score: The First Video Game Lawsuit, 20 J. Intell. Prop. L. 1 (2012), William K. Ford Jul 2015

Copy Game For High Score: The First Video Game Lawsuit, 20 J. Intell. Prop. L. 1 (2012), William K. Ford

William K. Ford

Commentators and industry historians generally agree that the multi-billion dollar video game industry began forty years ago in November 1972 with Atari's release of Pong. Pong is among the simplest of video games: a version of ping pong or tennis requiring little more to play than a ball, two paddles, a scoring indicator, and a couple of memorable sounds. While it was not the first video game, Pong was the first video game hit. With unauthorized copying of a successful product occurring, it is not surprising that a lawsuit resulted in the fall of 1973, one that predates the more …


Games Are Not Coffee Mugs: Games And The Right Of Publicity, 29 Santa Clara Computer & High Tech. L.J. 1 (2012), William K. Ford, Raizel Liebler Jul 2015

Games Are Not Coffee Mugs: Games And The Right Of Publicity, 29 Santa Clara Computer & High Tech. L.J. 1 (2012), William K. Ford, Raizel Liebler

William K. Ford

Are games more like coffee mugs, posters, and T-shirts, or are they more like books, magazines, and films? For purposes of the right of publicity, the answer matters. The critical question is whether games should be treated as merchandise or as expression. Three classic judicial decisions, decided in 1967, 1970, and 1973, held that the defendants needed permission to use the plaintiffs' names in their board games. These decisions judicially confirmed that games are merchandise, not something equivalent to more traditional media of expression. As merchandise, games are not like books; instead, they are akin to celebrity-embossed coffee mugs. To …


Digital Copyright And Confuzzling Rhetoric, Peter K. Yu Jul 2015

Digital Copyright And Confuzzling Rhetoric, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

The entertainment industry tells people they shouldn’t steal music because they wouldn’t steal a car, but has anybody ever downloaded a car? Music fans praise Napster and other file-sharing services for helping to free artists from the stranglehold of the music industry, but how many of these services actually have shared profits with songwriters and performing artists? Industry representatives claim that people use YouTube primarily to listen to or watch copyrighted contents, but are they missing a big piece of the user-generated content picture? Artists are encouraged to forget about copyright and hold live concerts instead, but can all artists …


Copyright Under Siege: An Economic Analysis Of The Essential Facilities Doctrine And The Compulsory Licensing Of Copyrighted Works, 17 Alb. L.J. Sci. & Tech. 481 (2007), Daryl Lim May 2015

Copyright Under Siege: An Economic Analysis Of The Essential Facilities Doctrine And The Compulsory Licensing Of Copyrighted Works, 17 Alb. L.J. Sci. & Tech. 481 (2007), Daryl Lim

Daryl Lim

No abstract provided.


Self-Replicating Technologies And The Challenge For The Patent And Antitrust Laws, 32 Cardozo Arts & Ent. L.J. 131 (2013), Daryl Lim May 2015

Self-Replicating Technologies And The Challenge For The Patent And Antitrust Laws, 32 Cardozo Arts & Ent. L.J. 131 (2013), Daryl Lim

Daryl Lim

Few patented inventions challenge the traditional boundaries of the patent and antitrust laws like those that are capable of multiplying as they are used. These self-replicating technologies are embedded in our food, fortify our vaccines, and form the computer code upon which the information age is based. These inventions create an inherent conflict between patentees and their customers. The conflict arises because every customer could become competitors as the product replicates, potentially making every first sale the patentee's last. They also challenge how we think about fundamental issues of ownership as well as innovation and market competition, and make it …


The "Csi Effect" And Its Potential Impact On Juror Decisions, John Alldredge May 2015

The "Csi Effect" And Its Potential Impact On Juror Decisions, John Alldredge

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The “CSI Effect” was first described in the media as a phenomenon resulting from viewing forensic and crime based television shows. This effect influences jurors to have unrealistic expectations of forensic science during a criminal trial and affect jurors’ decisions in the conviction or acquittal process. Research has shown the “CSI Effect” has a possible pro-defense bias, in that jurors are less likely to convict without the presence of some sort of forensic evidence. Some studies show actors in the criminal justice system are changing their tactics, as if this effect has a significant influence, causing them to request unnecessary …


Creative Copyright: Tailoring Intellectual Property Policies And Business Strategies For Creative Content Industries In The Digital Age, Bhamati Viswanathan Jan 2015

Creative Copyright: Tailoring Intellectual Property Policies And Business Strategies For Creative Content Industries In The Digital Age, Bhamati Viswanathan

SJD Dissertations

My dissertation explores intellectual property rights in three fields: fashion, music and education. I examine the varying degrees of IP rights in those fields, and ask whether the differing levels of rights are appropriate to keep these industries creative, innovative and robust. I further examine the salient characteristics of those rights and ask whether such an understanding might help to determine optimal levels of IP protection in other creative industries.


Music As Cultural Heritage: Analysis Of The Means Of Preventing The Exploitation Of Intangible Cultural Heritage, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 228 (2015), Ronald Inawat Jan 2015

Music As Cultural Heritage: Analysis Of The Means Of Preventing The Exploitation Of Intangible Cultural Heritage, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 228 (2015), Ronald Inawat

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

What started out as a law school requirement quickly snowballed into an analysis of the relationship between intellectual property and cultural heritage. I am a music guy at heart, having played piano since I was five years old, having composed one song (after multiple tries), and now working directly with musicians and artists. So when I began researching a topic for an article that would connect the dots between the cultural heritage and its respective music, I could only come across legal doctrine and articles that focused heavily on tangible art and artifacts. So what happened to the music? After …


Bad News Birkins: Counterfeit In Luxury Brands, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 249 (2015), Colleen Jordan Orscheln Jan 2015

Bad News Birkins: Counterfeit In Luxury Brands, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 249 (2015), Colleen Jordan Orscheln

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The luxury fashion industry spends millions of dollars each year fighting counterfeits, yet a fake Louis Vuitton bag is easily purchased on street corners around the world. Proponents of the counterfeits argue that the fakes translate to advertising for the brands, while the luxury brands argue that it damages the future of their brand. The counterfeit market has been linked to child labor, human trafficking, organized crime, and some terrorist groups. The current federal civil and criminal statutes exclude purchasers from prosecution and instead focus on the distributors of the goods. This comment proposes the strengthening of these laws by …


Who's The Vandal? The Recent Controversy Over The Destruction Of 5pointz And How Much Protection Does Moral Rights Law Give To Authorized Aerosol Art?, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 326 (2015), Susanna Frederick Fischer Jan 2015

Who's The Vandal? The Recent Controversy Over The Destruction Of 5pointz And How Much Protection Does Moral Rights Law Give To Authorized Aerosol Art?, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 326 (2015), Susanna Frederick Fischer

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

This paper considers the extent to which federal moral rights law protects authorized graffiti and aerosol art against destruction, in the context of the controversy over the destruction of 5Pointz. 5Pointz, a sprawling complex of warehouse buildings in Queens, was a Mecca for aerosol art. The buildings’ owners ordered the demolition of 5Pointz after the November 2013 order by New York federal district judge Frederic Block denying the artists a preliminary injunction to stop destruction under the federal moral rights statute, the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). This paper argues that Judge Block erred in finding that the transient nature …


How Law Defines Art, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 314 (2015), Derek Fincham Jan 2015

How Law Defines Art, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 314 (2015), Derek Fincham

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Defining art is both hard and subjective. But in lots of contexts the law must arrive at a just solution to hard and subjective questions. The art community has largely neglected the task of defining artworks. This neglect has crept into legal disputes, particularly those involving conceptual art which has loosened the limits of aesthetics, form, function, and composition. This makes crafting a definition of art even more challenging. Yet the Law has an important part to play in resolving art disputes—courts end up defining art no matter how cautiously they approach the question. They do not set out to …


The Next Great Copyright Act And The Future Of Radio, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 378 (2015), Christopher Doval, Don Anque, Maesea Mccalpin Jan 2015

The Next Great Copyright Act And The Future Of Radio, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 378 (2015), Christopher Doval, Don Anque, Maesea Mccalpin

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

With the advancement of digital broadcasting technologies, the lack of a revision to copyright law has created a creative and distribution bottleneck for artists by companies. The current range for compulsory licensing agreements does not protect the interests of artists through modern digital transmission tools, and leaves them fending for themselves if they wish to have access to new digital platforms. Moreover organizations, such as the Recording Industry Association of America, are in greater positions of power when applying existing copyright laws and definitions to new technologies that innovators never intended to be analogous to pre-existing technologies to begin with. …


A Rose By Any Other Name: How An Illusionist Used Copyright Law As A Patent, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 357 (2015), Sydney Beckman Jan 2015

A Rose By Any Other Name: How An Illusionist Used Copyright Law As A Patent, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 357 (2015), Sydney Beckman

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Teller is a famous illusionist who, in recent years, has been performing a stage act with Penn Jillete in Las Vegas, Nevada. Teller’s signature trick, known as “Shadows,” was copied by a magician in Belgium who offered to sell the method. The Belgian’s trick, titled “The Rose and Her Shadow,” was virtually identical to Teller’s illusion. That which we call a rose by any other name . . . Teller wanted the Belgian magician to stop offering the trick for sale. After an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate, Teller took his dispute to federal court. His goal? To protect that which …


Did Copyright Kill The Radio Star? Why The Recorded Music Industry And Copyright Act Should Welcome Webcasters Into The Fold, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 292 (2015), Patrick Koncel Jan 2015

Did Copyright Kill The Radio Star? Why The Recorded Music Industry And Copyright Act Should Welcome Webcasters Into The Fold, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 292 (2015), Patrick Koncel

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The Copyright Act has not kept pace with the times, and the next revolution is going full stream ahead. Rather than adapt, entrenched interests at the Copyright table push for more protection, while new technologies are demonized and underrepresented. The resulting Copyright Act’s provisions relating to internet-based radio, ranging from passive over-the-air broadcasts to fully interactive music hosting sites, are a patchwork of accommodations and concessions to these interests. For all non-interactive services, licensing music typically occurs within the Copyright Act’s compulsory licensing system. For interactive webcasters, licensing negotiations take place with the copyright holders directly. These negotiations have proven …


On Art Attacks: At The Confluence Of Shock, Appropriation, And The Law, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 392 (2015), Rachel Buker Jan 2015

On Art Attacks: At The Confluence Of Shock, Appropriation, And The Law, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 392 (2015), Rachel Buker

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Does the law adequately recognize the expansive nature of art, especially in scenarios involving controversial acts of appropriation art? Of particular curiosity is just how the law should treat acts of artistic appropriation involving the creation of artwork on top of other original works of art, or art attacks. This is an issue that has been largely unaddressed by the courts outside the realm of criminal proceedings. However, the legal implications of such acts reach far beyond crimes and property torts, involving copyright, moral rights, freedom of expression, and the preservation of cultural heritage. Indeed, the issues are not just …


The Conflict Between An Athlete’S Right Of Publicity And The First Amendment, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 117 (2015), Edward Kuester Jan 2015

The Conflict Between An Athlete’S Right Of Publicity And The First Amendment, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 117 (2015), Edward Kuester

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The recent rise of fantasy sports has created a conflict between an athlete’s right of publicity and the First Amendment of the Constitution. The legal question being discussed is whether athletes have a right of publicity in their identity, specifically their performance statistics and biographical information. If a right of publicity violation does exist, courts will have to determine whether a fantasy provider’s First Amendment privilege can prevail against an athlete’s publicity rights. This comment examines recent litigation surrounding athletes’ identities and the problems courts have in balancing the conflict between an athlete’s right of publicity and the First Amendment. …


From The Statute Of Anne To Z.Z. Top: The Strange World Of American Sound Recordings, How It Came About, And Why It Will Never Go Away, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 1 (2015), Bruce Epperson Jan 2015

From The Statute Of Anne To Z.Z. Top: The Strange World Of American Sound Recordings, How It Came About, And Why It Will Never Go Away, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 1 (2015), Bruce Epperson

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Uniquely among all industrialized nations, the United States extended no copyright protection to sound recordings until 1972. The individual aural representation captured for playback could only be protected by the common or statutory laws of individual states. This feature was carried forward into the comprehensive revision of the Copyright Act implemented on January 1, 1978. Although the Copyright Act contained a sweeping provision that brought works created prior to the legislation under federal protection, pre-1972 sound recordings were specifically exempted. The extent to which this lack of status has created a legal and environmental void is best demonstrated by a …


Derivative Works 2.0: Reconsidering Transformative Use In The Age Of Crowdsourced Creation, Jacqueline D. Lipton, John Tehranian Jan 2015

Derivative Works 2.0: Reconsidering Transformative Use In The Age Of Crowdsourced Creation, Jacqueline D. Lipton, John Tehranian

Articles

Apple invites us to “Rip. Mix. Burn.” while Sony exhorts us to “make.believe.” Digital service providers enable us to create new forms of derivative work — work based substantially on one or more preexisting works. But can we, in a carefree and creative spirit, remix music, movies, and television shows without fear of copyright infringement liability? Despite the exponential growth of remixing technologies, content holders continue to benefit from the vagaries of copyright law. There are no clear principles to determine whether any given remix will infringe one or more copyrights. Thus, rights holders can easily and plausibly threaten infringement …


Who's The Vandal? The Recent Controversy Over The Destruction Of 5pointz And How Much Protection Does Moral Rights Law Give To Authorized Aerosol Art?, Susanna Frederick Fischer Jan 2015

Who's The Vandal? The Recent Controversy Over The Destruction Of 5pointz And How Much Protection Does Moral Rights Law Give To Authorized Aerosol Art?, Susanna Frederick Fischer

Scholarly Articles

This paper considers the extent to which federal moral rights law protects authorized graffiti and aerosol art against destruction, in the context of the controversy over the destruction of 5Pointz. 5Pointz, a sprawling complex of warehouse buildings in Queens, was a Mecca for aerosol art. The buildings’ owners ordered the demolition of 5Pointz after the November 2013 order by New York federal district judge Frederic Block denying the artists a preliminary injunction to stop destruction under the federal moral rights statute, the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). This paper argues that Judge Block erred in finding that the transient nature …


Disruption And Deference, Olivier Sylvain Jan 2015

Disruption And Deference, Olivier Sylvain

Faculty Scholarship

Online video streaming applications enable users to watch over the-air broadcast programs at any time and almost on any device. As such, they challenge the pertinence of traditional video distribution law and the broadcast network system on which it is based. Congress enacted the Transmit Clause of the 1976 Copyright Act to resolve the high-stakes tussle between broadcasters and cable providers. But, today, that provision is ill-suited to resolving whether unauthorized streaming infringes on broadcasters’ copyright to perform works publicly. Its scope is ambiguous enough that judges across the country were notably divided on whether it reaches online video distribution—that …