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Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law

University of Michigan Law School

Michigan Law Review

Copyright law

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Intellectual Property In Experience, Madhavi Sunder Jan 2018

Intellectual Property In Experience, Madhavi Sunder

Michigan Law Review

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 give fantasy owners …


Using Public Disclosure As The Vesting Point For Moral Rights Under The Visual Artists Rights Act, Elizabeth M. Bock Oct 2011

Using Public Disclosure As The Vesting Point For Moral Rights Under The Visual Artists Rights Act, Elizabeth M. Bock

Michigan Law Review

In 2010, the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit confronted the novel question of when moral rights protections vest under the Visual Artists Rights Act. In Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation, Inc. v. Bichel, the First Circuit determined that the protections of the Visual Artists Rights Act begin when a work is "created" under the Copyright Act. This Note argues that this decision harms moral rights conceptually and is likely to result in unpredictable and inconsistent decisions. This Note proposes instead that these statutory protections should vest when an artist determines that his work is complete and presents …


Copyright Pre-Emption And Character Values: The Paladin Case As An Extension Of Sears And Compco, Michigan Law Review Mar 1968

Copyright Pre-Emption And Character Values: The Paladin Case As An Extension Of Sears And Compco, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Much of the confusion over copyright pre-emption that has followed in the wake of Sears and Compco may be due to a fundamental difference between the present patent and copyright acts. Unlike the patent law that was at issue in Sears and Compco, the federal Copyright Act provides that the states may in limited circumstances protect literary property through the doctrine of common-law copyright. Under section 2 of the Act, a state may prevent copying of a work so long as it remains "unpublished." An alternative ground of decision in Paladin was that, regardless of preemption under Sears and …


Law Of Dramatic Copyright. Ii., Edward S. Rogers Dec 1902

Law Of Dramatic Copyright. Ii., Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

V. Dramatization of novels. - Continued. - Fortunately, we, in the United States, have had very little trouble in regard to the dramatization of novels. The copyright statute provides that the author of a copyrighted book may reserve the right to dramatize and translate his own work. There is no question, however, that but for this act which creates the additional right of dramatization and translation, the English rule would be in force in this country. The exclusive right of translating "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was denied Mrs. Stowe in Stowe v. Thomas, "decided before the enactment of the statute permitting …


The Law Of Dramatic Copyright, Edward S. Rogers Nov 1902

The Law Of Dramatic Copyright, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

Literary Property at Common Law.--There have been few legal questions so generally and so fully discussed-as that relating to the property of authors in their. writings. Up to 1769, it was generally conceded that authors enjoyed, by virtue of the common law, a perpetual copyright, and copyrights were sold and made the basis of family settlements. In 1769, the great case of Millar v. Taylor, was decided. An action had been brought in 1766 to recover ior the piracy of "Thomson's Seasons," and it was held by a majority of the judges, Lord Mansfield, Mr. Justice Aston and Mr. Justice …