Law Commons^™

Sports And The Law: A Comprehensive Bibliography Of Law-Related Materials, Five Year Supplement (1979-1984), Frank G. Houdek

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

No abstract provided.

Theatrical Motion Pictures And The Law: A Comprehensive Bibliography Of Law-Related Materials, Supplement (1980-1984), Frank G. Houdek

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

No abstract provided.

Music And The Law: A Comprehensive Bibliography Of Law-Related Materials, Supplement (1982-1984), Gail F. Winson

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

No abstract provided.

Writing With Light: The Metaphysics Of The Copyright Process In The Betamax Cases, David C. Farmer

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The United States Supreme Court has recently held that the sale of videotape recorders does not constitute contributory infringement of the copyrights of television and motion picture producers. The author analyzes the Betamax cases, arguing that the plaintiffs erred in seeking judicial relief and instead should have attempted to achieve an accommodation with the new technology in the marketplace.

The Applicability Of State Action Doctrine To Private Broadcasters, Ruth Walden

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

In light of the "deregulatory fever" currently in vogue in Washington, claims of a first amendment right of access to the broadcasting media are being heard again. Many groups are hoping to use the Constitution

to fill the access gap that would be left by elimination of policies like the fairness doctrine. Before such an approach can succeed, however, the government action requirement of the first amendment must be met; without state action, the first amendment is simply inapplicable. In this article, the author analyzes previous attempts to apply state action doctrine to broadcasters and the judicial responses they engendered. …

Carson V. Here's Johnny Portable Toilets, Inc.: Plumbing The Depths Of The Right Of Publicity, Carrie Goldstein

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The scope and definition of the right of publicity is currently in a state of confusion, and courts continue to interpret the right in a variety of ways. This note asserts that given too broad an interpretation, the right of publicity may impair first amendment freedoms. The author discusses the early cases developing the right of publicity and then examines the recent expansion of this right by the court in Carson v. Here's Johnny Portable Toilets, Inc. Distinguishing Carson from the earlier cases, the author argues that this broad expansion of the right of publicity is both unwarranted and undesirable. …

Statutory Damages Under The Copyright Act Of 1976, Priscilla Ferch

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Copyright Protection For Video Games: The Courts In The Pac-Man Maze, Mary Patricia Culler

Cleveland State Law Review

Copyright has proved to be an appropriate form of protection for video games. However, the application of copyright law to protect the audiovisual displays and underlying computer programs of video games has become possible only since the revision of the Copyright Act 7 in 1976. Of further significance, has been the development of the law of copyright in the subject areas of computer programs, games, and characters. However, the nature of copyright law is such that the final determination of the protection to be afforded a given game actually rests on policy grounds rather than on an application of black-letter …

Likelihood Of Confusion Under The Lanham Act: A Question Of Fact, A Question Of Law, Or Both?, Janet Shiffler Thomas

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

In Search Of Adequate Protection For Choreographic Works: Legislative And Judicial Alternatives Vs. The Custom Of The Dance Community, Barbara A. Singer

University of Miami Law Review

One of the improvements in the 1976 Copyright Act was the specific recognition of choreographic works as copyrightable material. The Act's focus on the protection of economic rights, however, fails to address the primary interest of the dance community in the preservation of "moral rights" in a work. The author examines the unique concerns of choreographers, and concludes that it is customary, and not legislative or judicial, law that continues to provide the best protection of choreographers' artistic interests.

Copyright Protection Of Systems Control Software Stored In Read Only Memory Chips: Into The World Of Gulliver's Travels, Jon O. Webster

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federal Copyright Law In The Computer Era: Protection For The Authors Of Video Games, Jeffrey B. Mahan

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment analyzes both the manner and scope of copyright protection currently afforded computer video games. It then discusses the means available under federal copyright laws to protect the underlying computer program and concludes that the game should be regarded as a unit. The effect of treating the game as a unit of audiovisual and computer elements—as opposed to considering only the audiovisual display—will be to raise certain appropriations to the level of copyright infringement.

The Widening Gyre: Are Derivative Works Getting Out Of Hand?, Ralph S. Brown

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

New York Artists' Authorship Rights Act Of 1983: Waiver And Fair Use, Joseph Taubman

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Summary Judgment In Copyright: From Cole Porter To Superman, Alan J. Hartnick

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Use Of An Altered Song In Amateur Musical Productions As Copyright Infringement, Cynthia B. Somervill

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Bronze Sculptures: Casting Around For Protection, Leonard D. Duboff

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Copyright And The Art Museum, Marshall A. Leaffer, Rhoda L. Berkowitz

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Blanket Licensing Of Music Performing Rights: Possible Solutions To The Copyright-Antitrust Conflict, Mary K. Kennedy

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Recent Development compares Buffalo Broadcasting with other blanket licensing decisions and predicts the reversal of Buffalo Broadcasting on appeal. Part II of this Recent Development discusses the organization and operation of the performing rights societies. Part III focuses on the pertinent antitrust principles and the history of antitrust litigation between the performing rights societies and various licensees. Part IV examines recent decisions addressing blanket licenses in which courts have used similar analyses yet reached differing results. Part V analyzes possible solutions to the conflict between antitrust and copyright laws in the blanket licensing context and concludes that resolution of …

Copyright Law, David Goldberg, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In 1983 and 1984 the federal courts continued to interpret the changes in copyright law effectuated by the 1976 Copyright Act. During this period the United States Supreme Court decided its first copyright case since adoption of the 1976 Act. In general, the year's decisions tend to accord expanded copyright protection to authors. Several decisions, however, have provoked or exacerbated uncertainties in a number of areas, including the protection accorded nonfiction works, the "fair use" excuse to copyright infringement, and compliance with the U.S. copyright formality of affixing notice to published copies of a work.

U.S. Software Protection: Problems Of Trade Secret Estoppel Under International And Brazilian Technology Transfer Regimes Note, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

This note describes the fundamental aspects of software protection and applies the requisites of U.S. trade secret protection to software. After explaining how the UNCTAD and Brazilian transfer of technology regimes apply to software licensing arrangements, this note argues that software distribution under these regimes estops U.S. trade secret protection by defeating the requisites of secrecy and competitive advantage. Specifically, the effects of the UNCTAD Draft International Code of Conduct on the Transfer of Technology (UNCTAD Code) and the Brazilian technology transfer regulations are analyzed to demonstrate the difficulties posed by legal regimes being considered and already in force in …

Fair Use And New Technology: The Appropriate Standards To Apply, Adrienne J. Marsh

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Note On The Problem Of Flexible Standards - 1983, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

My basic contention is that courts have been giving plaintiffs tort and property rights in intangible without any greater justification than that those persons had “created” the intangible.

Sony Corporation Of America V. Universal City Studios, Inc., Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

Substantial Similarity Between Video Games: An Old Copyright Problem In A New Medium, Steven G. Mcknight

Vanderbilt Law Review

Courts have faced a variety of imaginative arguments advocating that video games not receive copyright protection but unanimously have rejected them. A more difficult copyright issue for courts has been deciding whether one video game illegally has copied another. Of the cases involving illegal video game copying that courts presently have decided, only Atari, Inc. v. North American Philips Consumer Electric Corp." has found copyright infringement by a video game that was not virtually identical to the original game.

Part II of this Recent Development discusses the requirement in copyright infringement actions that, in proving copying, a defendant's allegedly infringing …

First Amendment Protection Of Artistic Entertainment: Toward Reasonable Municipal Regulation Of Video Games, John E. Sullivan

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note proposes that video game software, the driving force of all video game entertainment, is an artistic creation of a video game designer. Because the United States Supreme Court repeatedly has recognized that artistic expression and entertainment are forms of expression that the first amendment protects, video game software deserves first amendment protection. Video game software is the "heart and soul"" of the video game, and first amendment protection, therefore, also should blanket the game itself. Accordingly, free "speech" liberties give video game manufacturers, distributors, and operators a fundamental right to purvey the protected expression; and the public a …

Copyright And Factual Works—Is Research Protected?—Miller V. Universal City Studios, Inc., 650 F.2d 1365 (5th Cir. 1981), Edwin K. Sato

Washington Law Review

Gene Miller, a reporter for the Miami Herald, collaborated with a kidnapping victim in writing the book 83 Hours Till Dawn. The book detailed the victim's experience of being placed in a coffin-like container and buried alive in the Georgia woods for five days. Universal City Studios negotiated with Miller to purchase the movie rights to the work, but no agreement was reached. Nevertheless, Universal produced and aired a television movie about the kidnapping. Miller brought an action alleging that Universal's making of the movie infringed his copyright in the book. The trial court instructed the jury that, while facts …

An Economic Analysis Of Royalty Terms In Patent Licenses, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

Efficient exploitation of a patent often requires patentees to license users of their inventions. The courts, on the other hand, have proscribed many forms of license agreements and discouraged patent licensing in general, thereby diminishing the efficacy of the patent system as a stimulus to R & D. This negative attitude is attributable to fears that licensing will be used to protect invalid patents and secure illegitimate extensions of monopoly power. Part I of this Note reviews judicial treatment of certain royalty terms in patent licenses, describing the restraints the courts have imposed on the freedom of patentees to license …

Problems In Giving Obscenity Copyright Protection: Did Jartech And Mitchell Brothers Go Too Far?, Kurt L. Schmalz

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Recent Development traces in part II the emergence of the rule that obscenity is not copyrightable. Part III then examines the courts' reasoning in Mitchell Brothers and Jartech and analyzes the impact of these cases on copyright law. Part IV finds that although these courts properly vindicate free expression, they fail to recognize adequately the national policy against obscenity and the inconsistency of affording federal copyright protection to materials that violate federal obscenity laws. Thus, this Recent Development argues that the strong national policy against obscenity, as manifested in federal anti-obscenity statutes, requires courts in some cases to deny …

The Developing Methodology For Analyzing Privacy Torts, Duncan M. Davidson, Jean A. Kunkel

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The authors assert the need for a common method of analyzing privacy situations that can be applied consistently by practitioners, juries and courts. They contend that confusion exists as to the legal basis of privacy torts because the right of privacy, as originally conceived by Warren and Brandeis, was never adequately defined. Prosser's analysis of privacy torts departs from the Warren and Brandeis formulation and, according to the authors, also can be criticized for lack of definition. The authors present a new methodology that analyzes privacy torts based upon the scope of consent standard. They maintain that the result will …