Law Commons^™

Pruning The European Intellectual Property Tree - In Search Of Common Principles And Roots, Severine Dusollier

Severine Dusollier

The European Union knows a multiplicity of IP rights, from classical ones (copyright, patent, trademark or design) to more marginal ones, in terms of economic sectors concerned (rights in database, in plant varieties, in semiconductors, in geographical indications). This paper aims at identifying and assessing the existing similarities or common principles in the intellectual property rights in the European Union. Despite their apparent diverging functions, subject matter and scope of protection, copyright, trademark, patent and the other intellectual property rights share at least the fact that they belong to a set of rules granting some exclusive rights in intangible assets, …

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, …

Time Shifting In A Networked Digital World: Optus Tv Now And Copyright In The Cloud, Sampsung Xiaoxiang Shi

xiaoxiang shi

This article examines copyright principles applied in a recent Australian case concerning the legality of a consumer cloud computing service - “TV Now” - a free to air TV recording service based on the Internet. It enabled a subscriber to record a TV broadcast and then watch the broadcast later at a more convenient time. Similar decisions made by the courts in Singapore and the United States have also been considered. The ultimate purpose of this article is to explore how copyright law has been struggling to adapte to cope with the advent of new technologies for time shifting of …

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 …

Tolerance Is Law: Remixing Homage Parodying Plagiarism, Mathias Klang, Jan Nolin

Mathias Klang

Three centuries have passed since copyright law was developed to stimulate creativity and promote learning. The fundamental principles still apply, despite radical developments in the technology of production and distribution of cultural material. In particular the last decades’ developments and adoption of ICTs have drastically lowered barriers, which previously prevented entry into the production and distribution side of the cultural marketplace, and led to a widening of the base at which cultural production occurs and is disseminated. Additionally, digitalisation has made it economically and technically feasible for users to appropriate and manipulate earlier works as method of production. The renegotiation …

Outlawed Art: Finding A Home For Graffiti In Copyright Law, Nicole A. Grant

Nicole A Grant

An intractable tension exists between the existence of graffiti as iconoclastic youth expression and the emergence of its recognition as an art form, and the boundaries of American copyright law. As graffiti gains more traction in the mainstream art world, copyright law has come to frame much of the discussion surrounding the rights that stem from (and that are overlooked by) the creation of these works. While graffiti is heralded for its uniqueness, it also thrives in a culture of appropriation that encourages dialogue among graffiti artists, in addition to establishing as the norm the pilfering of everyday cultural referents …

[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 …

Ownership Of Design Ideas: Copyright Law And The Obligation Of Credit And Attribution In The Field Of Architecture In Kosovo, Luljeta Plakolli-Kasumi

Luljeta Plakolli-Kasumi

The right to attribution is a form of moral rights granted to author’s of copyrighted works along with economic rights. Not all the countries protect moral rights of the authors. The concept is derived from the French law that claims for a correlation between the author and his creation. In jurisdictions where moral rights are not guaranteed by law, the question remains whether it is ethical for someone else to omit the mentioning of the author and subsequently give credit to the author for his/her piece of intellectual creation. The United States do not provide for moral rights of the …

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.

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.

Saving The Spotify Revolution: Recalibrating The Power Imbalance In Digital Copyright, Jordan Teague

Jordan Teague

Many believed that Spotify would revolutionize the music industry, offering a legal alternative to file sharing that compensates musicians for use of their digital music. Why, then, have artists been abandoning the Spotify revolution in droves? Because the revolution has a dark side. Since Spotify is part-owned by the major labels, it has a serious conflict of interest with independent artists. Spotify’s lack of transparency about its financial flows gives musicians further reason to suspect whether the service has their interests in mind, particularly in light of the microscopic royalties that Spotify has paid out to artists to date. This …

Reclaiming Copyright From The Outside In: What The Downfall Hitler Meme Means For Transformative Works, Fair Use, And Parody, Aaron Schwabach

Aaron Schwabach

Abstract User-generated Humorous Subtitles and Copyright Aaron Schwabach Continuing advances in consumer information technology have made video editing, once difficult, into a relatively simple matter. The average consumer can easily create and edit videos, and post them online. Inevitably many of these posted videos incorporate existing copyrighted content, raising questions of infringement, derivative versus transformative use, fair use, and parody. This article looks at several such works, with its main focus on one category of examples: the Downfall Hitler meme. Downfall Hitler videos take as their starting point a particular sequence – Hitler’s breakdown rant – from the 2004 German …

User-Generated Humorous Subtitles And Copyright, Aaron Schwabach

Aaron Schwabach

Continuing advances in consumer information technology have made video editing, once difficult, into a relatively simple matter. The average consumer can easily create and edit videos, and post them online. Inevitably many of these posted videos incorporate existing copyrighted content, raising questions of infringement, derivative versus transformative use, fair use, and parody. This article looks at several such works, with its main focus on one category of examples: the Downfall Hitler meme. Downfall Hitler videos take as their starting point a particular sequence – Hitler’s breakdown rant – from the 2004 German film Der Untergang [Downfall in the US]. The …

Folklore 2.0: Preservation Through Innovation, Sean Pager

Sean Pager

This Article explores two approaches to regulating traditional culture within intellectual property law. We can characterize these contrasting approaches as a choice between preservation vs. innovation. The preservation model seeks to harness intellectual property rights to preserve traditional culture in its authentic form. The innovation model encourages tradition to be adapted to serve contemporary needs.

This Article argues that innovation offers the most viable strategy to sustain traditional culture. Traditional culture will only endure to the extent that it retains meaning and value to its source communities. This requires the freedom to creatively reinvent tradition to keep it relevant. A …

Art Crimes?: Theoretical Perspectives On Copyright Protection For Illegally-Created Graffiti Art, Jamison M. Davies

Jamison M. Davies

This paper begins by examining whether illegally-created graffiti art is entitled to copyright protection under the current copyright law. Analogies are made to other forms of unwanted expression, fraud and obscenity, and their historical and current copyright status. The remainder of the paper uses graffiti art as a lens through which to examine various theoretical explanations of copyright, both as descriptive theories of production and as normative theories of protection.