Law Commons^™

Machine Speech: Towards A Unified Doctrine Of Attribution And Control, Brian Sites

University of Miami Law Review

Like many courts across the country in 2023, courts in the Eleventh Circuit were met with novel claims challenging ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools. These cases raise common questions: How should courts treat the speech of machines? When a machine generates allegedly defamatory material, who is the speaker—mortal or machine? When a machine generates expressive creations, who is the artist, and does that shape copyright eligibility? When a machine makes assertions about reality through lab analyses and other forensic reports, who is the accuser, and how does the answer impact a defendant’s rights at trial? Should those answers stem …

No Flash Photography Please: An Analysis Of Corporate Use Of Street Art Under Section 120(A) Of The Awcpa, Sierra Epke

University of Miami Law Review

Street art and graffiti are pervasive artforms found throughout the world and throughout history. While the artforms have been associated with crime and vandalism in the past, they have increasingly been featured in different capacities from art galleries to corporate marketing campaigns. With street art’s growing recognition and popularity, corporations have begun to use the medium to target new customer bases. In some situations, the use of artwork in marketing campaigns is unsanctioned by the artist. Therefore, courts have now begun to examine the balance between copyright protection for street artists and the corporate use of street art. Section 120(a) …

The Higher-Cost Problem: How The Case Act Addresses The History Of Inequity In The American Copyright Regime, Michael Newell

University of Miami Law Review

The legislative history of copyright law in the United States and its judicial interpretation resulted in a complex web of statutes and doctrine theoretically meant to further the constitutional goal of “promot[ing] the Progress of Science and the useful Arts.” But because of its complexity, enforcing rights against infringers in federal court became prohibitively expensive for most. The American copyright regime simultaneously allowed the music industry to unfairly profit from the creativity of the under-resourced—particularly, musicians of color.

This Note discusses the disparate impact of the American copyright regime. Then, the Note discusses the Copyright Alternatives in the Small-Claims Enforcement …

What Is Standard Tomorrow, May Not Have Been Today: An Argument For Claiming ScèNes À Faire, Logan Sandler

University of Miami Law Review

Recent lawsuits involving the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise and the Oscar award-winning movie The Shape of Water required courts to wrestle with the application of the decisive scènes à faire doctrine. In doing so, the Ninth Circuit exposed the doctrine’s chief pitfall: the lack of a temporal framework.
The modern scènes à faire doctrine limits the scope of what authors can claim as substantially similar by excluding the standard or stock elements in a given expressive work from copyright protection. Courts will often conclude that a contested element is scènes à faire if it can be demonstrated that …

Gotta Catch ‘Em All!: The National Diet’S Inadequate Attempt To Control Manga Pirates, Sydney Landers

University of Miami Law Review

Internet piracy threatens Japan’s most popular cultural exports: manga and anime. Fans have taken to translating and distributing the works online for other fans to enjoy because official translated versions of manga and anime are released overseas later than the original in Japan, or they are never released at all. In order to combat the illegal downloading and distributing of manga, the National Diet, Japan’s legislature, passed an amendment to the Japanese Copyright Act that increases punishments for leech sites and illegal downloading of manga.
This Note discusses the manga and anime industries and their struggles with piracy before reviewing …

Our Copyright Code: Continue Patching Or Start Rewriting?, Honorable Edward J. Damich

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

United States V. Martignon: The First Case To Rule That The Federal Anti-Bootlegging Statute Is Unconstitutional Copyright Legislation, Michael C. Shue

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

Speaking To The Ghost: Idea And Expression In Copyright, Leslie A. Kurtz

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

Distilling The Witches' Brew Of Fair Use In Copyright Law, Jay Dratler Jr.

University of Miami Law Review

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.

Toward A Constitutional Theory Of Expression: The Copyright Clause, The First Amendment, And Protection Of Individual Creativity, Jacqueline Shapiro

University of Miami Law Review

The author presents a unique theory of personal expression under the Constitution, which posits that underlying the first amendment and the copyright clause is the principle that the public good requires encouragement, not suppression, of individual expression. Historically, decisions undermining authors' copyrights in favor of other social goals discouraged the creativity necessary for cultural development, and Congress and the courts responded by increasing the protection of authors and expanding the domain of copyrightable works. Similarly, official proscription of commercial and offensive speech for less than the most urgent social needs threatens to inhibit the creative spirit protected by the first …