Law Commons^™

Who's The Author? A Bright-Line Rule For Specially Commissioned Works Made For Hire, Richard D. Palmieri

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Reclaiming Fair Use: How To Put Balance Back In Copyright, Benjamin J. Keele

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Who's The Author? A Bright-Line Rule For Specially Commissioned Works Made For Hire, Richard D. Palmieri

Law Student Publications

This comment argues that the best way to clarify the answer to the question "Who's the author?" (and thus to clarify whether the creator has a termination right) is to resolve the circuit split in favor of a bright-line rule requiring execution of the written agreement prior to the creation of the work. Part I introduces the legal framework under which the issue must be analyzed. Part II reviews the holdings on each side of the circuit split. Part III presents the arguments that both proper statutory construction of U.S. copyright law and the legislative history of the termination right, …

Copyright’S Creative Hierarchy In The Performing Arts, Michael W. Carroll

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Copyright law grants authors certain rights of creative control over their works. This Article argues that these rights of creative control are too strong when applied to the performing arts because they fail to take account of the mutual dependence between writers and performers to fully realize the work in performance. This failure is particularly problematic in cases in which the author of a source work, such as a play or a choreographic work, imposes content-based restrictions on how a third party may render the work in performance. This Article then explores how Congress might craft a statutory license to …

Remitting The Remittal Of Joel Tenenbaum’S Remittitur Motion, Jess Robinson

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Largest Copyright Infringement In History: Five Us Universities Sued For Copyright Infringement, Alexandra Mackey

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Informal Formalities: The Government’S Attempt To Find Families For Orphan Works, Mark Tratos

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Capturing Clouds: Intellectual Property Issues Within The Live Entertainment Production Process, Brian Knowlton

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

The Russian Ipr Problem: How Accession To The Wto Is Not The Magical Solution, Rather A Step In The Right Direction, Joshua M. Green

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Combating Online Trademark And Copyright Infringement: Ice And Doj Domain Name Seizures New Tools In The Government’S Efforts To Combat Online Ip Infringement, Tanya Dunbar

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

The ICE seizures and proposed legislations to codify ICE-style seizures have led many to question the legitimacy of ICE’s seizures and decry the bills as censorship. Tanya Dunbar’s article explores the reasons for the government’s actions, the seizure mechanism the government employs, and the controversy surrounding domain name seizures. Where possible, the Ms. Dunbar offers solutions to some of the controversial issues that may arise.

Dc Comics Sues Gotham Garage Over Replica Batmobiles, Jeff Kettle

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Panel Discussion On Libraries And Best Practices In Fair Use, Andrée J. Rathemacher

Technical Services Faculty Publications

This report covers a panel discussion on the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, published in January 2012 by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The panel was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on March 23, 2012 and was hosted by the MIT Libraries. Panelists were Patricia Aufderheide of the Center for Social Media at American University; Brandon Butler of ARL; Kyle Courtney of Harvard Law School; and Jay Wilcoxson of MIT.

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

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

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 …

The Future Of Cybertravel: Legal Implications Of The Evasion Of Geolocation, Marketa Trimble

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Although the Internet is valued by many of its supporters particularly because it both defies and defeats physical borders, these important attributes are now being exposed to attempts by both governments and private entities to impose territorial limits through blocking or permitting access to content by Internet users based on their geographical location — a territorial partitioning of the Internet. One of these attempts, for example, is the recent Stop Online Piracy Act (“SOPA”) proposal in the United States. This article, as opposed to earlier literature on the topic discussing the possible virtues and methods of raising borders in cyberspace, …

Appendix: What Is Transformative? An Explanatory Synthesis Of The Convergence Of Transformation And Predominant Purpose In Copyright Fair Use Law, Michael D. Murray

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

The transformative test has risen to the top of the agenda of the copyright academic community with no less than two major studies of copyright fair use and the impact of the transformative test released in 2011 by Professors Matthew Sag and Neil Netanel that follow up on three recent comprehensive studies of copyright fair use published since 2008. The lessons learned from these two 2011 statistical studies are significant, in that both studies confirm the importance of the transformative test in terms of its application by the courts as the dominant test of fair use and in the observation …

What Is Transformative? An Explanatory Synthesis Of The Convergence Of Transformation And Predominant Purpose In Copyright Fair Use Law, Michael D. Murray

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

Two recent statistical studies confirm that a court finding of “transformation” in a copyright fair use claim virtually assures a finding that the use is fair. This Article analyzes the entire body of United States Supreme Court and United States Courts of Appeals case law applying the transformative test in copyright fair use cases to present two points: first, that the transformative test modifies the first sentence of 17 U.S.C. § 107 — in particular, the terms, “the fair use of a copyrighted work” — rather than simply factor one of the four-factor test; second, in implementing the transformative test, …

A Pragmatic Approach To Intellectual Property And Development: A Case Study Of The Jordanian Copyright Law In The Internet Age, Rami Olwan

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

On October 4, 2004, Brazil and Argentina requested that WIPO adopt a development-oriented approach to IP and to reconsider its work in relation to developing countries. In October, 2007, WIPO member States adopted a historic decision for the benefit of developing countries, to establish a WIPO Development Agenda. Although there have been several studies related to IP and development that call for IP laws in developing countries to be development-friendly, there is little research that attempts to provide developing countries with practical measures to achieve that goal. This article takes the copyright law in Jordan as a case study and …

Beyond The Unrealistic Solution For Development Provided By The Appendix Of The Berne Convention On Copyright, Alberto Cerda Silva

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The standards of copyright protection promoted by the Berne Convention are highly problematic for developing countries because these countries need to ensure a wide dissemination of works for teaching, scholarship, and research purposes. In order to accommodate these needs and to promote accession to this Convention, the 1971 Paris Act of the Berne Convention, included an Appendix that allowed developing countries to issue compulsory licenses for translating and/or reproducing foreign works into languages of general use in their territories. Unfortunately, the Appendix has not met the needs of developing countries, which, instead, have relied on idiosyncratic solutions. Additionally, the instrument …

Post-Mortem Right Of Publicity In Arkansas: Protecting Against The Unauthorized Use Of A Person’S Identity For Commercial Purposes, Rashauna A. Norment

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

The right of publicity protects a person against the use of his or her name, identity, likeness, or other personal characteristics for commercial purposes without consent. Many states have implemented a statutory right of publicity or have recognized the right under common law. Currently, only three states have a post-mortem right of publicity. This article discusses jurisdictions that have adopted a postmortem right of publicity, and advocates that Arkansas adopt a postmortem right of publicity for everyone.

Specifically, the article argues that traditional protection stemming from actions for invasion of a right of privacy, trademark infringement, and copyright infringement cannot …

Designer Collaborations As A Solution To The Fast-Fashion Copyright Dilemma, Arielle K. Cohen

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

This article explores the issue of large retailers capitalizing on designers’ designs by using the method of “close copying” and the dilemma that designers face due to their lack of recourse since their designs are not afforded copyright protection. The Council of Fashion Designers of America has been lobbying Congress for protection and their efforts have created the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act. This legislation is currently pending but it is a revised version of the earlier Design Piracy Prohibition Act and it removes many of the controversial provisions that were in the earlier version. Therefore, there is …

Fair Use And The Quotation Of Song Lyrics In Fiction, Stephen B. Harrison

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

The Plumpy'nut Predicament: Is Compulsory Licensing A Solution?, Umar R. Bakhsh

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Costly Intellectual Property, David Fagundes, Jonathan S. Masur

Vanderbilt Law Review

Patents and copyrights originate from the same constitutional source of law,1 and for this reason they are in some respects similar. Patent and copyright law alike extend to inventors and authors exclusive rights over the fruits of their intellectual labors, enabling owners to extract value from intangible goods that would otherwise not be profitable. Both systems are premised on a utilitarian bargain, allowing inventors and authors to have socially costly monopoly interests in their inventions and works in order to encourage socially beneficial innovative and artistic production. And patents and copyrights both last only for finite periods, in contrast to …

The Riaa V. The People: The Recording Industry's Misguided Attempt To Use The Legal System To Save Their Business Model, John A. Fedock

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Philosophical Analysis Of Intellectual Property: In Defense Of Instrumentalism, Michael A. Kanning

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues in favor of an instrumental approach to Intellectual Property (IP). I begin by reviewing justifications for IP that have been offered in recent literature, including Lockean labor theory, Hegelian personality theory, Kantian property theory and utilitarianism. Upon a close and careful analysis, I argue that none of these justifications suffice to ground contemporary IP practice. I review some recent works that offer `pluralist' justifications for IP, which draw from multiple theories in order to account for the diverse field of IP-related laws and practices in existence. I argue that these pluralist theories are also insufficient, because there …

Building Universal Digital Libraries: An Agenda For Copyright Reform, Hannibal Travis

Pepperdine Law Review

This article proposes a series of copyright reforms to pave the way for digital library projects like Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive, and Google Print, which promise to make much of the world's knowledge easily searchable and accessible from anywhere. Existing law frustrates digital library growth and development by granting overlapping, overbroad, and near-perpetual copyrights in books, art, audiovisual works, and digital content. Digital libraries would benefit from an expanded public domain, revitalized fair use doctrine and originality requirement, rationalized systems for copyright registration and transfer, and a new framework for compensating copyright owners for online infringement without imposing derivative …

The Devil Wears Prado: A Look At The Design Piracy Prohibition Act And The Extension Of Copyright Protection To The World Of Fashion, Lynsey Blackmon

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Sopa-Tpp Nexus, Jonathan Band

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The controversy in the United States over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has profound implications for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. The SOPA debate underscores the importance of striking the proper balance in intellectual property laws to promote creativity and innovation. It demonstrates that over-protection can stifle free expression and the effective operation of the Internet as a medium of communication and commerce not only within a jurisdiction, but also extraterritorially. Additionally, the debate reveals the ability of the Internet community to mobilize quickly to defeat policies that it believes threaten its existence. TPP negotiators should understand the SOPA …

Advising Faculty On Law Journal Publication Agreements, Benjamin J. Keele

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Can Copyright Law Perform The Perfect Fouetté?: Keeping Law And Choreography On Balance To Achieve The Purposes Of The Copyright Clause, Katie M. Benton

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.