Law Commons^™

Paypal Is New Money: Extending Secondary Copyright Liability Safe Harbors To Online Payment Processors, Erika Douglas

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has shaped the Internet as we know it. This legislation shields online service providers from secondary copyright infringement liability in exchange for takedown of infringing content of their users. Yet online payment processors, the backbone of $300 billion in U.S. e-commerce, are completely outside of the DMCA’s protection. This Article uses PayPal, the most popular online payment company in the U.S., to illustrate the growing risk of secondary liability for payment processors. First it looks at jurisprudence that expands secondary copyright liability online, and explains how it might be applied to PayPal. Then it …

Digital Locks, Physical Objects And Immaterial Works, Pascale Chapdelaine

Law Publications

One of the greatest controversies in contemporary copyright law is the introduction of technological protection measures (TPMs) at the international and national level. By creating a separate parallel regime for digital copyright works, TPMs shifted the paradigm by redefining the rules of engagement of how users would increasingly access and experience digital copyright works.

In this chapter of my book Copyright User Rights, Contracts, and the Erosion of Property (Oxford University Press, 2017) I look at the implementation of TPMs as a regulatory tool from a multi-jurisdictional perspective. Initially mainly intended to protect copyright holders’ works made accessible online or …

The New Surveillance, Sonia K. Katyal

Sonia Katyal

No abstract provided.

Shifting The Burden To Internet Service Providers: The Validity Of Subpoena Power Under The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Matt Sellers

Oklahoma Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Three Chords And The Truth: Analyzing Copyright Infringement Claims Against Guitar Tablature Websites, Krist Caldwell

Oklahoma Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Stop Online Piracy Act, Nicollette Brandt

Oklahoma Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Film Piracy: Surfing The Internet For Free Content Provides Little Bounty For The Collective Economy, Jordan Matthews

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This Note focuses on the protection of a copyright holder against infringement in the form of film piracy. It centers on the recent litigation surrounding Dallas Buyers Club, a biographical film articulating the life and events surrounding an AIDS patient, diagnosed in the mid-1980s, who pursued experimental treatments by smuggling pharmaceuticals into the United States. In 2013, more than 4,700 Australian Internet users allegedly downloaded the film within the span of one month. In August of 2015, an Australian federal court declared that the studio behind the film would need to post a $600,000 bond before it could send letters …

Split Chords: Addressing The Federal Circuit Split In Music Sampling Copyright Infringement Cases, Erik J. Badia

Erik Badia

This Note offers a comprehensive analysis of the current circuit split regarding how the de minimis doctrine applies to music sampling in copyright infringement cases. Since the Sixth Circuit's 2005 landmark decision in Bridgeport Music Inc. v. Dimension Films, critics, scholars and even judges have dissected the opinion and its bright line rule of “get a license or do not sample.” In May 2016, the Ninth Circuit issued its opinion in VMG Salsoul v. Ciccione. The Ninth Circuit explicitly declined to follow Bridgeport, holding that analyzing a music sampling copyright infringement case requires a substantial similarity analysis, including applying a …

Split Chords: Addressing The Federal Circuit Split In Music Sampling Copyright Infringement Cases, Erik J. Badia

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

This Note offers a comprehensive analysis of the current circuit split regarding how the de minimis doctrine applies to music sampling in copyright infringement cases. Since the Sixth Circuit's 2005 landmark decision in Bridgeport Music Inc. v. Dimension Films, critics, scholars and even judges have dissected the opinion and its bright line rule of “get a license or do not sample.” In May 2016, the Ninth Circuit issued its opinion in VMG Salsoul v. Ciccione. The Ninth Circuit explicitly declined to follow Bridgeport, holding that analyzing a music sampling copyright infringement case requires a substantial similarity analysis, including applying a …

Copyright Owners' Putative Interests In Privacy, Reputation, And Control: A Reply To Goold, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

My own view is that Goold overstates the explanatory role of tort law. But even were that not the case, the courts need to reach some kind of “settled” understanding on these various interests before a cause of action is created or definitively rejected, and that no such consensus on the three matters mentioned yet exists, whether they are viewed as forms of tort or otherwise. Goold’s work may nevertheless be an important step toward reaching closure on these and other open questions in copyright law.

Copyright Owners' Putative Interests In Privacy, Reputation, And Control: A Reply To Goold - Draft - 05-15-2017, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Patrick Goold’s interesting new article, Unbundling the “Tort” of Copyright Infringement (“Unbundling”) centers on a key lack of clarity that Professor Goold perceives in the cause of action for copyright infringement. The lack of clarity, he argues, afflicts threshold definitions of what constitutes actionable copying.

Substantial Similarity: Kohus Got It Right, Gabriel Godoy-Dalmau

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

This Note is organized as follows. Part I discusses the historical development of the substantial similarity inquiry and its role in a Plaintiff’s prima facie case of copyright infringement. Part II evaluates more recent developments in the substantial similarity inquiry. Part III argues that the various standards that lower courts have developed are themselves substantially similar to each other. This analysis is in line with the Sixth Circuit’s decision in Kohus. Although largely ignored by the scholarly community, the Sixth Circuit’s decision in Kohus got it right.

Doyle Homes, Inc. V. Signature Group Of Livingston, Inc., Daniel Ursomanno

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Varsity Brands, Inc. V. Star Athletica, Llc, Alexandra Spina

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

16 Casa Duse, Llc V. Merkin, Abbey Gauger

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Resounding Impact Of Napster, Inc. An Analysis Of A & M Records, Inc. V. Napster, Inc., Isabella Kelly

CMC Senior Theses

When Napster was first launched on the Internet in August of 1999 by young programmer, Shawn Fanning, the intension was that the platform would easily link Internet users with the free MP3 downloads they sought out on the web. By the time an injunction against the platform was granted and upheld by a state then federal court, Napster had made a far bigger impact than simply linking music listeners with free downloads.

The proceedings of A & M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc. through the District Court Northern District of California then the United States Court of Appeals for the …

Testing Tarnishment In Trademark And Copyright Law: The Effect Of Pornographic Versions Of Protected Marks And Works Of Pornographic Versions Of Protected Marks And Work, Christopher Buccafusco, Paul J. Heald, Wen Bu

Articles

Federal and state law both provide a cause of action against inappropriate and unauthorized uses that ‘tarnish’ a trademark. Copyright owners also articulate fears of ‘tarnishing’ uses of their works in their arguments against fair use and for copyright term extension. The validity of these concerns rests on an empirically testable hypothesis about how consumers respond to inappropriate unauthorized uses of works. In particular, the tarnishment hypothesis assumes that consumers who are exposed to inappropriate uses of a work will find the tarnished work less valuable afterwards. This Article presents two experimental tests of the tarnishment hypothesis, focusing on unauthorized …

Fetishizing Copies, Jessica Litman

Book Chapters

Our copyright laws encourage authors to create new works and communicate them to the public, because we hope that people will read the books, listen to the music, see the art, watch the films, run the software, and build and inhabit the buildings. That is the way that copyright promotes the Progress of Science. Recently, that not-very-controversial principle has collided with copyright owners’ conviction that they should be able to control, or at least collect royalties from, all uses of their works. A particularly ill-considered manifestation of this conviction is what I have decided to call copy-fetish. This is the …