Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

All Your Face Are Belong To Us: Protecting Celebrity Images In Hyper-Realistic Video Games, Krista Correa

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

As the law is currently structured, there is no clear protection for a celebrity who is personally offended (but not financially harmed) by another party's use of that celebrity's image. This lack of clarity is particularly problematic today due to the hyperrealism of nextgeneration video games. This article begins with a review of the legal rights and remedies currently available to a celebrity whose face or image is used by a game developer without the celebrity's consent. Part II of the article considers whether the current regime provides sufficient protection, while Part III turns to other sources of law and …

Fulfilling The Copyright Social Justice Promise: Digitizing Textual Information, Lateef Mtima, Steven D. Jamar

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Why In Diy Book Scanning, Daniel Reetz

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Orphan Works And The Google Book Search Settlement: An International Perspective, Bernard Lang

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

D Is For Digitize: An Introduction, James Grimmelmann

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Google Book Settlement And The Fair Use Counterfactual, Matthew Sag

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

H Is For Harmonization: The Google Book Search Settlement And Orphan Works Legislation In The European Union, Katharina De La Durantaye

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Continued Doj Oversight Of The Google Book Search Settlement: Defending Our Public Values And Protecting Competition, Christopher A. Suarez

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Software Wars: The Patent Menace, Andrew Nieh

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Culture, Creativity, & Copyright, David A. Simon

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

Recent literature in copyright law has attacked the traditional theory that economic incentives motivate people to create. Although the onslaught of criticism has come from different directions, it all shares a similar goal. to move copyright law in a direction that reflects actual creative processes and motivations. This Article adds to and diverts from these accounts, arguing that creativity may be a product of memes: units of culture, analogous to genes, that replicate by human imitation.

A memetic theory of creativity focuses on memes as the reference point for thinking about creativity. Under this view, the creator is a brain …

The "Hot News" Misappropriation Doctrine, The Crumbling Newspaper Industry, And Fair Use As Friend And Foe: What Is Necessary To Preserve "Hot News"?, Jeena Moon

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

One Web To Unite Us All: Bridging The Digital Divide, Brooke Menschel

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

He's So Gay ... Not That There's Anything Wrong With That: Using A Community Standard To Homogenize The Measure Of Reputational Damage In Homosexual Defamation Cases, Abigail A. Rury

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note examines the role of the community standard in determining defamation, particularly in cases involving false claims of homosexuality. It argues that the current application of the community standard often lacks clarity and may reflect judicial biases, leading to inconsistent rulings. The note proposes reforms to enhance the accuracy and transparency of defamation analysis by adopting a contemporary community standard, similar to that used in obscenity law, which considers specific geographic and social contexts.

Thwack!! Take That, User-Generated Content!: Marvel Enterprises V. Ncsoft, Carl Michael Szabo

Federal Communications Law Journal

Comic-book heroes show us how to be valiant, how to fight for those less fortunate, and, in some circumstances, how to combat those who break the law. Such is the situation in the case of Marvel Enterprises, Inc. v. NCSofl Corp., a battle between user-generated content and the copyright violations that resulted.

While the issue of copyright liability has been seen in hundreds of comments and notes from courts and attorneys alike, the issue of copyright liability on the internet remains an open question that if not addressed, could endanger the protection afforded to authors. Federal and state suits have …

The Sound Of Money: Securing Copyright, Royalties, And Creative "Progress" In The Digital Music Revolution, Armen Boyajian

Federal Communications Law Journal

Academics and popular critics alike want to distill, reform, or altogether destroy U.S. copyright law as we know it. Much of this stems from animosity toward the old-guard record industry's alleged practices of overcharging consumers, underpaying royalties to artists, and suing teenagers and grandmas. But what those calling for reform all seem to neglect is a tiny but inevitable fact: for the first time in history, composers and recording artists can keep their copyrights.

Tangible media sales are being replaced by P2P file sharing, retail downloads, and streaming Webcasts. Digital technologies and wireless networks have opened prime channels for music …

In The Shadow Of Innovation, Gaia Bernstein

Cardozo Law Review

We are in the midst of the intellectual property wars. Scholars, judges, legislators, corporations, creators, and inventors disagree about the role of intellectual property rights. Yet, surprisingly everyone agrees about innovation - everyone loves innovation. Innovation appears everywhere: in legal scholarship, case law, legislative hearings, newspapers, and blogs. It is uniformly admired and aspired to - though almost never questioned.

Innovation is often assumed to have historically held a central role in the technology regulating legal regime. This Article presents a study of case law, which demonstrates that contrary to common belief, the celebration of innovation is, in fact, a …

Hybrid Vigor: Mashups, Cyborgs, And Other Necessary Monsters, Rebecca Tushnet

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Does remix matter? This brief comment addresses the critique of importance, arguing that remix culture as well as the popular/mass culture from which it springs are of vital importance to human flourishing, invoking Donna Haraway's concept of the cyborg to investigate the fluidity, dynamism, and monstrousness of remixes and remixers.

Storage And Privacy In The Cloud: Enduring Access To Ephemeral Messages, Sarah Salter

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The paper examines the distinction between "stored communications" and the greater privacy protection given to communications in the process of transmission under U.S. federal law. The issue arises in the context of voice mail, text messages, and email. Statutes examined include the Stored Communications Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act ("ECPA"), the Wiretap Act, and the language amending the Wiretap Act to eliminate storage from the definition of wire communication in the USA Patriot Act. Case discussions examine the development of the concept of "stored" communications. The emphasis is on recent cases after the USA Patriot Act and a decision …

A National Security Puzzle: Mosaic Theory And The First Amendment Right Of Access In The Federal Courts, Michael P. Goodwin

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This article examines the tension between sensitive national security information and transparency in the federal courts. Although courts are public institutions with long histories of public access, courts also have the power to restrict access to information if it poses a threat to national security. In a variety of contexts, restrictions on access have been justified by mosaic theory-the idea that even apparently innocuous information can be harmful to national security interests if pieced together by a knowledgeable observer, such as a foreign intelligence organization. This article traces the development of mosaic theory in the federal courts, and argues that …

Protecting A Jewel Of A Trademark: Lessons Learned From The Dae Jang Geum Litigation On Using U.S. Law To Protect Trademarks Based On Imported Popular Culture Icons, Robert J. Kang

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

U.S. trademark law protects trademarks that have achieved a sufficient degree of fame. This principle extends to trademarks based on foreign popular culture icons, such as Japan's "Hello Kitty." But while that principle seems obvious, caselaw on this subject has been minimal. Without clear judicial guidance confirming that such trademarks are protectable, American infringers may have felt emboldened to misappropriate them. However, in 2007 and 2008, a United States District Court presided over a trademark litigation involving "Dae Jang Geum," the name of the most popular Korean television drama in history. By analyzing the three most important orders issued in …

The Agony Of War And A World Without Law, Josh Zetlin

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This note analyzes Lewis Milestone's classic film A//.Quiet on the Western Front in order to illustrate the importance of law in society. Philosophers and legal theorists have pondered endlessly on the importance of law and the roles it serves. Building upon the concepts such as the "social contract," the creators of our legal system carved out particular areas of laws to satisfy specific societal wants and needs. Milestone's war epic reveals how war destroys these legal institutions. The chaos of war and unaccountability for immoral acts shatters the foundation of law, bringing great suffering to the characters in the film. …

Judicial Kryptonite: Superman And The Consideration Of Moral Rights In American Copyright, Sean Mcgilvray

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Superman is one of the most enduring and widely-recognized fictional characters of all time. But behind the scenes of his colorful adventures, a bitter struggle raged between his original creators and the publisher who currently owns the copyright. In a historic recent decision, the United States District Court for the Central District of California granted a summary judgment declaring that the heirs of the writer had recaptured a portion of the copyright in Superman through the Copyright Act's termination and recapture tight provisions. While, not expressly premised upon moral rights considerations, the judgment reflects many of the core values of …

The Communications Decency Act And New York Times V. Sullivan: Providing Public Figure Defamation A Home On The Internet, 43 J. Marshall L. Rev. 491 (2010), Chris Williams

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Understanding And Regulating The Sport Of Mixed Martial Arts, Brendan S. Maher

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The past fifteen years have seen the emergence of a new sport in America and around the world: mixed martial arts ("MMA'). MMA is an interdisciplinary combat sport where participants engage in and combine a variety of fighting disciplines (e.g., kickboxing, wrestling, karate, jiu-jitsu, and so on) in a single match. In this Article, Professor Maher examines and analyzes the sport's evolution, tracing it from its shaggy, brutish beginnings to its current incarnation; articulates a pragmatic and comparative theory of sporting legitimacy; reviews and describes the state-based and administrative nature of MMA regulation; and highlights two reform possibilities of interest …

Cutting Cupid Out Of The Workplace: The Capacity Of Employees' Constitutional Privacy Rights To Constrain Employers' Attempts To Limit Off-Duty Intimate Associations, Anna C. Camp

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Romantic relationships among co-workers: should employers have the right to suppress such activity? Employers often view the widespread practice of dating among co-workers as highly problematic. In light of increased sexual harassment suits, many employers attempt to limit or eliminate intimate relationships among employees through the institution of "no-fraternization" policies. The strictest of these policies allow for legal termination of employees that violate the policy's terms, and can include total prohibition of intimate relationships among co-workers. Employees argue that such bans, which also affect employees' off-duty intimate association, should be held unconstitutionally invasive of employees' privacy rights or invalid on …

Technology And Copyright Law - Illuminating The Nfl's Blackout Rule In Game Broadcasting, Sonali Chitre

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Copyright is critical to protecting sports broadcasts, and new technology has evolved to disseminate these broadcasts to the many people that enjoy professional sports. Because of new digital rights in the copyright statute, the NFL has very strong copyright protections that cover Internet, satellite, television, and radio licensing of its broadcasts. A "blackout" blocks certain programs from being broadcast in a particular market. Attempting to incentivize fans to come to football games, the NFL "blacks out" games that are not sold out within seventytwo hours of game time within a seventy-five-mile radius of the stadium. The "blackout rule" has been …

Free Speech Or Trademark Protections: Do Advocacy Groups And Government Agencies Deserve Extra Protection, Max Landaw

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Since October 2009, the American judicial system has been posed with yet another lawsuit in the oft recurring battle between trademark protections and right to freedom of expression, specifically the right to parody. The Yes Men, a parody troop, in a stunt which confused numerous news outlets, held a press conference as "members" of the United States Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber responded by suing the Yes Men for, amongst other causes of action, trademark infringement pursuant to the Lanham Act. This note will first analyze the history of the debate between the conflicting right of free expression and consumer …

Will Twitter Be Following You In The Courtroom: Why Reporters Should Be Allowed To Broadcast During Courtroom Proceedings, Adriana C. Cervantes

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Thanks to micro-blogging and social networking tools, we no longer have to pick up a phone to call our friends and ask them what they are doing. Instead we turn to our laptop, BlackBerry, or iPhone to get instant information available to us through the Internet. Twitter is a key player in the Internet information exchange line-up and has made its way into one of the oldest and most archaic forums: the courtroom. The current law does not properly address whether reporters should be allowed to tweet, but this trend is becoming more prevalent. Twitter needs to be addressed with …

(M)Ad Men: Using Persuasion Factors In Media Advertisements To Prevent A Tyranny Of The Majority On Ballot Propositions, Chris Chambers Goodman

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Mobile e-discovery spans the globe and creates a multitude of issues for litigants and the courts. The issue of privacy, jurisdiction, privilege, and consent intersect in the mobile space with users sending text messages, twittering, posting notes and videos on-line, and sharing pictures all in the span of a work day. Of course this is further complicated by the integration of the 24/7 workplace and the electronic discovery issues of retention, preservation, and production of the data that mobile devices create. This article examines these issues and provides an overview of some of the more common underlying mobile telecommunication technologies.

Applying The Rationales Of Patent Claim Construction Doctrines To Interpretation Of Patent Statutes, Grace Pak

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Statutory construction is often determinative in lawsuits. In that vein, which theory of statutory construction a court chooses to employ-whether textualism, intentionalism, or purposivism-is decidedly influential. This note argues that strict adherence to textualism in interpreting patent statutes leads to unsound results, while applying purposivism leads to sound results. To demonstrate, this note walks through the Supreme Court's textual approach in interpreting 35 U.S.C. § 271(0 in Microsoft v. AT&T, and contrasts that with the Federal Circuit's purposivist approach in interpreting the same statute. This note argues that the Federal Circuit's purposivist approach is more appropriate because it more closely …