Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Digital Audio Tape Machines: New Technology Or Further Erosion Of Copyright Protection?, Todd Page

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Copyright Infringement And The Eleventh Amendment: A Doctrine Of Unfair Use?, John C. Beiter

Vanderbilt Law Review

The federal courts recently have renewed the debate concerning whether a person can sue a state government or its instrumentalities for copyright infringement. The question presents a clash of fundamental constitutional principles between the copyright and patent clause,' whose purpose is to promote the free flow of ideas by rewarding creativity,' and the eleventh amendment,whose primary purpose is to protect the federal form of government by insulating states from suit in federal court. The Copyright Act of 1976 (the 1976 Act) and its predecessor, the Copyright Act of 1909 (the 1909 Act), grant copyright proprietors"exclusive" rights in their works. While …

The Availability Of Jury Trials In Copyright Infringement Cases: Limiting The Scope Of The Seventh Amendment, Andrew W. Stumpff

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that statutory copyright damages are properly regarded as equitable and hence that no right to a jury trial exists in cases brought to recover such damages. More generally, the Note maintains that the seventh amendment's distinction between equitable and legal causes of action has produced irrational consequences, and proposes that "legal" issues be defined narrowly so as to limit the scope of the seventh amendment. Part I analyzes the debate over statutory copyright damages, concluding that historical and statutory construction arguments require these damages to be construed as legal. Part II examines some of the problems that …

Note On Individualized V Particularized Entitlement Inquiries - 1984, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

My analysis now looks something like this: Some entitlements should be "prima facie" protectible from invasion. That means that there are some entitlements which the owner should be able to protect even if he or she is unable to prove (a) that protection is in the net social interest or (b) that the invader's action is deserving of punishment. I would call these entitlements "property".

Copyright Law, David Goldberg, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In 1983 and 1984 the federal courts continued to interpret the changes in copyright law effectuated by the 1976 Copyright Act. During this period the United States Supreme Court decided its first copyright case since adoption of the 1976 Act. In general, the year's decisions tend to accord expanded copyright protection to authors. Several decisions, however, have provoked or exacerbated uncertainties in a number of areas, including the protection accorded nonfiction works, the "fair use" excuse to copyright infringement, and compliance with the U.S. copyright formality of affixing notice to published copies of a work.

Substantial Similarity Between Video Games: An Old Copyright Problem In A New Medium, Steven G. Mcknight

Vanderbilt Law Review

Courts have faced a variety of imaginative arguments advocating that video games not receive copyright protection but unanimously have rejected them. A more difficult copyright issue for courts has been deciding whether one video game illegally has copied another. Of the cases involving illegal video game copying that courts presently have decided, only Atari, Inc. v. North American Philips Consumer Electric Corp." has found copyright infringement by a video game that was not virtually identical to the original game.

Part II of this Recent Development discusses the requirement in copyright infringement actions that, in proving copying, a defendant's allegedly infringing …

Addressing The Reprographic Revolution: Compensating Copyright Owners For Mass Infringement, Rosalind S. Kurz

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article addresses the unique problems created by the reprographic revolution. Part I discusses recent legislative attempts to relieve the strain placed on existing copyright law by developing reprographic technologies. Using the recent Betamax case as an example, part II criticizes judicial efforts to apply traditional copyright doctrine to issues involving reprographic technologies. Finally, part III proposes a framework for devising, an enforcement scheme to protect copyright holders' rights without denying the public the many benefits offered by reprographic technologies. The Article outlines an approach tailored to meet the special problems associated with each of the three basic reprographic technologies: …

The Obscenity Defense To Copyright Revisited, Ronald L. Green

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Unfair Competition In Intellectual Products In The Public Domain, Marian R. Nathan

Cleveland State Law Review

A recent Federal District Court case , Grove Press, Inc. v. Collector's Publication, Inc., illustrates another attempt by our judiciary to find its way out of the immense entanglement of copyright infringement in statutory law and unfair competition in common law besetting properties in the public domain. Two 1964 United States Supreme Court decisions have further complicated the positions of both creators and judiciary.

Legal Perils Of Parody And Burlesque, Thomas Paul Demeter

Cleveland State Law Review

Parody and Burlesque as art forms, and their conflicts with the rights of the holder of the original copyrighted work, are subjects of interest to both the layman and the lawyer. To analyze the status of this conflict, several areas must be explored. The following discussion includes a consideration of the current copyright law as it applies to parody and burlesque, a history of parody and burlesque as a literary form, and significant United States cases dealing with the problems of the conflict.

Mechanical Copying, Copyright Law, And The Teacher, Nancy Schuster, Marc J. Bloch

Cleveland State Law Review

This article deals with the infringement problems encountered by a teacher in duplicating copyrighted material for his class. Since the teacher is the "real party in interest," we have attempted to avoid legalistic language (at least without explanation), so as to produce a paper to which the layman, as well as the lawyer may turn for understanding.

Copyrights-Liabilty Of Store Owner For Sale Of Infringing Phonograph Records By Concessionaire, Terrence L. Croft

Michigan Law Review

Defendant H. L. Green Company licensed defendant Jalen Amusement Company as concessionaire of the record departments in twenty-three of its stores. The licensing agreement required Jalen's employees to follow all Green's rules and regulations and empowered Green to discharge any employee found to be conducting himself improperly. The gross receipts of the record department were collected by Green, Jalen receiving only the amount remaining after deductions for the license fee, salaries, and taxes. Although Jalen ordered and paid for the records and its employees made all the sales, record purchasers were unaware of Jalen's autonomy in the record department. Plaintiff, …

Copyright Infringement, Lowell T. Hughes

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Radio Broadcasting As An Infringement Of A Copyright, Steven L. Bladek

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Federal Practice -Jurisdiction Over Non-Federal Questions - Meaning Of Cause Of Action

Michigan Law Review

Petitioners brought suit in a federal court to enjoin the respondents from publicly producing a play, alleging that it infringed a copyrighted play of the petitioners and that it would also constitute unfair competition. The parties were citizens of the same State. After considering the claim of infringement on its merits, the court held that, although there was no infringement threatened, the jurisdiction acquired by reason of that federal question might be retained to consider the issue of unfair competition. Hurn v. Oursler, 289 U.S. 238, 53 Sup. Ct. 586 (1933).

Federal Practice -Venue - Plaintiff's Privilege In Respect To Defendant's Counterclaim On An Unrelated Patent

Michigan Law Review

Petitioners brought suit in the federal court for the northern district of Ohio against defendant corporations having regular and established places of business in that district and against two individual defendants resident there alleging infringement of patent rights and asking for injunction, damages, and an accounting. Defendants' answer denied infringement and set up a counterclaim based on a patent granted one of the defendants praying for an injunction against infringement and an accounting. Defendants' counterclaim did not allege that petitioners were inhabitants of the district where the counterclaim was to be tried or that they had regular and established places …

Copyrights-Radio Reception As Performance Witein Copyright Act

Michigan Law Review

By means of a master receiving set under its operation, and loudspeakers controlled by the guests, installed in its rooms, defendant hotel company made available the hearing of a copyrighted musical composition which had been broadcast. Neither the radio station nor the hotel was authorized to perform it. In a suit against the hotel company for alleged infringement of the copyright, relief was denied on the ground that reception did not constitute a performance within the meaning of the Copyright Act. The case was appealed and that question was certified to the Supreme Court. Held, that reception was essentially …