Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Fragmented Music Copyright Protection: A Better Arrangement, Matthew B. Goldman

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The note explores the challenges of music copyright law, particularly in determining the protectability of fragmented elements within musical works. It argues that by applying doctrinal tools such as the idea-expression distinction, merger, scenes a faire, and thin copyright, courts can better balance the protection of original expression with the need to allow future creativity. The analysis focuses on two key cases, Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin and Gray v. Perry, to illustrate how these tools can be effectively used to resolve music copyright disputes.

Randomness, Ai Art, And Copyright, Richard H. Chused

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The article argues that art created with the assistance of AI tools should generally be eligible for copyright protection. It posits that human agency is present in the creation of AI-generated art, as traditional artistic works also incorporate randomness and unpredictability. By examining works by artists like Alexander Calder, Robert Rauschenberg, and John Cage, the analysis demonstrates that randomness and unpredictability have long been protected under copyright law, suggesting that AI-generated art should receive similar treatment.

Trademarks And Censorship In The Time Of Covid-19, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

During the devastating year of 2020, China quickly conquered the novel coronavirus and roared back economically while the United States faced staggering deaths and economic losses. But underneath the divergent experience of the two countries is an untold story of trademark and censorship in the time of COVID-19. This Article observes that while the United States Supreme Court has lifted the ban on trademark registrations for unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination, opening the door for offensive COVID-19 trademark applications, China has transformed trademark law into the law for censorship as Chinese authorities press forward to achieve twin victories over the coronavirus and …

Protecting Ravenstail: Cultural Appropriation And The Outer Limits Of Copyright Law, Nosson Sternbach

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The note examines the challenges minority cultures, particularly indigenous communities, face in protecting their cultural heritage through copyright law, focusing on the Sealaska Heritage Institute Inc. v. Neiman Marcus Group LTD, LLC case. It argues that copyright law's requirements—such as fixation, originality, authorship, and duration—create significant barriers for indigenous cultures seeking to safeguard their intellectual property. The note also critiques the Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA) for its inefficacy in preventing cultural appropriation, as it requires plaintiffs to prove specific harms and often fails to address the misuse of cultural motifs without explicit tribal names. The Sealaska case highlights …

Dickens V. Lee (1844): A Christmas Tale Of Two Experts Testifying, Mark Rose

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The article examines the 1844 case of Dickens v. Lee, highlighting its significance as an early example of the use of expert witnesses in copyright disputes. Dickens successfully sued over the unauthorized adaptation of A Christmas Carol, but the case underscores the challenges of balancing literary and commercial considerations in copyright law. The defense's use of expert testimony to argue market differentiation contrasts with the court's focus on literary similarity, foreshadowing modern debates on substantial similarity in copyright infringement.

How Patents Became Politics, Steven Wilf

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

Political mobilization in the digital age often coalesces around opposition to the far-reaching protection of intellectual property. Both copyright and patent have materialized as the centerpiece of major political and legal debates that take a variety of forms, including the European pirate parties, NGOs such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation in the United States, and the call for open source software. The commonplace narrative is that self-interested stakeholders over the past century successfully fashioned an ever-expanding intellectual property system, and that resistance to such legal control of knowledge only emerged in our times. By contrast, this article recovers a littleknown …

100 Years Of International Ip - Reflections On Past, Present And Future, Frederick M. Abbott

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The article reflects on the past 100 years of international intellectual property (IP) law, highlighting its evolution from regional agreements to global systems like the TRIPS Agreement. It emphasizes that IP rights are shaped by human policies and societal needs, not inherent qualities, making them adaptable. Current challenges include balancing IP protection with public access, addressing cybercrime, and grappling with AI-generated works.

The Next 100 Years Of International Intellectual Property: Integrating Human Rights And Corporate Social Responsibility, Julia Janewa Osei-Tutu

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The article predicts that international intellectual property (IP) law will increasingly integrate human rights and corporate social responsibility (CSR) into its framework over the next century. This shift reflects a broader trend of balancing IP protection with societal concerns, such as public health, cultural heritage, and human development. The author argues that while the TRIPS Agreement established minimum IP standards, future agreements will prioritize equitable access to knowledge, medicines, and traditional knowledge, aligning IP law with global sustainability and human rights goals.

Three Megatrends In The International Intellectual Property Regime, Peter K. Yu

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The international intellectual property (IP) regime has undergone significant transformation over the past century, shaped by three key megatrends: the rise of emerging countries, the increasing complexity of the regime, and spatial transformation driven by new technologies. These trends have reshaped the regime's standards, policies, and challenges, with profound implications for global economic and social welfare. The article critiques the regime's historical bias toward developed nations and its overemphasis on trade interests, advocating for a balanced approach that integrates public welfare and human rights considerations. It concludes that the regime's growing complexity necessitates new institutional frameworks and vocabularies to address …

Nil Collectives - Title Ix's Latest Challenge, Kassandra Ramsey

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The article explores the intersection of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) Collectives and Title IX, arguing that while NIL Collectives are not directly subject to Title IX, colleges and universities must ensure these organizations comply with Title IX to maintain gender equity. Schools are responsible due to their federal funding and their promotion of these collectives, necessitating guidelines, education, and audits to prevent disparities in opportunities for male and female athletes.

Impossibility Of Emergent Works’ Protection In U.S. And Eu Copyright Law, Mateusz Blaszczyk

Scholarly Works

Protection of emergent works is impossible. Without an author, there is no expression of ideas which can be original, and thus no copyrightable work. Indeed, the whole system of copyright law, its conceptual building blocks of idea-expression dichotomy, originality, authorship, and the concept of a protectable work operate in the notation of human creativity. Emergent works fall outside of copyright’s positive ontology, being akin to ideas, facts, or subject-matter predicated by technical considerations, rather than authorial creativity. In other words, they do not exist as things in law and thus cannot as such be owned. Rather, like any idea, they …

Access To Medicines And Pharmaceutical Patents: Fulfilling The Promise Of Trips Article 31bis, Ezinne Mirian Igbokwe, Andrea Tosato

Fordham Law Review

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has long stood accused of reducing access to medicines for the poorest and most vulnerable nations. Enacted in 1994 as one of the founding pillars of the World Trade Organization, TRIPS has enabled pharmaceutical companies to enforce their patent rights in almost every country, precluding cheaper generics from being distributed, save for very limited exceptions.

But in 2001, TRIPS was amended expressly to address this issue, allowing countries with limited resources to lodge a formal request to obtain patented medicines at a sustainable cost. Generics manufacturers worldwide can answer this …

“Can I Post This?”: A Call For Nuanced Interpretation Of Dmca Enforcement In The Age Of Social Media, Erin E. Bronner

Fordham Law Review

This Note advances recent scholarship critiquing the notice-and-takedown procedures used by online service providers (OSPs) under the safe-harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)—specifically in the context of user-generated content (UGC) posted by end users on social media. Rights holders have increasingly put legal pressure on technology platforms to fortify their copyright protection mechanisms. Over the past decade, this imperative has manifested through an increased use of automated content recognition (ACR) technology to remove allegedly infringing UGC. ACR technology has gradually overtaken the manual, human review of UGC that the DMCA envisioned.

However, reliance on mass automated takedowns …

United States Department Of Labor Scientific Integrity Policy

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

United States Department of Labor Scientific Integrity Policy

Prospecting, Sharecropping, And The Recording Industry, Olufunmilayo B. Arewa, Matt Stahl

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Digital-era disruption has had a significant impact on the recording industry and the business of music more generally. Digital-era music disruption draws attention to patterns of continuity within the recording industry. Notably, despite widespread use of digital technologies for the creation, dissemination, and consumption of music, core recording industry business models largely still draw from the predigital era. Recording industry business models have long been compared to other exploitative business models based on debt, including the sharecropping business. Business models in the recording industry have been a source of dispute by a broad range of recording artists, including highly successful …

Mfns In Digital Distribution: Anticompetitive Effects Examined Through Modern Gaming Distribution, Ryan Wolff

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

Most Favored Nation clauses and their place within digital distribution agreements is a problem that seems yet to be resolved. The argument that entities with large enough market share in their respective market can utilize these provisions to ensure that they remain on top is a contested topic that is actively being challenged in the courts. The lawsuit against Valve, the video game publisher and distributor, provides a lens through which the potential harms and advantages of these provisions can be examined. In analyzing the finer points of this situation potential solutions can be designed to, in a perfect world, …

A Theoretical Analysis Of Orphan Works, Eden Sarid, Omri Ben-Zvi

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

In American libraries, museums, and archives, there currently are tens of millions of cultural treasures, such as photos, manuscripts, and sound recordings, which hold extraordinary academic, cultural, and historical value. But these valuable items, known as "orphan works, remain out of public reach. Orphan works are subject to copyright, but their copyright owners cannot be located. These works are stuck in limbo-as copyright works, they cannot be used without permission, but permission cannot be granted because the copyright owner is unknown. This exceptional predicament has not escaped the attention of legislators and academics, yet thus far, the United States has …

Ip Law In The Shadow Of Norms, Elizabeth L. Rosenblatt

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The article explores the interplay between formal intellectual property (IP) law and social norms in governing creative and innovative communities. It argues that while IP law is essential, it should not overshadow the significant role of norms, which often provide effective governance within specific communities. The author suggests that law should be mindful of diverse norms to promote social justice and innovation, recognizing that norms can both complement and conflict with formal legal frameworks.

Reclaiming Feudalism For The Technological Era, Shelly Kreiczer-Levy

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The article argues that traditional personal property law fails to adequately address the complexities of AI-capable assets, such as robots, which require a new framework to balance manufacturer control with user rights. It proposes two models—the connection model and the competition model—to regulate these relationships, emphasizing the need for collaboration, data ownership, and consumer protection in the evolving landscape of technological ownership.

The Past And Future In International Patent Law, Rochelle C. Dreyfuss

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The organizers of the 2022 International Law Weekend asked us to consider how our fields have changed in the last century and to offer our thoughts about the future. For intellectual property, the changes have been formidable. The Industrial Revolution gave way to an Information Revolution. As a result, knowledge products now constitute a significant share of global wealth. And as the world increasingly endures crises like the recent pandemic, climate change, and food and energy insecurity, technological information will become even more important-indeed, crucial to the survival of the planet.

My own field is international patent law, where there …