Episode 40: Goin Gaga March 9, 2010
Innocent infringement off the table, Apple sues HTC, and is it illegal to poach tickets?
Please download the podcast, or subscribe to the feed. Feel free to e-mail us with questions, suggestions or comments.
Innocent infringement off the table
5th Circuit rules innocent infringement defense not supported in Maverick v Harper
The opinion
Apple Sues HTC
Apple sues HTC over iPhone patents
Apple sues HTC–court filings
Apple HTC Complaint U.S. Google & HTC
Poaching Gaga Tickets
Couldn’t Get Those Coveted Gaga Tickets? Here’s Why
Four Charged in Bid To Buy, Resell Tickets
Posted in: Podcast by Ben Snitkoff. Tags: Apple, CFAA, Copyright, HTC, Patents, RIAA
Comment on this post
Hulu loses Daily Show and Colbert, Viacom to Sue Bloggers? March 4, 2010
Hulu announced on March 2, 2010, that Comedy Central (owned by Viacom) is pulling The Daily Show and The Colbert Report from the website.
Why?! The answer, it turns out, starts with an “S” superimposed with a vertical line (or two, if you’re like me). According to the New York Times, the pull is the result of failed negotiations and the culmination of a contract term. Translation: Colbert and Stewart weren’t worth their weight in Hulu’s advertising currency.
Given the rising popularity of Hulu, I was pretty shocked that Colbert and Stewart weren’t making the bucks. However, even more disturbing is a post I came across on THR, Esq., which quotes Tony Fox, a Viacom/Comedy Central PR rep, with a rather pointed remark when asked “whether [Comedy Central] will now target websites and bloggers who post unauthorized clips from the show”:
“Yes, we intend to do so. My feeling is if (websites) are making money on our copyrighted content, then that is a problem.”
Too bad that fails to take into account that little thing called Fair Use, the same principle which allows comedy shows interlaced with news to take swipes at popular culture and media from other networks. Fox’s statement does sounds somewhat unintentionally overinclusive–surely he didn’t mean all embedded video clips are instances of infringement. Even the players on www.thedailyshow.com and www.colbertnation.com allow embedding. Either way, the words were definitely provocative.
Tech Dirt followed up with the company and Viacom has since clarified the remarks:
“We have always tried to be as permissive as possible when looking at what might be fair use, and we haven’t changed our approach at all. Frankly, fair use works for us. I can’t recall a time we’ve ever sued a blogger for the use of a Comedy Central clip, and there’s no reason to believe that would be more likely to today.”
This answer is much more along the lines of what I would have expected from a PR representative. But does that make this PR fluff? Time will tell, I suppose. In the meantime, we’ll keep our eyes peeled for takedowns, nastygrams, and suits.
Posted in: Commentary by David O'Brien.
Comment on this post
Yet Another Thomas-Rasset Trial, Set for Oct 2010 March 3, 2010
This week, court documents were posted online indicating that Jammie Thomas-Rasset’s third trial is set for next October. Hat tip to Ben Sheffner for reporting this on Monday on his Copyrights & Campaigns blog.
A few weeks back on our Podcast and blog (see here, here, and here), we covered the first part of this story when Judge Davis granted a remittitur reducing the damages in the case from $1.92M ($80,000 per song infringed) to $54,000 ($2,250 per song infringed). As we noted, once a remittitur has been granted, the opposing party has the option to either accept the reduction in damages or have a new trial. They opted for the new trial, which will only concern the issue of damages.
A bigger question, as we (and Sheffner), have noted is whether the ultimate amount of damages will be capped in the new trial at $54,000 (based on the remittitur) or whether the plaintiffs will be able to cover any amount within the spectrum of statutory damages under the copyright act.
Posted in: Commentary, Links by David O'Brien.
Comment on this post
The Supreme Court’s Copyright Ruling March 3, 2010
Yesterday I mentioned on our twitter feed that the Supreme Court released an opinion relating to copyright law. Evan Brown, of Internet Cases and a regular TWiL panelist, wrote up a post that goes over the facts and ruling of the case. This case is a little dry, but if you’re interested, please hop over to his blog and check it out.
Posted in: Links by Ben Snitkoff. Tags: Copyright, SCOTUS
Comment on this post
Episode 39: Our Patented Newsfeed (Repost) March 3, 2010
What damages for false DMCA takedown notices, employer liability for employee statements, Facebook Patents the newsfeed.
Please download the podcast, or subscribe to the feed. Feel free to e-mail us with questions, suggestions or comments.
Damages in False DMCA takedown
Rare Ruling on Damages for Sending Bogus Copyright Takedown Notice–Lenz v. Universal
Rossi Case
FTC Guidelines on Employer Liability for Employee Blog Posts
Facebook Patents the Newsfeed
Facebook’s news-feed patent could mean lawsuits
Facebook Patents The News Feed (Updated)
The Patent
UPDATE: There seems to have been a glitch with the first post. Hopefully this will fix it.
Posted in: Podcast by Ben Snitkoff. Tags: Copyright, DMCA, Facebook, FTC, Patents
Comment on this post
Apple Sues HTC Over iPhone Patents March 2, 2010
This is still breaking, so we’ll have more coverage as the details of the litigation emerge.
Apple has sued HTC for infringement of Apple patents relating to the user interface and underlying hardware of the iPhone. While I don’t have my hands on a complaint yet, there’s a fair bet it involves the patent for capacitive touch screens Apple was recently awarded.
UPDATE: You can now download the relevant documents. I’ll try to get a look at them later today or this evening.
Episode 38: What’s the Buzz? February 22, 2010
Google Buzz Class Action Lawsuit, Social Media and Burglary, and Searches of your P2P share folders.
Please download the podcast, or subscribe to the feed. Feel free to e-mail us with questions, suggestions or comments.
Google Buzz Class Action
Local class action complaint filed over Google Buzz
Social Media and Burglary
Your Rights Online: I Use Twitter, Please Rob Me
http://pleaserobme.com/
Search Warrants and Share Folders
Posted in: Podcast by Ben Snitkoff. Tags: Fourth Amendment, Google, Privacy, Twitter
Comments Off
Redbox Caves As Well February 16, 2010
We’ve covered the Redbox suit before and are a little sad to report that they’ve agreed to Warner’s demands not to rent new releases for 28 days. Warner hopes that this will boost sales of DVDs. Presumably because if people didn’t want to see a movie in the theater, they will run out and buy the DVD, rather than just waiting another month before renting it. That makes sense? Right?
This announcement comes on the heels of Netflix caving to Warner’s demands in January.
Episode 37: Largely Copyright February 15, 2010
White House and Copyright, Streaming the Olympics, FBI and the Fourth Amendment
Please download the podcast, or subscribe to the feed. Feel free to e-mail us with questions, suggestions or comments.
White House and Copyrights
White House Makes Full Copyright Claim on Photos
Another Obama right-of-publicity violation; NY Times gets results!
Streaming the Olympics
Why you can’t see live streaming of Olympics — at least not legally
FBI and the Fourth Amendment
Posted in: Podcast by Ben Snitkoff. Tags: Copyright, FBI, Fourth Amendment, NBC, Streaming
Comments Off
This Week in Law #47: Felix Unger Wisdom February 13, 2010
Ben and I appeared as guest panelists yesterday, February 12, 2010, on This Week in Law, which is part of the TWiT network with fellow attorneys Ernie Svenson and Denise Howell. We had a lot of fun doing it and hit some great topics. Be sure to check it out. The audio podcast should be available early next week and the (unedited) video broadcast is available on twil.blip.tv (and below).
Posted in: Links by David O'Brien. Tags: Guest Appearances, TWiL
Comments Off
