Technically Legal

Thesis v. WordPress and the GPL, Massachusetts and the Right to Repair, Facebook and the CFAA.

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Thesis v. WordPress and the GPL

Would WordPress Sue The Maker Of Thesis
Syn-thesis
Why WordPress Themes are Derivative of WordPress
An analysis of GPL’ed code in Thesis
The GPL

Right to Repair

Mass. considers landmark auto-repair legislation

Facebook v. Power.com, and the CFAA

Facebook Doesn’t Violate Competition Laws, Court Rules In Power.com Lawsuit

1 Comment Posted in: Podcast on July 26, 2010

We mentioned before that a children’s book author was suing Scribd for copyright infringement. The suit was novel in that it claimed that Scribd’s filtering mechanism to keep copyrighted works off the site violated copyright law itself. The filtering software would store a copy of each file that was taken down subject to a DMCA notice so that the filter could then block anyone who tried to re-upload the same document.

The plaintiff has dropped the suit. While the use was probably a fair use under the Copyright Act, it’s good that the plaintiff’s dropped it. I’d rather have no law in this area than risk a court getting it wrong. We went into a little more detail about the fair use defense in this post.

1 Comment Posted in: Links on July 20, 2010

The case in one of our most popular posts has finally come to some resolution. The band will have to pay 5% of their royalties from the song “Down Under” to the copyright holder on the famous song “Kookaburra,” going back to 2002. The Men at Work song borrows a few bars from the folk classic, which was enough for the Australian court to slap the 80s one hit wonders.

Comments Off Posted in: Links on July 7, 2010

Google and YouTube win First Round, Congress Can Take Works out of the Public Domain, Apple Sharing Location Data

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Google, YouTube Win First Round Against Viacom

The Opinon

Congress Can Take Works Out of Public Domain

Terrible News: Court Says It’s Okay To Remove Content From The Public Domain And Put It Back Under Copyright
The Opinion

Apple Sharing iPhone Location Data

Apple Now Storing and Sharing Your Location With Others
Congressmen Ask Apple To Explain Privacy Policy Changes
Lawmakers To Introduce New Internet Privacy Bill

Comments Off Posted in: Podcast on June 28, 2010

SCO recently lost the case it brought against Novell when a jury ruled against SCO. SCO filed some post-vedict motions seeking to overturn the jury verdict, which were denied.

It has been widely reported that the case is finally over.

It isn’t over. After summary judgment was granted for Novell (throwing SCOs claims out), SCO appealed. The appeals court said that SCO should get to present its claims to a jury. SCO did just that and lost. But, by filing the post-verdict motions, SCO has set itself up to appeal the judge’s denials of those motions. SCO has only a small chance of success on appeal, but they are likely going to argue that no reasonable jury could have found in favor of Novell, and that various rulings made by the judge at trial created error that should either reverse the verdict, or get SCO a new trial.

We’ll continue to reluctantly report on this until we’re sure it’s finally dead, an ex-lawsuit, pushing up the daisies.

Comments Off Posted in: Commentary on June 11, 2010

Tetris Takedowns, AP/Shepard Fairey Case, and EFF opposes Hurt Locker subpoenas.

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Tetris Takedowns on Android Store

Google blocks Tetris clones from Android market

Update on AP v. Shepard Fairey

Court: AP ‘is going to win’ Shepard Fairey case

EFF Opposes Hurt Locker Subpoenas

EFF Asks Judges to Quash Subpoenas in Movie-Downloading Lawsuits

Comments Off Posted in: Podcast on June 7, 2010

The iPhone Search Warrant, Google Goofs with WiFi Data, and LimeWire held liable for Copyright infringement.

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iPhone Search Warrant

iPhone Investigation Documents Ordered Unsealed (Update1)
Roommate’s Tip Led Cops to iPhone Finder
The Warrant Application

Google Goofs with WiFi Data Privacy

Google Says It Collected Private Data by Mistake
WiFi data collection: An update

LimeWire held liable for Copyright Infringement

LimeWire Likely To Shut Down Soon
CopyWrong! Kimba Wood Squeezes the Juice Out of Limewire
The Opinion

Comments Off Posted in: Podcast on May 17, 2010

This has been covered well, but it’s worth noting that Limewire, and its owners have been found liable for various forms of secondary copyright infringement. We’ll cover it more once we get a chance to read the opinion.

Comments Off Posted in: Links on May 12, 2010

Gizmodo and iPod Scandal, Downfall DMCA Takedowns, Sarah Palin E-Mail Hacker Trial

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Gizmodo iPhone Leak

Gizmodo paid for iPhone 4G: so are they receivers of stolen goods?
For Apple, Lost iPhone Is a Big Deal

DMCA TakeDownfall

Hitler, as “Downfall” producer, orders a DMCA takedown
Hitler tries a DMCA takedown

Sarah Palin E-Mail Hacker

The Indictment
Meaning of ID theft is key to Palin e-mail hacking case
FBI: Evidence points to Kernell destroying proof of Palin e-mail snoop
Sarah Palin email hack

Comments Off Posted in: Podcast on April 26, 2010

Activision Scuffle, Adobe Squares Off with Apple, Are Tweets Copyrightable

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Activision Scuffle

Activision: West, Zampella wanted to steal Infinity Ward
The Ides of Harsh

Apple v. Adobe

Adobe vs. Apple is going to get uglier

Are Tweets Copyrightable

You Cannot Copyright a Tweet
Are Tweets Copyright-Protected?
Copyright Protection Not Available for Names,
Titles, or Short Phrases

1 Comment Posted in: Podcast on April 19, 2010