On August 4, 2008, the Second Circuit court of appeals overturned a lower courts opinion that Cablevision's Remote Storage” Digital Video Recorder ("RS-DVR") system violated the Copyright Act by infringing plaintiffs’ exclusive rights of reproduction and public performance. The full 44-page opinion is available at Cartoon Network, LLP, et al. v. Cablevision. In my humble yet [...]
When is the last time you heard of someone getting a really "big break" in the music industry through any contest, other than perhaps American Idol? That's because most artists and songwriters are not discovered through contests, they are discovered through relationships in the industry. Yet, there are literally hundreds of such contests out there [...]
One question clients often asked me is whether an idea can be protected. The question frequently arises when a client has an idea for a screenplay, or an outline for a story, or a unique title for a song or book, and wishes to submit or “pitching” that idea to a major movie house, publisher [...]
There is a great deal of talk these days about the concept of "freeconomics," spurned by the fact that most teenagers and college students are still ripping music and sharing it online. Most recently, the major record labels commissioned a study from two think tanks, The Leading Question and Music Ally, which resulted in a [...]
You say you want a revolution Well, you know We all want to change the world . . . You say you've got a real solution Well, you know We'd all love to see the plan You ask me for a contribution Well, you know We are doing what we can [...]
The concept of “fair use” is a very misunderstood concept. The first common misunderstanding that people espouse is that the concept of “fair use” is a right or privilege granted by copyright law. It is not. Secondly, many people mistakenly believe that so long as they do not make any money from an infringing use [...]
I received a call from one of my readers to address the topic of whether a songwriter has the ability to restrict the use of his or her composition in the instance it is being used in advancing a cause opposite to that espoused by the songwriter. This was spawned, of course, by the recent [...]
U.S. District Judge for the District of Connecticut Justice Janet Bond Arterton, handed down a very pointed and decisive opinion hammering the R.I.A.A. for its boilerplate style of pleading in the nationwide wide campaign against illegal file sharing. Justice Arterton was appointed by President Clinton in 1995. The full decision is here: Decision. At several [...]
The U.S. House of Representatives introduced a 69-page bill entitled the "Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2007." The legislation is significant in that it increases civil penalties for copyright infringement, expands criminal enforcement, and creates both a new federal agency and a new division of the Attorney General's office of the [...]
You don't tug on Superman's cape, You don't spit into the wind You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger And you don't mess around with Jim These lyrics from Jim Croce's classic pop song You Don't Mess Around with Jim have evolved into pop culture expressions used by people the world over. [...]
