FBI Anti-Piracy Warning for Your Films
When you watch a movie or TV series on DVD at home, one of the first things you are typically greeted with is a blue screen displaying an FBI logo and some language about a $250,000 fine for copying the…
Right to Use versus Right to Exclude
The law provides for different rights, depending on the subject matter concerned, the evolution of the law through courts and legislative bodies, and practical implications. Some people think that a patent or a trademark gives the owner a right to…
Registering for Federal Copyright Protection
Copyright is protection for “original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.” If you make something creative on your own, and it is something tangible or on something tangible, the work is eligible for copyright protection. The…
Who owns my logo? The graphic design company that developed it or me?
You may have hired a graphic artist or agency to develop your company’s logo. Do you know who owns the rights in it? There are two main types of intellectual property rights that can reside in a logo: copyright and…
Copyright Protection and Fonts
A friend of mine is working on a children’s book and wanted to use some highly stylized fonts for the story. She asked me if she had to worry about copyright protection and fonts she might use, but I couldn’t…
Copyright Infringement on the Web – DMCA Takedown Notices
Congress created a procedure that content owners can use to ask websites to remove content protected by their copyright. The mechanism creates an incentive for webhosts, internet services providers, and search engines to remove (or at least investigate removing) material…
TED Talk: Johanna Blakley: Lessons from fashion’s free culture
In this video, Johanna Blakley provides a good overview of the interaction between copyright and fashion. There are some slight inaccuracies in what she presents, but overall it is an excellent talk. And her remarks in the last few minutes…
A Lesson in Copyrights and Licensing from The Verve
Do you remember the song Bittersweet Symphony? It was a huge hit around the world in 1997, used in movies, TV shows, and commercials. It has been sampled many times for re-use in other songs. The hit was written and performed…
Is Web Scraping Legal?
I had a friend get in touch with me a while back about the legalities of web scraping. He found, and I’m finding too, a tremendous lack of information about web scraping. I think this is a result of there being so many strange ramifications depending on the many variables in the facts of each situation. I got interested in the legal issues involved in web scraping, and so I put together a hypothetical to test some of them out.
Take Down Duties for Copyrighted Material
Ben Sheffner writes about the recent Viacom v. YouTube case, which he finds extremely disappointing in its dodging of the question of what, besides an official takedown notice, can require an online content provider to remove copyrighted material. Quick background:…