In X Corp v. Bright Data LTD, X Corp, formerly known as Twitter, sought to put an end to the practice of “scraping” by a company called Bright Data. (A scraper requests and retrieves information without manually browsing pages, often for tailored reasons.) The Northern District of California dismissed the case, finding that X failed…
Sepi v. Netflix et al. was a case in the Western District of Oklahoma that brought the much reviled/loved reality show star Joe Exotic into the national spotlight. The suit against the “Tiger King” was brought by a videographer challenging his work-made-for-hire agreement with Exotic. (Really, the judges refer to him by that name). Sepi…
The copyright bar got some attention at the Supreme Court recently with the decision in Unicolors v. Hennis & Mauritz LLP (H&M). Originating from the Central District of California, this decision ended up being a victory for pro se applicants — with a caveat. Unicolors filed a copyright infringement action against H&M for using Unicolors’…
Yellowcake, Inc. v. Hyphy Music, Inc. is a recent case where a musician initially made an oral agreement with a record company, and then a third party interfered. Jesus Chavez, Sr. is a recording artist of considerable renown and commercial viability, leader of the Mexican band Los Originales De San Juan. At some point, Chavez…
According to Wikipedia, an implicit bias or implicit stereotype is “the unconscious attribution of particular qualities to a member of a certain social group.” Legislation is often written to allow for a substantial degree of judicial discretion — and in these areas of judicial discretion an outside observer might expect to find biases. We’re only human; none of us…
Once upon a time, long before the National Football* League owned a whole day of the week, the first Super Bowl was played on January 15, 1967. A young broadcaster named Frank Gifford helped call the historic game for millions of people watching on CBS and NBC affiliates. Considering its instant success, one would think…
Here in the United States, we sometimes have a hard time determining who owns the copyright of something, or whether a work is in the public domain, subject to fair use, similar enough to be infringing, etc., etc. But on April 15th, the European Union committed itself — and the internet service providers (ISPs) that…
A U.S. Supreme Court decision interpreting what’s necessary to sue under the Copyright Act is both very interesting, and very important. For years, the federal Courts of Appeal have been divided into two schools of thought regarding when a copyright holder has standing to sue for infringement: Those Circuit Courts (like the Second Circuit, presiding…
In Frederick L. Allen; Nautilus Productions, LLC v. Roy A. Cooper, III, Governor of North Carolina, the shipwreck of the infamous pirate ship Queen Anne’s Revenge failed to deliver intellectual property riches its explorers had expected. The Queen Anne’s Revenge famously was run aground off the coast of North Carolina in 1717 — some say intentionally — by Edward…