Weekly Wednesday Wrapup - April 28, 2010

• 2 DAYS LEFT – DEADLINE APRIL 30, 2010 5PM
  The U.S. Copyright Office is seeking comments on termination rights particularly for those grants which occurred prior to the enactment of the 1976 Copyright Act on January 1, 1978 AND the creation of the work began after the enactment of the 1976 Copyright Act on January 1, 1978. An example is provided by the Copyright Office. Send comments here.
  
  
• Commentary on Radio Royalties and whether performers should be paid royalties for airplay on AM/FM radio.

In what ways, if any would the payment of royalties for performance affect airplay on the radio? What if for instance certain record companies or artists “waived” their royalties for radio airplay? Would radio stations give more spins to performance royalty-free songs? What do you think?

• Ripped from the Headlines takes on a whole new meaning as Dow Jones alleges copyright infringement and hot news misappropriation against Briefing.com for copying and re-publishing Dow Jones headlines and articles.
  
  
• Aquarium Facebook games faceoff in copyright infringement action.
  
  
• Copyright infringement alleged against former student by professor for course materials in teacher’s certification program.

Weekly Wednesday Wrapup - April 21, 2010

This past week has been very eventful in terms of copyright law news. Below is a listing with links of some of the headlines from the past week.

• Supreme Court to decide copyright first sale doctrine case – Costco v. Omega
  
  
• More documents made public in Viacom v. YouTube copyright infringement lawsuit.
  
  Individual documents here:
  Exhibit 52, Exhibit 59, Exhibit 60, Exhibit 63, Exhibit 81, Exhibit 242, Exhibit 314 , Exhibit 321, Exhibit 340
  
  
• Frankie Valli files copyright infringement lawsuit against former Jersey Boys.
  
  
• Library of Congress will retain public tweets.
  
  
• Also, the coincidence of the week, the approval process has started for a futures investment market for box office sales in the first week of release.
  
  This has not received a warm welcome from the motion picture studios. For the past 2 weeks, the results of the box office have been too close to call with later revisions determining the projected winner in fact was in second place.
  
  
• And finally, just when you thought it was safe to send out cease and desist and offers to settle letters to copyright infringers…..apparently computer hackers are threatening copyright infringement lawsuits to scam those who download from BitTorrent.

Has Amazon Revived the Recall Remedy?

     Recall is a seldom used remedy in intellectual property infringement cases, often due to the difficulties and costs associated with a recall. However, with the downloadable nature of many copyrighted works, the burdens associated with recalls are being minimized. As evidenced by Amazon’s recent recall of George Orwell books, recall may be a remedy worth a second look.