Weekly Wednesday Wrapup - May 5, 2010

This week the Second Circuit and rappers bring the headlines in copyright news:

• Remember: Copyright does not cover ideas including pureeing vegetables to “sneak” them into kids' diets. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals, upheld a lower court’s decision that no copyright infringement occurred as Jessica Seinfeld’s cookbook Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food was “very different” from Missy Chase Lapine’s cookbook The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals. See order here.


• Second Circuit upholds RIAA’s method of obtaining identities of alleged copyright infringers who downloaded music through subpoenas of internet service providers. See order here.


• Second Circuit vacates preliminary injunction and remands to district court to follow the Supreme Court’s decision in Ebay v. MercExchange where court finds likelihood of copyright infringement of The Catcher in the Rye and its main character Holden Caufield by Fredrik Colting and his book 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye. See order here.

Now onto the rappers:

• Lil Wayne has been sued for copyright infringement by rapper Dirahn Gilliams who claims Lil Wayne used portions of his song “Grinding Like A Goon” in the multi-platinum hit “Lollipop”.


• Continuing with the hip hop theme, Akon filed a copyright lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against Konvict cosmetics over their Konvict fragrance. According to the rapper, he had been in talks with the company over a fragrance line, however no deal was actually finalized.

And in other news:

• Don Henley has sued the Republican Senate hopeful Chuck DeVore for copyright infringement after Devore retooled Henley’s songs “The Boys of Summer” and “All She Wants to Do is Dance” to “Hope of November” and “All She Wants to Do is Tax” in campaign videos.
  See complaint here.

While fair use is likely to be raised by DeVore, I don’t think that he has the same arguments in the You Tube / Prince lawsuit. Nor do I think that a claim of parody could be successful – it is difficult to comprehend how a political attack ad to drum up political campaign contributions [there goes the whole not for profit angle] can be seen as a parody of the Don Henley songs. DeVore and other Defendants claim that they were making a political point as Henley represents the entertainment industry. [This is not only a weak argument but also leads anyone to believe DeVore could have taken any song by any artist and claim that they represent the entertainment industry.]

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.