Copyright
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Intellectual Property
Terminators, Mount Up!: Section 203 And Copyright Recovery (Part I)
Those who acquired copyrights for a pittance and built huge entertainment empires on their backs have been loathe to acquiesce to the statutory termination right. -
Intellectual Property
Conan O'Brien On Copyright Trolling
Lessons from the famous late-night host on why he settled a lawsuit filed against him and his writing team for alleged joke-stealing. - Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 05.10.19
* With numerous contempt of Congress charges swirling thanks to the inaction of Trump administration officials, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has declared that the nation is in the midst of a constitutional crisis. It was only a matter of time before this happened. [New York Times]
* Meanwhile, in the wake of Speaker Pelosi’s comments, President Trump now says that he’ll leave it up to AG Bill Barr to determine whether special counsel Robert Mueller will be permitted to testify before Congress. Frankly, he’s more concerned about Don Jr. now. [New York Times]
* C. Allen Parker, former Cravath presiding partner turned Wells Fargo GC turned Wells Fargo acting CEO, has done something very wise in his short time leading the troubled bank: He created a regulatory and compliance group. Smooth move! [Corporate Counsel]
* “I want my life back.” Jessica Crutcher has come forward as the formerly anonymous Mayer Brown partner behind the $20 million suit where she alleged that a bartender at a Houston restaurant raped her. [Texas Lawyer]
* Paul Manafort has officially been disbarred in D.C. after his conviction for “tampering with witnesses while on pre-trial release,” a crime of moral turpitude. This poor crook lost everything thanks to his association with Donald Trump. [Big Law Business]
* Conan O’Brien has settled a lawsuit that accused him of copyright infringement through joke theft, writing that he “decided to forgo a potentially farcical and expensive jury trial in federal court over five jokes that don’t even make sense anymore.” [Variety]
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Intellectual Property
Automated Copyright Filtering Removes Public Domain Mueller Report From Platform
Automated upload filters are ripe for potential abuse, or at least significant confusion. -
Intellectual Property
Cityscapes And Sets Of Teeth Are Once Against Copyright-Protected
Photographers can savor the warmth of two pro-artist rulings and move forward with knowledge that their work will be protected. -
Biglaw
Biglaw Porn Attorney Is In Biglaw No More
He's hanging up his own shingle to represent the porn studio. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 05.03.19
* “Karaoke, ax-throwing sites want to sell beer under Utah law.” Obviously one of those raises way more safety concerns for innocent bar patrons than the other — let the ax places sell beer. [Fox News]
* Overrated: This whole affair has hurt Bill Barr’s reputation. Underrated: This whole affair has hurt Emmet Flood’s reputation. [Politico]
* Ninth Circuit cuts off copyright claims that could have been brought as part of an earlier patent suit. Everyone should be a lot more troubled that copyright is bleeding into patent so much that this was even a discussion. [The Recorder]
* Facial recognition software has some well-documented problems and now regulation is coming. [Legaltech News]
* Diverse legal teams are happier. [Law360]
* DLA Piper leans into tech development. [American Lawyer]
* George Carlin’s impact on legal history. [Biography]
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Intellectual Property
Spotty Financials: Streaming Services And Copyright Damages
Content-streaming services are raking in cash, but it is not yet entirely clear what happens when some of that cash is ill-gotten, say as a result of copyright infringement. - Sponsored
Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
In this CLE-eligible webinar, we’ll explore the most common accounting pitfalls and how to avoid them for your firm. -
Non-Sequiturs
Non Sequiturs: 04.28.19
* Adam Feldman poses — and answers — an interesting question: are particular justices more or less partial to certain lawyers’ or law firms’ positions? [Empirical SCOTUS]
* Speaking of the federal judiciary, Carrie Severino offers this helpful scorecard of President Donald Trump’s track record on judicial appointments — which underscores, as she notes, the importance of the 2020 elections. [Bench Memos / National Review]
* And speaking of President Trump, Joshua Matz and Laurence Tribe have this excellent explanation of why the Supreme Court does not have a role in adjudicating impeachments. [Take Care]
* In the wake of the Mueller Report, Ilya Somin pushes back against conventional wisdom and takes this position: “Not all foreign interference in elections is unjustified. Far from it, in fact.” [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
* Fair use in the copyright context is an infamously amorphous concept — so the Fourth Circuit’s recent ruling in Brammer v. Violent Hues Productions deserves your attention. [All Rights Reserved]
* Congratulations to Westlaw Edge, voted the “best new analytics product” by the readers of Dewey B Strategic. [Dewey B Strategic]
* And congrats to Kira Systems on being picked by Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner as its AI solution for “high-volume workstreams” across the firm. [Artificial Lawyer]
* If you’re a libertarian-leaning lawyer with two to six years of experience under your belt, check out these great employment opportunities over at IJ. [Institute for Justice via Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
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Intellectual Property
Conan And The Vanishing Copyright Trial
Will this stolen joke case actually go to trial, or is a settlement in the works? -
Intellectual Property
Strange Things Happening? How Implied-In-Fact Contracts May Succeed Where Copyright Infringement Claims Can’t Do So
Claiming an implied-in-fact contract based seems a no-so-veiled backdoor attempt to obtain recourse when copyright infringement claims won’t pass muster. -
Non-Sequiturs
Non Sequiturs: 04.21.19
* What’s the future of Elizabeth Prelogar, the beauty queen turned Harvard Law School grad turned Supreme Court clerk turned Team Mueller member? Not clear, except that it’s blindingly bright. [Ozy]
* How often do you see this? A federal judge praises counsel — specifically, J. Christian Adams of the Election Law Center, Douglas R. Cox of Gibson Dunn, Michael E. Rosman of the Center for Individual Rights, and local counsel Mun Su Park — for their “conscientious billing practices.” [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
* Another Lawyerly Lair of Jonathan Schiller, of Boies Schiller Flexner fame: a stunning modern retreat on Martha’s Vineyard, designed by his son, architect Aaron Schiller (whose firm also did the new BSF offices in Hudson Yards). [Martha’s Vineyard]
* Amicus brief of the month: a compelling — and, sadly, entertaining (see the Appendix) — analysis of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s utterly incoherent approach to supposedly “immoral or scandalous” trademarks, filed by William Jay and Goodwin Procter on behalf of law professors Barton Beebe and Jeanne Fromer. [Supreme Court of the United States]
* Here’s a clear and concise explanation of the “Rule of 80,” taking “senior status” as a federal judge, and what this all means for the ideological balance of the judiciary, courtesy of Ed Whelan. [Bench Memos / National Review]
* How should we think about President Donald Trump’s branding of the press as “the enemy of the people”? Negatively, to be sure — but let’s also keep in mind that the media is not a monolith, as First Amendment lawyer Charles Glasser helpfully reminds us. [Daily Caller]
* Stephen Cooper survived a stabbing — then went on to defend violent criminals for many years as a federal public defender. [Alabama Political Reporter]
* Cooper argues that we need to be less punitive and more thoughtful in our treatment of offenders — and Joel Cohen seems to agree, defending an unusual but wise sentence recently handed down by Judge Valerie Caproni (S.D.N.Y.). [New York Law Journal]
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Intellectual Property
Redbubble Blow-Up: IP Scofflaw Given Free Pass
Redbubble, like its online market cohorts, claims to have no responsibility for the goods it sells, and thus no liability for IP infringement -- and a court actually agreed.
Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
Sponsored
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
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Intellectual Property
Ariana Grande Demands All Photographers At Her Concerts Transfer Copyright To Her
To say that this is onerous for photographers would be a laughable understatement. -
Intellectual Property
In Your Face: How Facial Recognition Databases See Copyright Law But Not Your Privacy
Like many legal issues involving evolving technology, there is more here than meets the eye. -
Technology
Federal Prosecutors Recommend Paul Hansmeier Spend The Next 12 Years In Prison
Copyright troll appears to be getting comeuppance. -
Intellectual Property
Nike Prevails In Copyright Case As SCOTUS Rejects Review Of 'Jumpman' Logo
With the high court’s denial of the cert petition, Nike has emerged victorious. -
Intellectual Property
Endel And The Coming Robot Copyright Reckoning
All of this app-generated music raises the question of whether copyrights attach to AI-created works and if so, to whose benefit they inure. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 03.27.19
* Attorney General William Barr says he plans to make a version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report available to Congress and the public within a matter of weeks, and apparently the White House won’t be receiving a copy in advance of the release. [Wall Street Journal]
* Speaking of the Mueller report, Rudy Giuliani says he wouldn’t have any issues with releasing Trump’s written testimony that was submitted to Mueller. Jay Sekulow would beg to differ. [Washington Examiner]
* The EU approved the controversial Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive, a new IP law that will govern the way copyrighted material is uploaded online and who will be liable for infringement. At least memes are exempt? [BBC News]
* Congratulations to Bridget Bade, who was just confirmed to the Ninth Circuit. She’s the 37th circuit court judge to be appointed by President Trump, who is changing the makeup of the federal judiciary, one conservative judge at a time. [Big Law Business]
* Elon Musk must appear in court next week for a contempt hearing over his Tesla tweets against self-interest that are allegedly in breach of his settlement agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. [CNN]
* Your bracket may be busted, but this Biglaw associate has a near-perfect track record. She’s gotten 46 out of 48 matchups right thus far, and at one point she was one of just eight people in the country with a perfect bracket. [American Lawyer]
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Intellectual Property
Ghost In The Machine: Why AI Faces An Uphill Battle For Copyright Authorship
If AI actually creates a work, is it copyrightable, and if so, who is the author?