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The content in this post was found at https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/06/dancing-baby-lawsuit-finally-settles-baby-is-now-a-middle-school-student/ Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post. and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com.

Tech Dirt

by Tim Cushing
Fri, Jul 13th 2018

There are bogus DMCA takedown requests — something we’ve covered frequently here — that try to use a copyright tool to make unflattering content disappear. Then there’s this form of bogus, the kind being engaged in by Digimarc. It appears to be the result of inadequate automation handling everything terribly.

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The content in this post was found at https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180711/06075840213/digimarc-fighting-piracy-submitting-incomplete-dmca-notices-targeting-tons-non-infringing-urls-including-techdirts.shtml  Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post. and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com.

Drye Whit
By Lee Brenner and Sarah Cronin on July 13, 2018

This week, on July 11, 2018, the Ninth Circuit issued an order which both denied a petition to rehear its “Blurred Lines” decision en banc, which upheld the 2015 jury verdict that the hit song “Blurred Lines” by Pharrell Williams, Clifford Harris, Jr. (aka “T.I.”), and Robin Thicke infringed the copyright to Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up,” and amended its original opinion.  Opinion.  While the denial of the petition to rehear the case en banc is grabbing all the headlines, it is the amended opinion that stands to make the biggest impact on copyright law.  The amended opinion quietly deletes all references to the oft-criticized inverse ratio rule.  By taking out all references to the so-called inverse ratio rule in its amended opinion (and in the dissent), the Ninth Circuit may be signaling that the inverse ratio rule (considered and rejected by the Second Circuit more than 50 years ago) has finally danced its last dance in the Ninth Circuit.

As we pointed out in our 2011 article, as a practical matter, the so-called inverse ratio rule makes precisely no sense.  As stated from time to time, under the inverse ratio “rule,” if the plaintiff establishes a high degree of access to its work by the defendants, a finding of copyright infringement may supposedly be based upon a lesser degree of similarity.  Nonsense.  As a matter of basic copyright law, no degree of access can substitute for a finding that the works are in fact substantially similar within the meaning of the Copyright Act.

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The content in this post was found at https://www.dryewit.com/2018/07/did-the-ninth-circuits-blurred-lines-ruling-just-quietly-move-to-kill-off-the-so-called-inverse-ratio-rule Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post. and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com.

Technology & Marketing Law Blog
July 15, 2018 · by Eric Goldman

[ed note: Eric does a great job of illustrating the fine points of image comparison in this complex copyright case]

Laspata is “a boutique creative marketing agency” that charges a lot of money. For its client, Laspata created a 1920s-themed “lookbook” called “Speechless” that riffed on the Academy Award-winning movie The Artist.

Rimowa makes luggage priced above my budget. Meire is a German ad agency retained by Rimowa. Rimowa asked Meire to create a lookbook called “The Journey,” themed on 1920s air travel. Meire did what any good ad agency does and trolled the Internet looking for photos. This process captured several of Laspata’s photos. Meire then created collages using these found photos and photos of Rimowa’s luggage, including 4 collages that included photos from Laspata. Rimowa also did a “behind-the-scenes” video of the lookbook photoshoot (because watching ad agencies cut-and-paste photos from the Internet is pretty fascinating viewing?). Laspata’s photos also showed up in the video.

Laspata sued Meire and Rimowa for copyright infringement. The court holds that the substantial similarity test doesn’t support either side as a matter of law:

as to the photographs at issue, certain aspects of the Laspata photographs are unprotectable scenes-à-faire that constitute stock elements of the 1920s, classic Hollywood aesthetic. However, many similarities between the Laspata and Meiré photographs do not involve such unprotectable elements, such that a reasonable jury could find that the alleged copies are substantially similar to the Laspata originals. At the same time, these similarities are not so encompassing as to persuade the Court to rule that the works are substantially similar as a matter of law.

This tees up the case for trial.

Case citation: Laspata DeCaro Studio Corporation v. Rimowa GmbH, 2018 WL 3059650 (SDNY June 20, 2018)

Global IP and Technology Law Blog

Allyson Madrid and Audrey Nicolson on March 27, 2018

Last month, in a February 8, 2018 Order, the Central District of California vacated its injunction in Greg Young Publishing, Inc. v. Zazzle, Inc., 2:16-cv-04587-SVW-KS, in which Zazzle was “permanently enjoined from infringing any of the exclusive rights in 17 U.S.C. § 106 with respect to Plaintiff’s copyrighted works…”  See Permanent Injunction and Order, October 27, 2017.  The court’s February 8th decision acknowledged the practical challenges a platform such as Zazzle would face in complying with the injunction and found that damages were an adequate remedy in the circumstances.

Zazzle is a website that allows users to upload and print images on a wide variety of household items.  In 2016, Zazzle was sued for copyright infringement by a licensing company alleging that Zazzle allowed users to upload the licensing company’s copyrighted artwork.  Following a trial last fall, the judge ordered Zazzle to cease infringing the copyright in artists’ works owned by the plaintiff.

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The content in this post was found at https://www.iptechblog.com/2018/03/zazzle-and-other-print-on-demand-websites-can-breathe-a-sigh-of-relief-for-now

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IP Watchdog

Gene Quinn
March 27, 2018The Federal Circuit found Google’s use of Java API packages in it’s Android operating system was not a fair use as a matter of law, resurrecting a multi-billion dollar copyright case brought by Oracle Corp against Google. With copyrightability and fair use now decided, unless the Supreme Court intervenes (which seems unlikely) this case will head back to the district court for a damages trial with the sole question being how much money Google owes Oracle America. “This is a hugely important development in the law of copyright and fair use. If it stands, there are numerous implications,” said J. Michael Keyes is a partner at the international law firm Dorsey & Whitney.

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The content in this post was found at https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/03/27/google-copying-java-api-packages-not-fair-use/id=95319/

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IP Litigation Current

KIMBERLY DODD AND JOEL DIAMOND ON 27 MARCH 2018

The Southern District of New York has teed up an important copyright issue for interlocutory appeal, which could create a circuit split with the Ninth Circuit’s 2006 decision Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc.  On March 19, Judge Katherine Forrest certified for interlocutory appeal her February 15 summary judgment decision favoring the copyright owner, Justin Goldman.  In her summary judgment decision, she rejected the publishers’ argument that “embedding” Tweets with the allegedly infringing photo was not copyright infringement, expressing skepticism with the Ninth Circuit’s “Server Test” set forth in Perfect 10 v. Amazon.

This copyright action stems from a photo that Goldman took of Tom Brady with Danny Ainge (the GM of the Boston Celtics) and others in the Hamptons in 2016 when the Celtics were attempting (unsuccessfully) to recruit Kevin Durant. Three days later, Durant announced he would sign with the Golden State Warriors.

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IP Watchdog

Raymond Van Dyke
April 5, 2018

These issues of fairness and fair use are played out in the recent Oracle v. Google decision. In a convoluted case that has gone up to the Supreme Court once and will again, the Federal Circuit finally was able to make a ruling that the blatant, verbatim copying of computer code is not a fair use. At issue were the copying of 37 Oracle programs or apps, constituting over 11,500 lines of code, by Google for their use in the Android operating system for smart phones and other uses… In the Federal Circuit’s final analysis of the four factors, they again noted that Google could have written their own code or properly licensed with Oracle, but instead chose to copy. “There is nothing fair about taking a copyrighted work verbatim and using it for the same purpose and function as the original in a competing platform.” Accordingly, the Federal Circuit held that Google’s use of the Oracle code was not a fair use.

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The content in this post was found at 

https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/04/05/how-not-to-copy-what-is-fair-and-what-is-fair-use/id=95512/

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IP Watchdog

Franco Galbo
April 6, 2018

Of all of the things NFL quarterback Tom Brady has been accused of ruining over the years, the internet is not necessarily at the top of the list, and certainly not based on an alleged copyright infringement that he had no part in perpetuating. Yet, a photograph of him and Danny Ainge, the general manager of the Boston Celtics, could in fact forever change the internet and online publishing as we know it.

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he content in this post was found at 

https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/04/06/tom-brady-embedded-tweets-online-publishing/id=95387/

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IP Watchdog

By Gene Quinn
March 21, 2018

On Wednesday, March 21, 2018, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the song Blurred Lines infringed the copyright in Marvin Gaye’s song Got To Give It Up. See Williams v. Gaye, No. 15-56880. Affirming most of the decision of the district court, the Ninth Circuit also held that the award of actual damages and infringers’ profits, and a running royalty, were all proper.

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The content in this post was found at https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/03/21/blurred-lines-infringed-got-to-give-it-up/id=95108/

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