Joshua Lange, the named defendant, owns, operates, and is the sole employee of his internet site, Motherless.com. The site contains over 12.6 million mostly pornographic pictures and video clips. The content generally has been uploaded by the site’s users, and the uploaders may or may not have created the material. Motherless stores the content on servers that Lange owns. In 2011, the website had nearly 750,000 active users and about 611,000 visits daily.
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When the owner of a foreign website, acting abroad, uploads video content in which another party holds exclusive United States public performance rights under the Copyright Act and then directs the uploaded content to United States viewers upon their request, does it commit an infringing “performance” under the Act? If so, is it protected from liability by the principle – unquestioned here – that the Act has no extraterritorial application?
Comments closedFebruary this year the Russian Supreme Court proposed to free Russian judges from reasoning their decisions. The rationale for such decision was the fact that sometimes the parties of case do not require it, or do not attend the court when it considers the case. Motivational part in court’s decision explains why the court made its decision, which legal norms it has applied.
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The plaintiff alleged that the defendant infringed on his pen and ink depiction of two dolphins crossing underwater. Applying the objective extrinsic test for substantial similarity, the panel held that the only area of commonality between the parties’ works was an element first found in nature, expressing ideas that nature has already expressed for all, a court need not permit the case to go to a trier of fact.
Comments closedThis copyright infringement case concerns a collection of live audio and audiovisual recordings of iconic songs that were recorded while being performed live in concert and thereafter acquired by defendants William E. Sagan, Bill Graham Archives, LLC, and Norton, LLC, from the late Bill Graham and operators of other concert venues. The collection primarily consists of recordings made from the 1960s to the 2000s.
Comments closedWhen the Copyright Act was amended in 1976, the words “tweet,” “viral,” and “embed” invoked thoughts of a bird, a disease, and a reporter. Decades later, these same terms have taken on new meanings as the centerpieces of an interconnected world wide web in which images are shared with dizzying speed over the course of any given news day.
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The claimant and appellant The London Taxi Corporation Limited (“LTC”) contends that it can be. It further contends that the defendants and respondents Frazer-Nash Research Limited (“FNR”) and Ecotive Limited (“Ecotive”) threaten to infringe two of its registered trade marks (“the LTC marks”) which depict models of its taxis, by launching a new London taxi, the new Metrocab.
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Oslo Municipality applied for trade mark protection for a number of artworks that will become freely available under the Norwegian Copyright Act. Oslo Municipality applied for trade mark protection with regard to several artworks of the oeuvre of Gustav Vigeland, one of the most eminent Norwegian sculptors. Following the refusal to register some trademarks the municipality has appealed.
Comments closedMr. Tolsma (plaintiff) challenged a decision in which the Inspector of Turnover Taxes charged certain sums as turnover taxes on the Tolsma’s activity as the operator of a barrel organ. The plaintiff uses that instrument to play music on the public highway, on which occasions he solicits ‘remuneration’ from passers-by by rattling his collecting tin.
Comments closedFord Motor Company and its advertising agency, Young & Rubicam, Inc., in 1985 advertised the Ford Lincoln Mercury with a series of nineteen 30 or 60 second television commercials in what the agency called “The Yuppie Campaign.” The aim was to make an emotional connection with Yuppies, bringing back memories of when they were in college.
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