Category: Copyright

As the calendar turned to 2018, a new German social media laws are set to be vigorously enforced requiring social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, etc. to remove hate speech, fake news, and “criminal content.” See BBC report here. While the new German law applies only to websites with 2 million or more members, that […]

We wrote recently about our outrage at white nationalists modifying and using the Detroit Red Wing’s famous “winged wheel” logo. Our outrage continues and we take a closer look at the potential lawsuit that might be in order. This is also a timely way to consider some other lessons such as no-assets defendants and so-called […]

Copyright law protects any creative/artistic work as soon as it is fixed in a tangible medium. As the owner of the creative/artistic work, you own a variety of rights associated with your work, including the exclusive right to distribute, reproduce, perform, display, and prepare derivative works. Copyright registration exists separately from common law copyright protection […]

With 2017 almost here, I have noticed people posting reminders to update the copyright notices on website footers. And while this is not “wrong,” it shows a common misconception of what copyright law is, what it does, and how it works. So, I thought this would be a good time to review copyright law in […]

Copyright infringement is serious business and a true violation is something that should be addressed as soon as possible. But what if it isn’t a true violation? What if it was a ploy to make money? And, whether true or a scheme, how would …

Safe Harboring eSports Broadcasting A primary player within the eSports arena is the League of Legends, which is currently in the center of a complicated copyright dispute. Among the participants in this issue are Twitch, Azubu, and Riot. The dispute centers around “SpectateFaker,” a Twitch stream that released raw footage of Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok’s games […]

In the June 2016 decision of Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2016), the Supreme Court held that in copyright cases, district courts should give “substantial weight” to the objective reasonableness of the losing party’s position when determining whether to award attorney’s fees. The Court vacated the Second Circuit’s ruling against awarding attorney’s fees […]

Virtual reality (VR) is a unique puzzle in copyright infringement because of its relative newness—at least, compared to other copyright-protected materials. Despite that, we have a pretty good idea of the technology’s potential, as anybody familiar with the Enterprise-D’s holodeck can testify to. A television show, book, or sculpture is presented to the viewer as […]

This week, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) net neutrality rules. The net neutrality rules in place prevent internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking, disrupting, or diminishing internet traffic that may not be profitable. The rules effectively classify high-speed internet as a public utility, like water or […]

There is currently no federal law regulating the distribution of revenge porn, also known as nonconsensual pornography (NCP). The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative has created a model for what the federal government could eventually adopt. The model essentially lays out that if a person knowingly distributes sexually explicit material about another person, knowing they did […]