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Mass Law Blog Updates, Week Ending January 24, 2014

by | Jan 24, 2014 | Weekly Updates

  • Ninth Circuit holds that the First Amendment provides same legal protection to blogger as it does to journalist.  “The protections of the First Amendment do not turn on whether the defendant was a trained journalist, formally affiliated with traditional news entities  …” Obsidian Finance v. Cox
  • EUs highest court holds that DRM circumvention is subject to a  “principal of proportionality” analysis. Techdirt summary here
  • Devlin Hartline explains Aereo in a Nutshell
  • The Copyright Alliance makes it very easy to send an email to your representatives in Congress — on the subject of Congress’s review of copyright law, or anything else. You Create It, You Own It
  • SDNY declines to dismiss Costco counterclaim asserting that “Tiffany” trademark has become generic.   Tiffany v. Costco
  • SDNY Judge Cote’s 64 page decision denying Apple’s motion to stay the work of an external monitor in the e-book antitrust case, pending appeal.  Perhaps the funniest aspect of this decision is the judge’s discussion of Apple’s argument that the monitor (whose hourly rate is $1100/hr)  should be required to comply with Apple’s “Outside Service Provider Policy” and standard expense policy. The judge rejected that argument.  U.S. v. Apple
  • Ownership of IP address alone not enough to properly plead copyright infringement against account owner based on illegal downloads using that address. Elf-Man LLC v. Cariveau (W.D. Wash.)
  • SCOTUSblog recap of oral argument in Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. (take-away: Justices dubious of untimely copyright suits). Oral argument transcript here
  • Eleventh Circuit holds that the author of a musical composition who assigned his rights in exchange for royalties may rely — for purposes of standing to sue for infringement under the Copyright Act — on a registration his publisher filed. Smith v. Casey, K.C. & The Sunshine Band

  • For copyright nerds: “The Role of Volition in Evaluating Direct Copyright Infringement Claims Against Technology Providers ,” by Eleanor M. Lackman and Scott J. Sholder (link)

  • Trade Secrets and Noncompetes, the Year in Review, by Russell Beck (Fair Competition Law)

Mass Law Blog Updates, Week Ending January 17, 2014

by | Jan 17, 2014 | General, Weekly Updates

  • Massachusetts district court judge O’Toole denied a motion to dismiss copyright claims based in part on foreign publication, where plaintiff asserts that the foreign conduct stems from a domestic infringement (the “predicate act doctrine“). Palmer/Kane LLC v. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing LLC
  • D.C. Circuit opinion in Verizon v. Federal Communications Commission, holding that the FCC doesn’t have the authority to impose net neutrality laws on companies
  • An interesting article in PetaPixel, discussing Getty Images and Agence France Presse’s motion to set aside a $1.2 million verdict obtained by Haitian photographer Daniel Morel for copyright infringement of Morel’s images of the aftermath of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake
  • Dow Jones has filed a “hot news” lawsuit against Ransquawk. Techdirt has the cease and desist letter and complaint here
  • The House Committee on the Judiciary continues its hearings on possible  copyright reform, based on technological developments. The focus this week was on the “making available” right.  Video available here. David Nimmer written statement here. A full witness list (and access to all written statements), here.  For an overview on these hearings see this Techdirt article, written last May.
  • The Future of Music Coalition has created a timeline of the House Committee copyright reform  process through January 14, 2014. Coming up: fair use and DMCA notice and takedown
  • On January 17th the American Enterprise Institute Center for Internet Communications and Technology  Policy held a program titled “Tech Policy 2014: The Year Ahead.”  A video broadcast of the program is available here.
  • Copyright and Industrial Design Developments – 2013, by Glen Bloom and Barry Sookman and focusing on Canadian law, is available here.
  • Foss Patents predicts outcome in pending CAFC appeal in Oracle v. Google API copyright case (“it’s practically inconceivable that the district court’s non-copyrightability holding will be upheld”).  

Supreme Court Grants Cert in Aereo Case – See My 4-Part Blog Post on the Case

by | Jan 13, 2014 | Copyright

On Friday the U.S. Supreme Court granted review in American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc.

I wrote a 4-part post on this case in the Spring of 2013. Part I of the series begins here. The series begins as follows:

Aereo is a company that has developed a system that captures over-the-air television (broadcast TV) and retransmits it to subscribers over the Internet. Subscribers are able to watch broadcast TV on their computers, tablets and smart phones. Even better, Aereo acts as a remote digital video recorder (a remote DVR) so subscribers can record programs and stream them at another time. Aereo launched in New York City in early 2012, but it has announced that it is expanding to 21 other cities in 2013.

Is this a problem for broadcasters? You bet it is. . . . . continue reading

MassLawBlog Update, Week Ending January 10, 2014

by | Jan 10, 2014 | Weekly Updates

  • As the week was ending the Supreme Court announced that it would hear the broadcasters’ appeal in the Aereo copyright case . . .
  • . . . as well as Limelight Networks v. Akamai Technologies, which originated in federal court in Boston. The issue in Akamai is whether a company be found to have induced someone else to infringe on a patent, when neither one has directly infringed on patent rights. See my blog post on the CAFC’s fractured en banc decision in this case.
  • Aereo receives $34 million in new funding. This would seem to represent a failure of legal due diligence by the investors (IMHO), as well as extremely bad timing.
  • Infographic claims that MegaUpload had 1 billion users, 50M daily visitors and represented 4% of global Internet traffic
  • Studios Win again in Fight Over User Content: “Safe Harbors” Not so Safe, Websites Find,  in GigaOm, by John Jeff Roberts (in other words, when it comes to the DMCA the worm appears to be turning).
  • The European Commission has posted a lengthy questionnaire soliciting views on EU copyright policy from the public (including those outside the EU)
  • Trademark law: Fourth Circuit upholds district court finding that there is no likelihood of confusion between SWATCH (watches) and SWAP (interchangeable watch faces and bands). Swatch AG v. Beehive
  • Study finds that the rise of file sharing and the parallel decline in revenue has meant the creation of more new music, not less. Empirical Copyright: A Case Study of File Sharing and Music Output, Glynn S. Lunney, Jr. Techdirt summarizes the study.
  • Linkedin complaint vs. Does for scraping and otherwise illegally obtaining user profiles in order to create competing recruiting websites.
  • Ninth Circuit holds that shape of a hookah water container is not protected by copyright under “useful article” doctrine, affirms award of attorney’s fees to defendant by trial court and awards attorney’s fees on appeal. Inhale v. Starbuzz.
  • Top Ten Internet Law Developments of 2013, by Eric Goldman in Forbes. (Yes, Aereo is in there).
  • Defendant allegedly, unauthorizedly, provided Oracle customers with updates to Oracle software. N. Dist. Cal. denies motion to dismiss claims under CFAA, breach of contract, copyright infringement and Lanham Act. Oracle America v. TERiX Computer Company.

MassLawBlog Updates, Week Ending January 3, 2014

by | Jan 3, 2014 | Weekly Updates