Here is a copy (below) of the June 2, 2008 decision of Judge Sidley Stein in the Southern District of New York, holding that a 15 second snippet of the Lennon song “Imagine,” within the feature length movie “Expelled“, is “fair use” under U.S. copyright law. In other words, the film makers did not infringe Yoko Ono’s copyright rights. “Expelled” is a documentary that deals with “intelligent design” (vs. Darwinism, Creationism, ect.), and is narrated by Ben Stein of Ferris Buehler fame (presumably no relation to Judge Stein, but bad luck of the draw for Yoko Ono nevertheless).
The “fair use” doctrine is an exception to the legal rights of U.S.copyright owners. It permits the use and publication, without permission, of parts of the work for purposes of “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching … scholarship, or research.” A large body of judge-made law has built up interpreting and applying this doctrine.
The court’s ruling on fair use is no surprise, and applies “black-letter” fair use law to undisputed facts. Any outcome other than a ruling in favor of fair use would have been a surprise. For more on fair use click here.
The best aspect of law school is the subordination of math. Anon
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Are judges good at math? Foolish question, of course. Since many lawyers have a math phobia, it follows that many judges would, as well.
Nevertheless, a group of academics gave a three-question quiz to a group of several hundred trial judges. The purpose of the quiz was to determine whether the judges’ style of cognitive reflection, as a group, was “intuitive” (i.e., bad) or “analytical (i.e. “good”) decision makers.
Here are the three questions. Each one is designed to have you “jump” to a quick, intuitive wrong answer, whereas analytical reflection will lead to the non-obvious right answer.
(1) A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? _____cents
(2) If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets? _____minutes
(3) In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake? _____days.
Not surprisingly, the judges failed miserably. 31% got all three questions wrong, and only 15% got all three right. Yes, for the most part lawyers and judges are bad at math. Does that mean they are intuitive and not analytical? I don’t think so. Ask the question in the wrong language, and you are sure to get the wrong answer. I think judges and lawyers are particularly good at an (arguably) more complex, but certainly different, kind of analytical thinking that may not carry over into straight logic or mathematics.
Oh, and if you’ve taken the test yourself, click here to see how you did. If you’re a lawyer and you can’t figure out how these answers are correct (and your “intuitive” answers were wrong), you should be very glad that you went to law school.
See Xconomy article here for details. Quoting from the article:
Employee Non-Compete Agreements: Protecting Innovation or Stifling It?
Thursday, June 19th, 3:00-7:00 pm
Ames Courtroom, 2nd floor of Austin Hall, Harvard Law School
There will be a panel discussion, followed by a cocktail reception. Anyone is free to attend. You just have to register by June 12 (a week before the event) by emailing your name, title and company to Amar Ashar at the Berkman Center: ashar@cyber.law.harvard.edu.
The “Oyez” web site now presents oral arguments before the Supreme Court in multimedia: As you listen to the argument you see a synchronized transcript, and a photo of the judge or lawyer speaking appears every time there is a change in speaker. This multimedia presentation makes the experience of listening to these arguments much easier and more pleasant. Link here.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court has made its unpublished decisions available here. This is particularly helpful, since these decisions are difficult to obtain, and on February 25, 2008, the Court issued a ruling permitting unpublished decisions to be cited for their “persuasive value.” This modified a 23 year old court rule that unpublished decisions could not be cited as legal authority.
Massachusetts Federal District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor, IV has issued a written decision in Commerce Bank and Trust Co. v. TD Banknorth, Inc. (see below). Judge Saylor found a likelihood of confusion between “Commerce Bank” and “TD Commerce Bank,” and issued a preliminary injunction in favor of the plaintiff. While this decision is unexceptional, it is a helpful road map to trademark law in this district, and is another example of Judge Saylor’s crisp and comprehensive writing style.
A lot of people are having a hard time understanding how the country got into the sub-prime mortgage mess, or even exactly what a “sub-prime mortgage” is. How could so many intelligent, responsible people in housing, banking, finance and government have gotten this so wrong? If you’re are one of these people, this skit may aid your understanding.
This site is hosted by Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a technology law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. You can find a summary of our services here. To learn how GU can help you, contact: Lee Gesmer
Here is a copy (below) of the June 2, 2008 decision of Judge Sidley Stein in the Southern District of New York, holding that a 15 second snippet of the Lennon song “Imagine,” within the feature length movie “Expelled“, is “fair use” under U.S. copyright law. In other words, the film makers did not infringe Yoko Ono’s copyright rights. “Expelled” is a documentary that deals with “intelligent design” (vs. Darwinism, Creationism, ect.), and is narrated by Ben Stein of Ferris Buehler fame (presumably no relation to Judge Stein, but bad luck of the draw for Yoko Ono nevertheless).