Jan 23, 2024 French Montana and the Scope of Copyright Protection for Sound Recordings vs. Compositions By Brian Murphy You have to tip your hi-hat to Eddie Lee Richardson, a/k/a Hotwire the Producer, a/k/a the plaintiff in this case. When he was 16 years...
Dec 29, 2023 Mickey Mouse (Version 1.0) Enters the Public Domain in the U.S. By Brian Murphy So, it is happening. The animated short “Steamboat Willie,” which was released in 1928 and features an early version of Mickey Mouse,...
Dec 26, 2023 Hallmark Holiday Movies and the Scènes à Faire Doctrine By Brian Murphy During the holidays, the television in my octogenarian parents' home toggles back-and-forth between Fox News (my father's choice) and the...
Mar 15, 2022 How Does That Song Go Again? Lyrics Database's Claims Alleging "Scraping" in Violation of TOS Preempted by Copyright By Brian Murphy Be honest. Were you as puzzled as I the first time you (mis)heard Taylor Swift, in "Blank Space," singing about “all the lonely Starbucks...
Mar 10, 2022 What Does it Take to Dismiss a Copyright Complaint in the Ninth Circuit? By Brian Murphy Within ten days of each other, two Ninth Circuit panels took up the question of whether complaints alleging copyright infringement had...
Mar 04, 2022 An Interesting Cross-Border Copyright Dispute Involving the (Typically Not That Interesting) Government Edicts Doctrine By Brian Murphy In the 2019-2020 term, the Supreme Court issued two copyright opinions that seemed, at the time (at least to me), to be of little...
Feb 22, 2022 Texas A&M Immune From Copyright Lawsuit Over Unauthorized Publication of Article About the "12th Man" By Brian Murphy 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Texas A&M University's "12th man" tradition. For those who are not familiar with the...
Feb 15, 2022 Jeff Koons Accused of Copyright Infringement For Unauthorized Use of a Snake Sculpture in Three Iconic Works By Brian Murphy Plaintiff Michael Hayden is an American who, in the late 1980s, was living la dolce vita in Italy, working as an artist and set designer....
Feb 06, 2022 The Eleventh Circuit's Melodramatic (?) Copyright License Interpretation (About a Telenovela!) By Brian Murphy El Señor de los Cielosthe plot summary, to be my kind of fare. The series tells the story of Aurelio Casillas, a drug lord who has la...
Feb 04, 2022 District Court to Plaintiffs: If You Don't Like Perfect 10 v Amazon, "Appeal to Ninth Circuit"! By Brian Murphy Alexis Hunley and Matthew Brauer are not fans of Instagram's embedding functionality. And they (and their counsel) are nothing, if not...
Jan 31, 2022 When Copying Isn't Infringement: Filtering Out Facts By Brian Murphy Another day, another copyright lawsuit involving car advertising. Last week's case - our first nominee for "Silliest Copyright Case of...
Jan 17, 2022 Rapper Fat Joe Lost the Signed Contract ... But Still Wins Case Over Ownership of "All the Way Up" By Brian Murphy Lawyers often tell clients: put it in writing. A corollary, which often goes unsaid (but perhaps shouldn't), is: save a copy. This case...
Dec 31, 2021 Taylor Swift Can't Catch a Break, Break, Break, Break ... By Brian Murphy Taylor Swift just can't ... give it the slip ... skip out on it ... pay no mind to it ... Oh, Jiminy Cricket. I'm just going to say it....
Dec 20, 2021 Vegan Dog Treats and Copyright By Brian Murphy Chef Chloe Coscarelli - the first vegan chef to be crowned a winner on the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars - has been waging a years-long,...
Sep 19, 2021 Instagram Prevails with "Server Test" Defense in Photo Embedding Case By Brian Murphy Yet another photo embedding case, but this time Instagram wins based on the court's application of the "server test." The plaintiffs own...
Sep 01, 2021 Do You Need a Copyright License to Post a Floorplan of a Building Online? By Brian Murphy My Apple News feed nourishes me, on a daily basis, with news about politics, the Real Housewives, and beautiful homes that fall into the...