Copyright Law

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Most of us easily will recall one of the first uses of the internet: Napster. While Napster thrilled users with the prospect of “free” music and the ability to locate those obscure songs you thought were lost when your last vinyl LP record broke, its widespread use was devastating to the retail music industry and infuriated Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. Further, in most instances, the use of Napster to download music and other content also amounted to copyright infringement. Accordingly, Napster was sued, the general public was educated about the fact that stealing copyrighted content is unlawful, and Lars Ulrich was happy.

The end of Napster marked only the beginning of the use of the internet for sharing files over what are called peer-to-peer (“P2P”) networks. Although Napster ultimately was moved to make adaptations to comply with copyright laws, multiple other unrestricted P2P file-sharing tools sprang up in its place. Seemingly overnight, tools like LimeWire Kazaa, and BearShare came into existence to fill the void left by Napster.Continue Reading The Trouble With Torrents

By Jeff Pietsch and Fabiola Larios

In a 4 to 4 split per curiam decision, the United States Supreme Court recently affirmed the judgment of the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Omega S.A. v. Costco Wholesale Corp. which held that the first sale doctrine is not a defense to infringement claims on products imported in an unauthorized manner into the United States.

Omega S.A. (Omega) manufactured watches in Switzerland and sold the watches globally to consumers through authorized distributors and retailers. Omega first sold watches to authorized distributors overseas. Unidentified third parties eventually purchased the watches and sold them to ENE Limited, a New York Company, which in turn sold them to Costco Wholesale Corp (Costco). Costco then sold the watches to consumers in California. Omega originally authorized the foreign sale of the watches, but did not authorize their sale into the United States. Omega claims that by purchasing the watches bearing the copyrighted design which had been imported into the United Stated by third parties, Costco bypassed the authorized U.S. distribution channels thereby obtaining “gray market” goods. Continue Reading No First Sale Defense on Foreign-Made Copies

By Dale Campbell

The Ninth Circuit has attempted to end the disputes arising from the creation of Facebook. As dramatized in the Hollywood blockbuster, The Social Network, the Winklevoss twins and other Harvard graduates claimed that Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from them. The Winklevosses claimed they conceived and created the idea for a social network, then known as Harvard Connection and later as ConnectU, and hired Zuckerberg to complete the programming.

The Winklevosses claimed that Zuckerberg was involved in all aspects of the website development and business planning for Harvard Connection and acted as a member of the Harvard Connection development team. Zuckerberg was allegedly entrusted with the basic idea for the project and enterprise, including database and website design. Moreover, the Winkelvosses alleged that Zuckerberg was provided information regarding the website’s business model, functionality, concepts, and information to be collected from users. The Winklevosses alleged that Zuckerberg utilized all of this information in creating Facebook and failed to advise the Winklevosses that he had stopped working on the Harvard Connection code but, instead, was developing a competing website. The complaint alleged a variety of business torts including copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, breach of fiduciary duty, and interference with prospective economic advantage. Continue Reading At Some Point, Litigation Must Come To an End

By Zachary Wadlé

When Google was initially formed in 1998, it announced ambitious plans to digitally scan all of the world’s existing books and make them accessible to users of Google’s internet search engine.  By 2004, Google announced that it had partnered with several large research libraries around the world to scan their collections.  Google’s plan was predictably attacked in a lawsuit by the Authors Guild and other publishers in 2005 who said that Google was infringing their copyrights.  The Author’s Guild’s case was then certified as a class-action lawsuit, meaning that the millions of authors who have published a book worldwide would be part of the class represented and would be bound by the result of the case.  Given the class-action certification, any settlement reached by the litigating parties had to be thoroughly vetted and approved in court.  The case has been pending for several years before Second Circuit Court Judge Denny Chin under Authors Guild v. Google Inc., 05-CV-08136, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).  Continue Reading Google Books Settlement Rejected By Court

By Jeffrey Pietsch

Last month, the United States District Court in Nevada found that a non-profit that reposted in its entirety an article originally published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal did not infringe on the owner’s copyright under fair use grounds.  The court’s decision was likely influenced by the copyright holder’s business as a serial litigator in copyright infringement cases.  This article will discuss the fair use exception to copyright infringement specifically in light of the copyright holder’s business model.Continue Reading Copyright Troll Loses on Fair Use Claim