Image by stefanocar75 Copyright holders have long insisted that search results play a substantial role in driving users toward pirate sites. Google and piracy advocates have generally countered that search does not drive much traffic to illegal sites because the people who consistently use infringing sites know what they’re doing and will go directly to the content they’re seeking. This is a ...
Photo by wellphoto My last post focused narrowly on responding to assertions that the Supreme Court decision in Packingham casts doubt on the constitutionality of DMCA Sec. 512(i). But as my friend and colleague Mike Katell observes on his blog, the rhetoric employed by Justice Kennedy in that decision underscores a particular challenge we face as social media continues to alter ...
Photo source by spaxiax Another Supreme Court First Amendment decision this past Monday was a source of excitement for parties who consistently argue that copyright enforcement in cyberspace cannot help but infringe First Amendment rights. I’ll say at the outset that I fully agree with the decision in this case but very much doubt any proposal that the opinion in Packingham v. North ...
In 2010, the Oregon-based, Asian-American band had its application for a trademark in the name The Slants rejected by the US Patent and Trademark Office. The denial was based on a statute in the 1946 Lanham Act prohibiting registration of marks “which may disparage or falsely suggest a connection with persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or ...
Photo by alexskopje Pond5 This week, the Court of Justice of the European Union concluded what any rational observer would conclude about websites that make large volumes of unlicensed copyrighted works available to the public — that their owners know exactly what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. A Netherlands-based foundation that protects copyright interests argued in the nation’s Supreme Court that two ...
