A couple of weeks ago, I wrote this post about an amicus brief filed on behalf of several Internet companies seeking a new ruling in a 2004 case with the apparent purpose of changing the legal standard applied to the “Dancing Baby” case. This is in regard to the burden on a rights holder to “consider fair use” before issuing ...

In Part I of this essay, I responded to a post written by Parker Higgins for Techdirt, criticizing him for trying to pack a big, unexamined conclusion into a small article. Asserting, as Techdirtians are want to do, that copyright is the omnipresent saboteur in our otherwise grand, digital machine, Higgins blames copyright’s complexity and length of terms for causing ...

In August, I wrote a post criticizing the editorial board of The New York Times for espousing Silicon Valley talking points rather than considering the broader aspects of a case concerning the International Trade Commission (ITC).  At issue was the ITC’s claim that it had the authority to enjoin the importation of digital data being used by a company called ...

In a recent post on Techdirt, Parker Higgins plays a somewhat familiar refrain when he blames copyright for causing a general extinction—or inaccessibility—of various works. Describing a kind of dark ages for researchers, historians, and journalists— whether amateur, student, or professional—Higgins presumes to draw a very big conclusion in a very short post and consequently begs more questions than he ...

What do a bunch of puppies, a pretty woman, a dancing baby, Demi Moore, some Rastafarians, and 20 million books all have in common?  They all refer to prominent, copyright-related cases* from which a content creator could—if he has nothing better to do—learn something about fair use doctrine. But even if an independent artist were to study Rogers v Koons ...

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