Good news for authors, creators, and sanity was delivered yesterday by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Despite remanding the case back to the district court for retrial on a specific matter of jury instruction, the opinion eviscerates two of COX’s most strained interpretations of copyright law, either of which could have had devastating effects for rights holders. BMG Rights ...

G’Day! Since there’s so much gloomy news here in the States, I thought I’d take a moment to note that Australia did a couple of pretty cool things recently.  They legalized same-sex marriage, so good on them for that.  And on the 6th of this month, they introduced a safe harbors provision to their copyright law that would exclude platform ...

That may seem obvious, but if you’re an internet service provider who fails to uphold your end of the DMCA bargain, you’d sure like the courts to think of your service as analogous to the VCR. Certainly, this is fundamental to the appeal filed in the case of BMG v. Cox Communications, for which oral arguments were heard at the ...

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 ...

Creators of every stripe must watch Miranda Mulholland’s May 24th speech delivered to the Economic Club of Canada.  The musician, composer, and label-owner, with nearly 20 years of professional experience, does an excellent job of contrasting the realities of being a professional creator in today’s market against the rhetorical promises of the corporate leaders who designed that market.  In addition ...

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