The copyright small-claim alternative, adjudicated by the Copyright Claims Board (CCB), was intentionally designed to accommodate pro se participants, meaning that both claimants and respondents can represent themselves without hiring attorneys. After all, the foundation of small claims court or alternative dispute resolution is to save money. And indeed, we are seeing some early pro se claimants file complaints with ...
Jeff Sedlik has been a fine art and commercial photographer for over 30 years and has served as an expert witness in more than 400 copyright cases. But until celebrity tattoo artist Katherine Von Drachenberg (Kat Von D) inked his famous portrait of Miles Davis in 2017, he had never been in court as a plaintiff claiming infringement of his ...
The small claim tribunal, the Copyright Claims Board, opened its virtual doors yesterday, and by EOD, about a dozen claims were on the docket. A glance at the named defendants reveals a list of commercial users who allegedly infringed protected works, which is no surprise and probably good news. I say it’s no surprise because, despite the fearmongering about aggressive ...
Rep. Mondaire Jones (NY), along with co-sponsor Rep. Victoria Spartz (IN) introduced a bill in February called the Freedom to Repair Act. Seeking to remedy a specific, unintended consequence of one part of the Copyright Act, the bill overreaches so dramatically that it would effectively legalize piracy of creative works. If Congress wants to address unfair practices among certain manufacturers ...
In Part I, I wrote that I hope the Court will find that AWF’s central argument fails on the “transformativeness” question presented and that it will reaffirm that this part of the fair use factor one inquiry must find at least some evidence of commentary upon the original work. Warhol’s Prince Series does not comment upon the photograph used, which ...
