Last week, the Supreme Court ruled in a copyright case that addresses the principle of “separability.” This is one of those areas of IP that a colleague of mine would call the “metaphysics of law,” and that’s not a criticism. In fact, I happen to think the more subtle aspects of copyright—the ones that challenge judges to weigh esoteric ideas ...
Photo by Nagornyi The Supreme Court has denied cert in the case of Capitol Records v Vimeo, leaving in place the holding of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that video-hosting site Vimeo was shielded by the “safe harbors” of the DMCA when the service and its users made infringing use of sound recordings fixed prior to February 15, 1972. In general, ...
Photo by GlobalIP Okay. I’m not remotely surprised that the EFF & Co. don’t like the bill H.R. 1695 to make the Register of Copyrights a presidential appointee rather than an employee of the Librarian of Congress. And I’m way not surprised that they’ve written a post which only thinly veils this bill as a power grab by the Trump ...
Photo by maxkabakov Against the drama of day-to-day Washington—and I’m already exhausted—Rep. Goodlatte, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill that most people won’t notice except the copyright watchers. Unlike certain congressional action making the headlines this week, H.R. 1695 represents years of testimony, proposals, and discussion and can claim 29, bi-partisan cosponsors. The bill proposes to make the Register ...
A recurring narrative promoted by the internet industry and its cheerleaders is that the old creative industry, which relies on copyright law, is “outdated.” The major rights holders, they keep saying, “cling to old models,” pretending the future is not happening. Of course this new v old narrative is more than a misleading PR message—it is a gross hypocrisy if ...
