When the news broke that Charlie Watts had passed away, Instagram, Facebook, et al naturally bloomed with tributes, editorials, eulogies, and personal notes of gratitude for the late percussionist’s contributions to music. But although the virtual vigil has become standard practice every time a beloved cultural figure passes away, one overlooked difficulty of this and similar trends is that all ...
Among the reasons I defend copyright is that I firmly believe it is inadvertently one of the most profound expressions of democratic principles in the American Constitution. When the Framers essentially transposed English copyright into Article I of the Constitution, they could not possibly have imagined the full value—cultural, economic, and political—of vesting authors, with both the moral and pecuniary ...
As thoughts turn to transition and, with any luck, healing divisions, the Biden-Harris administration should avoid any temptation to repeat mistakes made by the Obama administration with regard to cyber policy. I admire Barack Obama for many reasons, but the fact remains that his administration was too cozy with Silicon Valley, and this was understandable, if not entirely reasonable or ...
When Viacom et al, in 2014, settled their copyright infringement suit against YouTube, that outcome had significant consequences for millions of independent creators. For one thing, the settlement left YouTube and other major platforms to over-emphasize the district court’s summary judgment that the DMCA had fully shielded the video platform against any liability in that case—this despite the appellate court ...
May people know that online service providers are shielded from liability for copyright infringement by their users, meaning that a court will, on summary judgment, often excuse a web platform as a named defendant when an infringement has been committed by its customers. Many people are not aware, however, that a service provider must meet certain conditions in order to remain ...
