What is the difference between standing on legal principle and engaging in legal activism? The wry answer, of course, is that the attorney, scholar or judge who agrees with one’s opinion is a champion of legal principle while any of these who disagrees with one’s opinion is a feckless activist. “…there must be a clear line between describing what the ...

In my last post on this subject, I asked why an organization like Public Knowledge would criticize the CLASSICS Act when there is no apparent downside for consumers if the bill becomes law. That post suggested PK’s motivation is more marketing for the service providers rather than advocating a public interest; but as promised, I will try to kick the ...

On April 25, a pretty extraordinary thing happened. Especially in a time of staggering political dysfunction, it was pretty impressive to see the House of Representatives pass an omnibus bill overhauling copyright law for music in the digital market with a vote of 415-0. Now headed to the Senate, the bill, known generally as the Music Modernization Act (MMA), combines ...

by Lisa Shaftel & John Schmelzer Shaftel & Schmelzer, Advocates & Consultants for Visual Artists Representative Hakeem Jeffries introduced the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2017 (the “CASE Act”) H.R. 3945 in October 2017. The CASE Act was created in response to the Copyright Office Study Report on Remedies for Copyright Small Claims released September 2013. The CASE Act establishes ...

As mentioned in Part II, I didn’t expect to write several posts about this litigation, but it turns out that “Blurred Lines” (Williams v. Gaye) raises several copyright issues—doctrinal, cultural, and historical—worthy of consideration and not easily condensed into a single article. In the first post, I alluded to an editorial written in 2015 by scholars Lateef Mtima and Sean ...

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)