Who Owns the Copyright in A Tattoo?

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17 U.S.C § 201. Ownership of a Copyright. (a) Initial Ownership. — Copyright in a work protected under this title vests initially in the author or authors of the work. The authors of a joint work are coowners of copyright in the work. The ownership of the copyright in a tattoo has long been the […]

Copyright, Fair Use, and the Internet

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In the most general sense, copyright infringement is copying, or using, a work protected by copyright without permission from the copyright owner. Almost inevitably, soon after you hear the words “copyright infringement,” you will also hear the words “fair use.” Fair use is one of the most frequently discussed defenses to copyright infringement but it […]

Supreme Court Sides with Google in Major Copyright Case

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On Monday, the Supreme Court handed Google a win in a long-standing copyright dispute over the software used in the Android mobile operating system. The case dates back to 2005, when Google included roughly 11,500 lines of code from an Application Programming Interface (API), a tool that allows software applications to more easily communicate by […]

Can I Use This Song In My Podcast? It Depends.

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According to Podcast Insights, there are currently over 660,000 podcasts in existence and over 28 million episodes available to listen to. This number is certainly growing as are the legal concerns and issues associated with hosting or producing a podcast. This article will provide some general guidelines and outline some of the rules around using […]

Rapper Sues the Makers of Fortnite Claiming Copyright Infringement of Dance Moves

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Rapper 2 Milly has filed a copyright and right of publicity lawsuit against the makers of the Fortnite video game claiming that they are illegally using a dance move that he created in their wildly popular video game. The Brooklyn-based rapper, whose real name is Terrence Ferguson, alleges that Fortnite-maker Epic Games is misappropriating his dance […]

Federal Judge Rules Embedded Tweet Violated Copyright

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In a surprising ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Katherine B. Forrest, recently ruled that several news organizations and publishers violated a photographer’s copyright when they “embedded” a photo from Twitter on their websites without permission. Judge Forrest’s decision to grant the plaintiff’s motion for partial Summary Judgement is sure to be controversial and could prove […]

Hollywood Studios Prevail Against Family-Friendly Video Streaming Site

In a 3-0 ruling, a federal appeals court sided with Disney, Warner Bros., and Twentieth Century Fox by affirming an injunction that shut down movie filtering service VidAngel, Inc., saying that a ruling to the contrary would “create a giant loophole in copyright law”. VidAngel is a video filtering service that lets users stream films […]

YouTube “Reaction Video” Deemed Fair Use

Much of the YouTube community breathed a sigh of relief last week as a New York federal court dismissed a lawsuit that had been brought against two of YouTube’s most popular personalities. On April 26, 2016, Matt Hosseinzadeh filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Ethan and […]

Domain Name Disputes: A UDRP Primer

Has someone registered a domain that is identical or strikingly similar to your brand name or trademark? What rights do you have and what legal remedies are available if you or your company find yourself in a dispute over a domain name? This article is intended to serve as a brief overview of domain name […]

Copyright Infringement and Fair Use in a Digital World

In the most general sense, copyright infringement is copying, or using, a work protected by copyright without permission from the copyright owner. Almost inevitably, soon after you hear the words “copyright infringement”, you will also hear the words “fair use”. Fair use is one of the most frequently discussed defenses to copyright infringement but it […]