Jackson Browne v. John McCain re: Copyright Infringement

Singer Jackson Browne is suing US Republican presidential candidate John McCain for using one of his songs without permission. (NY Times) McCain used Browne’s 1977 hit “Running on Empty” in a commercial shown in Ohio. Browne claims that the use of the sone infringes hiis copyright and will make people conclude thaT he endorses McCain. He [...]

UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Troy Augusto, et al.

The Central District of California granted summary judgment in UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Troy Augusto, No. CV 07-03106. (SJO), regarding the legality of reselling promo CDs. Mr. Augusto acquired promo CDs and resold them on eBay, which Universal alleged infringed their copyright due to the following language placed on the CDs: This CD is the [...]

District Court Finds Portion of Copyright Remedy Clarification Act Unconstitutional

This month, in Marketing Information Masters v. The Trustees of the California State University (full PDF of decision here), the US Dist. Ct. for the S. Dist. of Cal. found the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act to be unconstitutional for removing sovereign immunity for state workers working in their official capacity. The court determined that Congress exceeded [...]

Court dismisses Tur v. YouTube/Google suit

Over a year ago, Robert Tur was the first person to bring suit against Youtube for copyright infringement. At issue, video coverage Tur shot of the 1992 Los Angeles riots (search Youtube for L.A. riot video). This week at Tur’s bequest, a Los Angeles federal court judge dismissed the suit.a copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube in [...]

Capitol Records, et al v. Jammie Thomas – Full text of jury instructions

As there has been much talk about the validity of the jury instructions in Capital Records v. Thomas, especially instruction no.s 14 and 15 , I thought it would be nice for everyone to see them in their entirety. I think that jury instructions should be taken and evaluated as a whole, as the jury see’s them, not [...]

Capitol Records, et al v. Jammie Thomas – Jurors wanted maximum fine

Jurors from Capitol Records, et al v. Jammie Thomas are talking, and what they are saying is going to make a lot of people very angry. Several of the jurors wanted to give the maximum penalty of $150,000 per song for each of the 24 songs ($3.6 million total). In the end, they compromised at under [...]

Do not steal images on the internet

Since the mid-90′s, people have been posting pictures on the internet. And for the same amount of time people have been stealing them for personal and commercial use. Take for instance the thumbnail screenshot from Family Guy below. If I were compiling and printing a book about cartoons, then my use would be infringement. If [...]

Bourne Co. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, et al. – “When you wish upon a Weinstein” lawsuit filed

Filed last week in the Federal District court, New York Southern District Court was Bourne Co.  v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, et al, Case Number:  1:2007cv08580, Filed:  October 3, 2007. The owner of the copyright of the song “When You Wish Upon a Star” is suing 20th Century Fox (and others including Seth McFarlane personally) [...]

Capitol Records, et al v. Jammie Thomas – Guilty verdict.

A reprint of the AP newswire can be found at CNN Money: “Guilty verdict in music file-sharing case”. The bottom line is exactly what you thought it would be when you first heard about the case: guilty. The case focused on 24 songs, for which Thomas will now have to pay damages of $9,250 each [...]

Arkansas IP Litigation Cases for the Week of September 29, 2007

The U.S. District Courts for the Eastern or Western District of Arkansas was chosen as the forum for litigating the following case(s), as published by Justia: Virgin Records America Inc et al v. Does, Case Number 4:2007cv00863, Filed:  September 20, 2007, Court:  Arkansas Eastern District Court  Virgin Records America Inc, Atlantic Recording Corporation, BMG Music, [...]