Copyright Articles
Registering a copyright is a prerequisite for bringing infringement actions in federal court. Registration entitles copyright holders to certain benefits, including the ability to obtain statutory damages and attorneys’ fees for successful infringement claims. Registering software presents unique challenges, and there are several important nuances to consider. While not exhaustive by any means, here are a number of things that are important for developers to consider.
When you think about the most popular online media and streaming platforms, two names are sure to come to mind: YouTube and Twitch. YouTube boasts over one billion hours of video watched every day, and Twitch, which Amazon acquired for $970 million in 2014, boasts around ten million daily active users, with each of these users watching an average of 106 minutes per day. These viewership numbers are not possible without content creators, and these creators are facing an increasing number of legal challenges as their numbers grow.
In March 2017, the United States Supreme Court resolved a copyright dispute between two manufacturers of cheerleading uniforms. The case, Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc., focused on an unresolved question: to what extent, if any, does the utility of an article on which pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works are placed affect whether such works are copyrightable?
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently took up the question of whether the purchaser of a copyrighted work can import the item into the United States and sell the good without obtaining permission from the copyright owner.
The United States and the European Union have strikingly similar laws regarding liability of online marketplaces for third-party content posted on their websites. Nonetheless, the approaches American courts and European courts take to address the issue, are drastically different. This extreme divergence is best illustrated by the American case, Tiffany v. eBay, and the French case, LVMH v. eBay.
Over the past few years, E-readers, such as Amazon's Kindle and Barnes and Noble's Nook, have become very popular. It is not hard to understand the increased popularity of this technology. An E-reader is able to store a library's worth of content and still be small enough to fit in a purse or briefcase. The software for many of these devices can also be downloaded onto an I-Pad or tablet, leading to an increased number of people reading digital books. Yet all this progress may have an unintended cost, namely the inability to lend a digital book.