derivative work
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One Work or Two?
I read the headlines about Johnson v. Nike with passing surprise, because the case was decided of on a motion to dismiss. The designs aren’t that different and what crossed my brief attention led me to think that it was a copyright infringement case about the similarity of these two designs: But it is really […] Continue reading
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The Scope of the License
The opinion is sparse on the facts and the law, so we have to do some interpretation. But it’s worth some thought about how the court construed the scope of an implied copyright license. Defendant Kushner wrote software for plaintiff Vickerman Co. Their relationship ended, Vickerman Co. sued Kushner (the court doesn’t say why, other […] Continue reading
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Copyright and Egyptian Law
Jay-Z’s win in a copyright infringement suit has been widely reported. Jay-Z obtained a license to use an Egyptian work written by Baligh Namdi called “Khosara, Khosara” in “Big Pimpin”: Namdi’s heir, Fahmy, sued Jay-Z claiming that “Big Pimpin” was an unlawful derivative work, infringing both the moral and economic rights in Khosara, Khosara. Moral […] Continue reading
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Update: “What is an ‘E-Signature’?”
I previously wrote about a case, Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. v. American Home Realty Network, Inc., involving the assignment of copyrights by uploading photographs to a website. In it, the district court held that uploading a photograph was the equivalent of signing an agreement under the E-Sign Act. I was unhappy with the decision; […] Continue reading
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A Derivative Work Made for Hire
Photo by davesandford, CC BY-NC 2.0 In U.S. Auto Parts Network, Inc. v. Parts Geek, LLC out of the Ninth Circuit, the court says that its decision is about a “previously unexplored intersection of the Copyright Act’s work for hire and derivative work provisions.” Perhaps so, although the analysis is fairly routine. Defendant Lucas Thomason […] Continue reading
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Moral Rights versus Economic Rights
Fahmy v. Jay-Z is a cautionary story about music sampling. Not the usual one, about to what extent sampling may be a fair use or may require a license, but rather what kind of rights sampling implicates. Fahmy was the successor in interest to the copyright in the composition and music recording of an Egyptian […] Continue reading
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