Monday, November 29, 2004

If a Tree Falls in the Forest... Reuters reports that "Film Studios Win $24 Million Against Web Site." From the article: "The award was handed down earlier this week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles as a default judgment, meaning the defendants never responded, according to the MPAA."
Kazaa Battle Down Under. The AP reports that "Recording Industry, Kazaa Square Off." From the article: "The record company lawyers will try to have Kazaa's owners declared liable for copyright breach and loss of earnings in the civil case. If they succeed, a case next year would likely set the damages the owners have to pay."

Monday, November 22, 2004

Thankful for Small Favors? The Washington Post reports that "U.S. Senate Passes Scaled-Back Copyright Measure." From the article: "A section that would have made it illegal to edit out commercials was removed."
'Major Label Retardation' - Is That in the Next DSM? Via BoingBoing: Indie label Positron! Records offers CC licenses to its artists.
If at First You Don't Succeed... Hot on the heels of its loss to Visa in a copyright infringement lawsuit, Perfect 10 has brought suit against Google. The AP reports that "Adult Site Sues Google for Infringment." From the article: "A Web site that sells photos of naked women is suing Google Inc., alleging that the online search engine leader is destroying its business by distributing links and passwords that provide free glimpses of the nude models." Marty has more.

Friday, November 19, 2004

Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before. The AP reports that "Recording Cos. Sue 761 for Music Swapping." From the article: "In all, recording companies have sued 6,952 computer users since September 2003. To date, 1,300 defendants have settled their cases out of court, the RIAA said."

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Good for You Video Games? What Will They Think of Next? Reuters reports that "Hollywood Writer Sues Microsoft Over Yoga Game." From the article: "According to his lawsuit, Avary met several times with the Microsoft team, and in 2003, pitched them a detailed concept for a video game designed to lead players through yoga poses using Microsoft's Xbox game console."

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Court Rejects Expansion of Contributory Infringement. Law.com reports that "Federal Judge Tosses Porn Purveyor's Copyright Suit Against Credit Card Companies." From the article: "Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Perfect 10 claims credit card companies have a 'special relationship' with the infringing Web site operators since they have enhanced requirements for processing the transactions of such high-risk merchants and impose higher fees for disputed charges on them."

Monday, November 15, 2004

Anti-INDUCE Coalition Forms. Reuters reports that "Anti-Copyright Bill Groups Unite to Fight." From the article: "Opponents of the legislation, from consumer electronics makers to fair-use advocates, contend that the bill goes too far, arguing that provisions in the bill will hamstring technological development, turn normal people into copyright criminals and force the federal government to pay Hollywood's legal bills."

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Another Reason to Take Care With Your Copyright Registrations. Law.com reports that "Gallup Mistake Invalidates Copyright." From the article: "In his 17-page opinion in Gallup Inc. v. Kenexa Corp., U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel found that Gallup's copyright registration of its 'Gallup Q-12' employee survey was flawed because the company 'failed to deposit a copy of the work to be copyrighted as it existed when it was allegedly first published.'"

Monday, November 08, 2004

Amicus Weigh in on Grokster Cert Petition. The AP reports that "Court Urged to Hear File-Sharing Case." From the article: "The filings are designed to support a petition made last month by a coalition of major recording companies and Hollywood movie studios who asked the court to reverse lower court decisions clearing Grokster Ltd. and StreamCast Networks Inc. of liability for their customers' online swapping of movies and music."

Saturday, November 06, 2004

SPRAY ON SIDING Sounds Generic to Me. I'd be interested to see if the court actually upholds trademark rights in the term. The AP reports that "Web Site for Complaints Sparks Lawsuit." From the article: "The complaint filed by Alvis alleges that the name of the Townsends' Web site, spraysiding.com, 'is confusingly similar' to the official Alvis site, sprayonsiding.com, as well as its trademark 'Spray on Siding.'"

Thursday, November 04, 2004

MPAA Getting in on the Act. The AP reports in "Source: Movie industry to sue file-sharers." From the article: "The lawsuits will target movie fans who share digitized versions of films over peer-to-peer networks, with the first wave of litigation planned for as early as Thursday, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity."
Amazon Part 2? A reader pointed me to a recent article in Business Week entitled "A Patent Challenge for Dell." From the article: "On Oct. 27, Dell (DELL ) was sued in a U.S. District Court by tiny Virginia outfit DE Technologies, which alleges that the PC giant has infringed on its patent covering a system for 'facilitating international computer-to-computer commercial transactions,' according to the complaint. In plain English: global e-commerce." This is likely one to watch.