I swear the title of this post is the only time I’ll be making that pun. The “Blurred Lines” case was actually highly unusual because of a key principle of copyright law that has not been discussed much at all: access. When the alleged infringement is...
Who Owns the Copyright in Your Life Story? Nobody. There is, in my mind, a rebuttable presumption that earnest Hollywood movies are the equivalent of eating overcooked vegetables: you only watch them because they’re good for you, and most of the vitamins have been...
Four Seasons of Legal Pain If you are of a certain age, when you’re old enough to be living on your own but young enough to be content with renting rather than owning your abode, you start to get pressure from well-meaning older folks, like your parents, that you...
Different Similarities: What Does it Mean to Infringe Copyright? Earlier this week, Sam Smith1And when I say, “Sam Smith,” I really mean “Sam Smith, James Napier and William Phillips,” the writers of “Stay with Me.” settled with Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne about a...
The Attack of the $1200-an-Hour Gorilla Someday, someone will have to explain to me what is so awesome about David Boies. He bills out at something like $1200 an hour, which ought to buy a lot of awesome. But there’s not much awesome about his strategy for suppressing...
I’ll keep this one very short as many of you are scrambling to clear off the files on your desk before the Christmas holiday. But when you are looking for a reason to escape the chaos this holiday season, Professor Dr. Axel Nordemann and I have provided you with...
