Copyright Act: Fair Use I recently represented a nonprofit client in what should have been a simple rights clearance matter. The client wanted to use short audio portions of music for educational purposes without having to license rights from the sound recording copyright owners. The contemplated use was transformative, the portions taken were quantitatively and
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court held in Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick, that the registration requirement in section 411(a) of the Copyright Act is not jurisdictional. In a continuation of the Tasini case (involving electronic rights to freelance articles written for newspapers and magazines) the Reed Elsevier Court was faced with the question of whether a class settlement involving the
To resolve disputes and avoid costly litigation, many companies are relying on mandatory arbitration clauses in their contracts. Disputes are inevitable and a cost of doing business, and the rising cost of lawsuits has becoming staggering. Against this backdrop, in the context of an otherwise garden-variety software copyright infringement suit, the Sixth Circuit recently bypassed
In a case with far-reaching implications for interactive websites and other online service providers, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in Fair Housing Council v. Roommates.com, (No. 04-57173, 9th Cir. 2008), recently stripped the defendant website’s conduit immunity under the Communications Decency Act of 1996 [CDA], concluding that the site had materially
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