Web Images Aren’t Always Free – The Case For Clearing Rights (2013)

When you see an inviting Internet visual image which seems ripe for the taking, consider that it may not be freely available… Increasingly, I am being contacted by clients on the receiving end of copyright cease and desist letters based on their unlicensed use of visual images in digital works. Not clearing rights is simply
Read more
No Comments

Reading the Tea Leaves: ISP Obligations After The Second Circuit’s Viacom v. YouTube Decision (2012)

Introduction Although the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) does not require service providers to actively monitor their sites for infringing content, a provider with” knowledge” of infringing activities must act quickly to remove or disable access to these materials. Knowledge comes in two flavors- – actual and imputed – -but after the Second Circuit’s decision,
Read more
No Comments

Fair Housing Council v. Roommates.com: Ninth Circuit Creates Dangerous New Standard For Website Content Liability (2008)

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
Read more
No Comments

MGM v. Grokster: The U.S. Supreme Court Will Revisit Sony-Betamax (2005)

At the end of March 2005, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in MGM v. Grokster, reviewing a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and reconsidering the continued viability of the landmark Sony-Betamax case in the new millennium. Since Sony-Betamax, it has been well-settled that manufacturers and distributors are not vicariously liable for
Read more
No Comments