Copyrights

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments over copyright status of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated; the Federal Circuit remands Ericsson appeal to calculate release payment in patent license; Apple, Ford and others urge the USPTO to retain policy against injunctions on ... Read More

The magic of certificates of authenticity, Miami Basel edition. ... Read More

Sony recently uploaded a promo video from PlayStation Japan that highlighted new releases for the console. Just in time for the holidays, it was meant to be a way to promote both the system and new games coming out for it. The promo video, in addition to the usual ... Read More

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday. 1: ’99 Problems but My ABCs Ain’t One’: Jay-Z Sues Over Children’s Book First off today, Isabella Kwai at the New York Times reports that rapper Jay Z has filed a lawsuit against the Australian online retailer over ... Read More

The deadline of December 9, 2019 is approaching in a few days for filing objections to Access Copyright’s proposed post-secondary tariff for 2021-2023.Meanwhile, we wait with baited breath for a decision from the Copyright Board on the 9 year + old proposed original post- secondary tariff and a decision from ... Read More

Meet the Man Behind One of the Biggest Potential Modern Art Scandals. ... Read More

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday. 1: Music Site Genius Sues Google Over Alleged Lyric Copying First off today, Michael Kan at PC Magazine reports that the music lyric site Genius has filed a lawsuit against Google and its partner LyricFind alleging that the ... Read More

  Honest.  I’m not making this up. Look at screenshots above. The Digital Media Association (DiMA) represents digital services. You know Google, Spotify, Youtube, Pandora etc. DiMA are on THE OTHER SIDE.  I’m sure some of these folks are good people. At least a couple. Or at least one.  But ... Read More

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson Portrait The United Kingdom is in the midst of what might be its most important election in a century. With the drama over Brexit swirling, the country is at a crossroads and it’s very likely that the next election will shape the future of the ... Read More

Maybe I shouldn’t say this is an “argument.” This is a plea. A rant. A tirade. A demand that our government enforce the rules and laws enacted by our elected representatives. The last twenty years has been one venture-funded digital music “service” asshole after another ripping off songwriters and musicians ... Read More

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday. 1: Don’t ‘Blow Up’ State Copyright Schemes, Lawyer Tells SCOTUS First off today, Jordan S. Rubin at Bloomberg Law reports that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) heard oral arguments in the case of Georgia v. ... Read More

Sara TortosaThe Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) defines the principle of cumulative protection under the systems for protection of designs and of works, in order to clarify the circumstances in which designs and models may additionally be considered a “work” and be entitled to the protection conferred ... Read More

Many readers of our blog know the story of the Google proxy Open Media, their subsidiary New/Mode and the spamming of the European Parliament during the debate over the Copyright Directive.  If you are not familiar with the story here are two excellent pieces: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/google-funds-activist-site-that-pushes-its-views-rg2g5cr6t  (a good summary). https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/medien/eu-and-copyright-anatomy-of-a-political-hacking-15771185.html (long ... Read More

In yet another news story that involves a college professor facing allegations of plagiarism, a professor at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) has had plagiarism allegations against her dismissed after a committee declined to refer it to an investigative level. While this is great news for ... Read More

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday. 1: Top Court to Decide Dispute Over State Law First off today, Bill Rankin at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Supreme Court of the United States will hear a case that may determine whether the annotated legal ... Read More

Our sister blog Artists’ Rights Watch just posted a new blog about one of the companies the MLC board has selected as a “digital vendor.” The company ConsenSYS will help match songwriters to royalties. The company also has an asteroid mining subsidiary.  I swear to god I did not make ... Read More

Jacob Flynn, Rebecca Giblin and François PetitjeanCopyright’s underuse hypothesis is simple: that, unless publishers are assured of exclusive rights in older works, they won’t continue to invest in making them available. This of course contradicts a core tenet of classical economic theory, that investors will continue to produce copies of ... Read More

  A friend that has long been involved in the technology startup world refers to any and all cryptocurrencies as “LaunderCoin.”  The point being that some significant portion of cryptocurrency activity is simply money laundering.   So it was no surprise when I saw the headline above come across my ... Read More

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit issues precedential decisions regarding its authority to remand to the PTAB, patent prosecution history estoppel and expert testimony on motivation to combine for obviousness findings; China nominates its choice for WIPO Director while pledging to reach “social satisfaction” on IP ... Read More

CISAC is the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers. Its stated objective is to ‘protect the rights and promote the interests of creators across all regions of the world and artistic fields; music, audiovisual, drama, literature and visual arts’. It aims to ‘foster a legislative environment that supports ... Read More

Changes to the Copyright Act that were implemented in the omnibus budget Bill C-86 that, by its very nature, had virtually no public scrutiny. The changes regarding the Copyright Board came into effect on April 1, 2019. These amendments were supposedly intended,inter alia, to speed up the process at the ... Read More

This year has included many twists and turns for IP stakeholders, particularly on the patent side. Most recently, the Federal Circuit’s decision in Arthrex has called into question the constitutionality of Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions, and perhaps the Board itself. Elsewhere, Congress has been—unsuccessfully—attempting to step in and ... Read More

Tamilrockers Leaks Hindi Version of Frozen 2; Bohemian Rhapsody Producer Sets Eye on Michael Jackson Biopic; Another Billion-Dollar Lawsuit Looms Over Spotify; DISH Files Copyright Infringement Suits Against Six IPTV Services; Prince’s Estate Faces Copyright Infringement Suit by Photographer and more. Tamilrockers Leaks Hindi Version of Frozen 2 Notorious piracy ... Read More

The picture above shows dozens of backdated “NOIs” for compulsory mechanical licenses sent to me by HFA in 2016.  By purporting to be valid NOIs for licenses when they were not, HFA committed mail fraud.  Music Row is reporting the music licensing collective board of directors has selected HFA as ... Read More

The Federal Court has recently issued a website blocking order that is without precedent in Canada. Similar orders in other jurisdictions have been based upon explicit legislation.  There is no explicit basis in Canada’s Copyright Act for this order. Here’s the decision: Bell Media Inc. v. GoldTV.Biz, 2019 FC 1432 ... Read More

It will be recalled the Federal Court recently decisively dismissed Voltage’s attempt to certify a controversial “reverse class action”, in which three individuals would have presumably been forced to respond and defend a class of about 55,000 alleged infringers – each of whom might have had a different story to ... Read More

Last week I wrote about a federal court ruling that opened the door to copyright website blocking in Canada without Parliament establishing site blocking rules or the involvement of the CRTC. The decision is flawed from both a policy and legal perspective, substituting the views of one judge over Parliament’s ... Read More

Karolina SztobrynEarlier this month, the Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland issued a long-awaited judgment on the assessment of constitutionality of Article 79(1)(3)(b) of the Copyright and Related Rights Act (judgment of 5 November 2019, reference no. P 14/19). This provision entitles the entity whose copyright has been infringed ... Read More

Fantastic new law review article by Amy Adler and Jeanne Fromer.Section I.E is particularly incisive. ... Read More

Some thoughts from Tyler Cowen:  Tax the Wealthy and Their Charities Will Suffer.And some criticisms from Michael Rushton here. ... Read More