The latest on: NFL Anti-Trust decision; Record Labels Sue Over Generative AI; Copyright Office clarifies Termination Rights, Royalties, Transfers, Disputes, and the MMA.
The Briefing: Tennessee’s ELVIS Act Isn’t What You Think (Podcast)
The Briefing: Tennessee’s ELVIS Act Isn’t What You Think
(Podcast) The Briefing: Merry Litigation – All I Want for Christmas is a Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
The Briefing: Merry Litigation – All I Want for Christmas is a Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
Podcast: The Briefing by the IP Law Blog - Can Copyrighted Music Keep Vids of Police Encounters Off The Internet?
The Briefing by the IP Law Blog: Can Copyrighted Music Keep Vids of Police Encounters Off The Internet?
Nota Bene Episode 111: Charting the New World of Music Royalty Investment with Sid Fohrman
Beastie Boys Sue; Law Prof's 'Head Spins'
Robin Thicke Preemptively Sues Marvin Gaye's Estate in Copyright Kerfuffle
Stealth Lawyer: Shonali Bhowmik, Indie Rock Musician
Video Sharing App Vine Hit with Takedown Notice from Prince
New Happy Birthday Song, Copyright-Free
With decades of experience assisting nonprofit clients with copyright issues, we periodically like to offer refreshers on key copyright issues and highlight current trends we see nonprofit organizations encounter with...more
Anyone who has ever browsed Instagram® or TikTok® (or any parent with phone-addicted kids) realizes that music is an integral part of short-form video social media. Content creators record a few minutes or even a few seconds...more
It is not every day that Supreme Court oral arguments include references to The Lord of the Rings (both the books and the movies!), the Syracuse University athletic program, Mork and Mindy, All in the Family, Norman...more
In this week's podcast episode of the Briefing by the IP Law Blog, Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss recent news stories reporting that police officers played copyrighted music during filmed encounters, ostensibly to...more
In this week's episode of the Briefing by the IP Law Blog, Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss recent news stories reporting that police officers played copyrighted music during filmed encounters, ostensibly to keep the...more
On March 26, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decided The Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, a decision addressing the “fair use” doctrine, an important part of copyright law. “Fair use” tries...more
In an apparent win for musicians seeking to sample other’s works, on February 3, 2020, the Second Circuit declined to revive a copyright lawsuit against hip-hop musician Drake for his sampling of a 1980s spoken-word jazz...more
Drake prevails again – this time at the Second Circuit. On February 3, 2020, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Drake, finding that his use of a...more
As we have previously discussed, the owner of the copyright in a work has certain exclusive rights in that work. Anyone who violates the exclusive rights of the copyright owner is an infringer of that copyright. To...more
A purchaser of an article of commerce expects to be able to freely sell it regardless of any intellectual property rights that it may embody. The resale of digital files, however, runs into a special barrier that ReDigi...more
In a decision issued on December 12, 2018, the Second Circuit refused to recognize application of the first sale doctrine to a service that had been established as a marketplace for resale of digital music files. Under the...more
Last week, Brooks Pierce participated in CD Baby’s DIY Musician Conference in Nashville. We hosted legal clinics, served as mentors, gave out free copies of our Musician’s Legal Handbook, and presented a legal workshop on...more
Several musical artists, producers, publishers and songwriters, including the estate of the Notorious B.I.G and Rita Ora, are celebrating after a U.S. District judge for the Southern District of New York dismissed a copyright...more
The estate of Christopher Wallace, better known as The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, reigned supreme last week in the Southern District of New York after U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan dismissed a copyright suit...more
Introduction - •Music copyrights: –Musical works – sheet music and lyrics •Author is generally composer/lyricist and controls •Can be administered through a music publisher - ...more
On September 14, 2015, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that parties who send "takedown notices" under the authority of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") must consider whether the subject work constitutes a...more
On September 14, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that copyright owners have a “duty to consider—in good faith and prior to sending a [DMCA] takedown notification—whether allegedly...more
The Beastie Boys can look back on 2014 as a year of good copyright outcomes. The preceding years had seen their music used without authorization in two promotional videos, by Goldieblox and Monster Energy, despite the...more
Last month, I wrote about the preemptive lawsuit filed by GoldieBlox, a toy retailer, against the Beastie Boys. GoldieBlox sought declaratory relief that their use of the Beastie Boys’ song “Girls” in a GoldieBlox...more
Have you ever noticed how people rarely sing “Happy Birthday to You” in movies and television? Instead, people usually sing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow,” even though no one actually sings that song in real life. ...more