Legal Fixation: April 2007

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Judge Rules No Performance Right for Downloads

Billboard is reporting that a federal court has ruled that there is no performance right for publishers and songwriters in a download.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Routers in Space

One of a number of reasons why many contracts define "Territory" as the "universe." (via Slashdot)

Twitter, Leo Laporte, and Haiku 2.0

TWiT(ter).

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

The Beach Boys Hit First Sale Doctrine Wall

A federal judge in Los Angeles has dismissed a suit brought by the Beach Boys against a musician who plans to sell, among other things, original lyric sheets written by band members. There were other claims, but it seems that the copyright claim ran up against the first sale doctrine.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Swallows, Capistrano, etc.

Time for the yearly "law professor bans laptops in class" article.

Plagiarism museum

Businessweek profiles Germany's Museum Plagarius, which "will permanently exhibit some 300 original products together with inferior rip-offs produced by unscrupulous companies out for a quick buck." Don't miss the slideshow.

Corbis and the rise of "microstock"

NY Times article on image licensing giant Corbis (owned by Microsoft) facing the rise of so-called microstock photo sites, e.g. iStockPhoto (owned by Getty Images) and the like. Corbis' plan to get in on the action will apparently be revealed later this quarter, and incoming chief executive Gary Shenk is hinting of an iTunes-like service and singing the praises of Flickr. Frankly I'd be pretty surprised if Yahoo doesn't have plans in the works to allow Flickr users to issue royalty-free licenses, much as iStockPhoto does now.

You're next, Barker

Massachusetts car magnate sues Massachusetts discount furniture magnate for trademark infringement over use of "Come on down!" pitch.

Legal Fixation