282 results for 'cat:"Copyright"'.
J. Meriweather grants an adult film company's motion for leave to file a third-party subpoena against an internet service in its copyright infringement case. The company has shown it needs the name and address of the subscriber of the IP address at issue in order to identify an individual who has allegedly downloaded and distributed 26 of its copyrighted films.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Meriweather, Filed On: October 17, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv2861, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: copyright
J. Merriam finds that the district court improperly found for rapper Fat Joe and music producers and publishers in a copyright dispute over the hit single "All the Way Up." The song's purported co-creator, who contends he had not received proper credit or compensation, should have been allowed to conduct discovery prior to the entry of summary judgment since questions of material fact remained unresolved, especially concerning the existence of a document that relinquished his rights to the song.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Merriam, Filed On: October 17, 2023, Case #: 22-255, Categories: copyright, Discovery
Per curiam, the circuit finds that the district court properly dismissed claims contending YouTube permitted video postings that contained copyrighted content from two documentaries previously published on its platform. The producer sought to amend claims to include use of three-dimensional renderings of historical scenes created with proprietary technology, but that allegation was futile for failing to support a plausible claim for YouTube's contributory or vicarious liability. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: October 17, 2023, Case #: 22-3007-cv, Categories: copyright
J. Zilly declines to find in favor of Bungie on the cheat code developer’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) counterclaim. When the developer would connect reverse engineering software to Bungie’s game, Destiny 2, Bungie would record certain metadata from his computer. The developer sufficiently alleges that Bungie bypassed his password protection to access files on his computer, which is “the type of circumvention the DMCA was intended to prevent.”
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Zilly, Filed On: October 16, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv811, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: copyright, Fraud, Technology
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J. Walker denies two veterinary companies’ motion to refer questions to the register of copyright who registered one of a software company’s products. The veterinary companies fail to be persuasive that referring their questions to the register would have any beneficial impact on the litigation.
Court: USDC Maine, Judge: Walker, Filed On: October 2, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv97, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: copyright, Technology
J. Battaglia finds in favor of the money lender and the private investor concerning a construction supervisor's claims that they unjustifiably recorded a notice of default against a housing project and then engaged in copyright infringement by using his designs without permission. The supervisor's complaint makes it clear that, with due diligence, he should have discovered the alleged infringement in 2010 at the earliest or in 2014 at the latest, but he failed to file his suit until 2018, well after the three-year statute of limitations had expired.
Court: USDC Southern District of California, Judge: Battaglia, Filed On: September 26, 2023, Case #: 3:18cv1731, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Construction, copyright
J. Woods grants the documentary maker's motion to dismiss a photographer's copyright claims stemming from the brief appearance of his photographs displayed in the background of the film "Billie Eilish: The World's A Little Blurry." The photographs only appear incidentally as part of the film's larger purpose of documenting Eilish's career, including a world tour that took her to the New Zealand airport where the photos were on dispaly, and is a transformative use.
Court: USDC Southern District of New York, Judge: Woods, Filed On: September 26, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv8420, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: copyright
J. Oetken grants the rapper Ginwuine's motion to dismiss copyright claims filed by the co-author of a soul single "Help Me Put Out The Flame (In My Heart)", alleging that the rapper used the introduction to his song in two songs "Paper Chase," and "Toe 2 Toe." The three-bar guitar riff is substantially similar to prior works in the public domain, and subtle rhythmic differences are not enough to merit copyright protection.
Court: USDC Southern District of New York, Judge: Oetken, Filed On: September 25, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv3535, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: copyright
J. Bibas denies cross-motions for summary judgment in copyright claims contending an artificial intelligence startup copied content from Westlaw because the level of originality of Westlaw "headnotes," or summaries of points of law within judicial opinions, cannot be determined through summary judgment.
Court: USDC Delaware, Judge: Bibas, Filed On: September 25, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv613, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: copyright
J. Gonzalez finds the maker of a Lego-based replica of the Second Beit Hamikdash, or Second Holy Temple, successfully argued its creation is sufficiently unique to qualify for copyright protection and enters judgment in his favor on counterclaims that sought to invalidate his copyrights. Notably, he pushed back against arguments that the temple's design was in the public domain and therefore not protectable by producing evidence showing the temple was in fact destroyed in 70 C.E. without any visual references in existence to base his designs on, which required him to conduct extensive research into the temple's history in order to create his design.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Gonzalez, Filed On: September 21, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv2883, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: copyright
J. Brodie denies partial final judgment to a group of film production companies on copyright claims that their 2013 documentary showcasing an aspiring dirt-bike rider and subsequent feature film infringed a set of documentaries first released in 2001 and 2003 which featured the 12 O'Clock Boyz dirt-bike stunt group. The production studios fail to argue they face undue hardship or injustice if they must wait until the court resolves several claims against one of the defendants who recently filed for bankruptcy, as well as several counterclaims.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Brodie, Filed On: September 21, 2023, Case #: 1:18cv5930, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: copyright
J. Boasberg dismisses a research firm's claims against a group of attorneys and law firms in connection with $30,000 in research done into potential bias in the D.C. jury pool for the Proud Boys' trial that it was allegedly never paid. The firm fails to state a claim for copyright infringement, and the remaining claims are state law-based.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Boasberg, Filed On: September 19, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv523, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: copyright, Jurisdiction, Contract
J. Haines dismisses copyright claims contending Netflix impermissibly used a photograph of plaintiff's tattoo design in the second season of the documentary series "Tiger King." The tattoo, which caricaturized documentary subject Joe Exotic, "along with a Lysol brand aerosol can, illustration of five COVID-19 viruses, and a toilet paper banner with the words 'Quarantine 2020,'" is protected under the fair use act as a social comment on the widespread success of the first season of "Tiger King" during the pandemic.
Court: USDC Western District of Pennsylvania, Judge: Haines, Filed On: September 18, 2023, Case #: 3:22cv131, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: copyright, Property
J. McFarland grants the pay-per-view fight licensing company's motion for default judgment, ruling it is entitled to $15,000 in actual and willful damages against the bar owners who broadcasted the copyrighted fight for their patrons without first purchasing a license.
Court: USDC Southern District of Ohio, Judge: McFarland, Filed On: September 14, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv362, NOS: Cable/Sat TV - Other Suits, Categories: copyright, Damages, Conversion
J. Talwani issues a mixed ruling in a lawsuit stemming from a writer's short story about a kidney donor who is not happy to receive a letter from her living donor. A kidney donor who shared a similar letter with the writer told publishers and journalists that the writer plagiarized her letter. The writer is entitled to a declaration that she owns the copyright to her short story. Although the story copied parts of the donor's letter, the story's version of the letter, in combination with the rest of the short story, makes transformative use of the letter for an entirely new purpose than the original letter served. However, the writer's defamation claim fails because it was not defamatory for the donor to assert that the writer had used her letter in the first versions of her story without attribution.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Talwani, Filed On: September 14, 2023, Case #: 1:19cv10203, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: copyright, Defamation, Interference With Contract
J. Katsas upholds the district court's refusal to award injunctive relief to three developers of technical standards in their copyright infringement case against a nonprofit that releases their published technical standards online for free. The non-commercial release of standards that have been incorporated by reference into law constitutes fair use. Affirmed.
Court: DC Circuit, Judge: Katsas, Filed On: September 12, 2023, Case #: 22-7063 , Categories: copyright