COURT: iPHONE DESIGN NOT REALLY BIG DEAL
No one sweated the small details of consumer electronics design more than Steve Jobs. Today’s ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in a patent dispute between Apple and Samsung, must have him throwing quite a fit, wherever he is. Apple accused Samsung’s smart phones of infringing patents (pictured) covering the…
Read MoreTHE FACEBOOK IPO: RISK FACTORS AND OTHER LEGAL BLAH, BLAH, BLAH
The long-awaited initial public offering of Facebook is fast upon us, and the press is awash with fawning stories about its hoodie-wearing CEO and how he is re-writing the rules of corporate management. (Suggestion: Place these stories in a time capsule to be opened in, say, 2017, with hiliarity to ensue.) With respect to the IPO at…
Read MoreY-M-C-A: VILLAGE PEOPLE FRONT MAN SCORES EARLY VICTORY IN COPYRIGHT TRANSFER TERMINATION WARS
January 1, 2013 is a date that has long been circled on music industry calendars. It will mark the 35th anniversary of the 1978 effective date of the Copyright Act of 1976, and is the day authors and artists can be begin to take advantage of the Act’s liberalized copyright transfer termination provisions. (Paul Goldstein’s…
Read MoreABOUT THOSE 12 LPs FOR A DOLLAR: RECORDING LEGENDS SUE OVER RECORD CLUB ROYALTIES
One of the guilty pleasures of vinyl record collecting in the 60s and 70s was taking advantage of Columbia House Record Club’s introductory teaser offers, usually 12 records for a dollar, to purchase in bulk. (Did I hear you say that there must be a catch? Of course, but I’d love to know what percentage…
Read MoreBOOK REPORT: “HAVANA REQUIEM”
THIS POST CONTAINS NO SPOILERS! A flawed, fallen hero seeking redemption, a sultry Cuban femme fatale, a corrupt cop, alternately suave and brutish, a mysterious disappearance, double-crosses, diplomatic intrigue, and the ultimate vindication of authors’ termination rights under Section 304(c)(4) of the Copyright Act—these are the things from which copyright lawyers’ dreams, and Paul Goldstein’s…
Read MoreBOOK REPORT: “HOLLYWOOD’S COPYRIGHT WARS”
Under the Copyright Act “copyright protection subsists . . . in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.” This simple formulation is never more problematic than when applied to the highly collaborative, highly derivative, and oftentimes hugely expensive and risky art and craft of film. Who is the author? What counts…
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