techlawadvisor / blog

TWiL 10: The RIAA vs Jammie Thomas

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:38:49 -0500

Guests: Cathy Kirkman, John Palfrey, Kevin Heller, and Professor Eric Goldman.

The panel discusses the RIAAs case vs. Jammie Thomas and new developments in indirect liability for third party acts and comments.

Our talking points are online at http://del.icio.us/thisweekinlaw/10.

Mastering Negotiation

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:32:43 -0500

A friend of mine is teaching a one day course at NYCLA (NY County
Lawyers Assoc) next Thursday 11/15/07 titled Mastering Negotiation.

WikiPatents celebrates 1 year

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:36:53 -0500

WikiPatents just celebrated its first birthday! During its first year, WikiPatents has become one of the most popular patent web sites on the Internet. It has been mentioned by hundreds of web sites and blogs, has been covered by The New York Times, CNet, and other notable online publications, has welcomed millions of visitors, and has built an active community of over 25,000 members! In its efforts to help improve patent quality, the WikiPatents Community has helped identify and comment on some of the most popular, valuable, amusing, interesting, and notable patents and patent applications.

The WikiPatents database now hosts over 10 million patents and patent applications and provides access to a number of valuable and FREE tools, including:

* advanced patent searching,
* patent PDF files,
* PAIR file histories or file wrappers, and
* double-click word searching within the text of patent documents.

Among its most notable achievements, WikiPatents.com is contributing to an important movement of improving patent quality by allowing users to add prior art references, comment on the relevancy of prior art, and discuss the scope of inventors' claims. To join the WikiPatents Community, go to http://www.wikipatents.com. Of course, it's free to join.

Hey Ladies...

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:59:58 -0500

No. Not the Beasties, but rather a new song by Oxford Collapse entitled Lady Lawyers.

Blawger Bowl IV

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:16:08 -0500

Blawger Bowl has been dominated by one team for too long...

2006: 1. Bizz Bang Buzz 2. pf.org 3. Loosely Coupled

2005: 1. Bizz Bang Buzz 2. IPTABlog 3. Unbillable Hours

2004: 1. Bizz Bang Buzz 2. Tech Law Advisor 3. The Invent Blog

Announcement: Blawger Bowl IV Gearing Up; Expansion Teams Available

Fantasy Sports Lawsuit Reply Brief

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 20:35:30 -0500

Download file

Previously: Fantasy Sports League Lawsuit Filed!

This Week in Law

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 11:00:28 -0500

Denise Howell's much anticipated This Week in Law podcast series is off and running.

Update: TWiL 6: Ecommerce and the Internet

Myspace is Boomtown for Lawyers

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:03:00 -0500

There's no doubt that Myspace will start generating lots of lawsuits, but not necessarily for copyright infringement like Youtube, but rather more like this one:

A high school assistant principal is suing two students and their parents, alleging the teens set up a Web page on MySpace.com in her name and posted obscene comments and pictures. In the complaint, the spoofed educator is claiming defamation, libel, negligence and negligent supervision: Official sues students over MySpace page.

A very compliant Myspace removed the page when told it wasn't the assistant principal's profile.

In a not exactly related story, Kevin O'Keefe has posted on how attorney Anicia Ogonosky gets new clients at MySpace: Blonde attorney gets new clients at MySpace.

Target suing Blogger for posting anti-theft policy

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 17:03:16 -0500

MSNBC via TVC is reporting that Target Corp. has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Atlanta on September 5, 2006 for posting Target's anti-theft procedures on targetunion.org.

MSNBC interviewed David Bodney, a First Amendment and media rights lawyer with Phoenix-based Steptoe & Johnson LLP, who indicates that if the John Doe blogger never signed a confidentiality decree, then "Target would have to prove the poster knew the policy was confidential" and that "the postings had no legitimate purpose other than to malign."

According to the anonymous poster in question "Target Sucks" on July 28, 2006, Target's law firm Faegre & Benson was monitoring (pdf) the site for improper activity.

Get Legal Mojo Working

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 05:20:35 -0500

The 3 rethink(ip)ers are about to launch the premiere job board for legal professionals: LegalMojo.

To get it going, they are looking for available positions in your firm, company or organization. To discuss details and get your posting listed, contact their jobs board director Vince @ legalmojo.com.

Copyright Law - It's Tricky

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:11:47 -0500

Rolling Stone via Stereogum is reporting that The Knack is suing Run DMC for sampling the 1979 "My Sharona" in their rap single "It's Tricky" off of the group's 1986 Raising Hell. Which essentially means that The Knack is bringing this lawsuit 20 years after the song was released. I imagine that Run DMC's response may go something like this:

More on the YouTube Business Model

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 09:37:56 -0500

YouTube (YouTube Model Is Compromise on Copyrights) is rolling out technology to spot pirated material in a plan to defuse big media companies from suing them for copyright infringement. YouTube then plans to share ad revenue from that material with media companies.

YouTube should note that all of the user generated content is also subject to copyright and unless its uploaded by the creator or licensee is technically 'pirated material'.

The article goes on to say that "YouTube could open itself up to a flood of requests by creators of videos looking for their own share of advertising revenue. Other sites such as Revver Inc. currently give amateur video creators a percentage of ad revenue. YouTube in the future will explore options for sharing online ad revenue with smaller, or amateur creators, Mr. Hurley said. But right now we're building tools for record labels, TV networks and movie studios."

Let's just hope they don't alienate their users in the meantime.

Previously: Universal to Sue YouTube?

Related: Mark Cuban on The Coming Dramatic Decline of Youtube (ed - he wrote this prior to reading any of my posts or the WSJ articles apparently; maybe Calacanis is going to his head.)

Belgian Court Orders Google To Stop Publishing News Content

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:37:23 -0500

WSJ: A Belgian court ordered Internet search giant Google Inc. to stop publishing content from Belgian newspapers without permission or payment of fees, a Belgian press association said Monday. The setback is the latest chapter in the search titan's struggle with publishers over copyright issues.

Universal to Sue YouTube

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 22:08:02 -0500

It appears that Universal Music may be preparing to file a lawsuit against YouTube for copyright infringement. [Lawgarithms]

As I've stated before elsewhere, unlike Grokster, YouTube is not a business built on copyright infringement. There is tons of user generated content and YouTube quickly complies with copyright owners' requests to have their materials taken down from the site.

If I were their lawyer, I'd advise them to post "This video has been removed as per the request of the copyright owner" rather than admitting "due to copyright infringement" as they do in the above. (h/t Nipper)

Another lawyer looking to represent YouTube, Ron from DC, says that YouTube does not induce copyright infringements. Watch what he has to say on YouTube with this informative video entitled: Youtube Sued! Will Copyright Kill The Video Star?

Related/Updated: Here's YouTube’s answer to the copyright lawsuit filed by Robert Tur, a Los Angeles pilot and journalist. Tur alleged that his copyright-protected video footage of truck driver Reginald Denny's beating in the city's 1992 race riots was uploaded and viewed on YouTube in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and related laws. YouTube's answer maintains that the company "respects third parties' intellectual property rights," complies with the DMCA’s "Safe Harbor" provisions, and is "a service provider...immune from liability from copyright infringement..."

What Banned Books have you read?

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:58:08 -0500

Google blog has a post on the American Library Association's Banned Books Week (Sept. 23-30) and Google has also created a Banned Books page (in conjunction with Book Search) to highlight novels that have been threatened or actually banned.

Being challenged this year are To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (I saw the movie for both and also read the latter).

Apparently I've read many of these books (or seen the movie based on the novel in some cases) (after the jump)