Balough
July 30, 2014
An alliance of music copyright owners sued General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. for infringement by not paying royalties for the devices installed in their cars that record CDs. The Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies, Inc. (AARC) alleges that the auto makers and their suppliers are liable for copyright infringement for audio equipment […]
Balough
June 18, 2014
It’s elementary, says Judge Posner. Because the copyrights have expired, there is no protection of early Sherlock Holmes stories. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the trial court’s summary judgment finding that the proposed publication of a sequel to an anthology consisting of “stories written by modern authors but inspired by, and in most instances depicting, the […]
Balough
April 15, 2014
Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner is no second banana to the Banana Lady. Not only did Judge Posner write an opinion affirming the dismissal of the Banana Lady’s copyright infringement lawsuit, but he also pealed back her long history of filing frivolous lawsuits and failure to pay judgments against her. Catherine Conrad is a self-employed […]
Balough
March 4, 2014
An actress’s brief appearance in an anti-Islamic film may be copyrightable, entitling the actress to an injunction requiring Google to remove the film from YouTube, the Ninth Circuit found. Cindy Garcia was cast in a minor role in a film called “Desert Warrior,” an Arabian adventure film. She was paid $500 and read from four […]
Balough
December 23, 2013
Fox Broadcasting Company can’t maintain a copyright action against Dish Network’s product that enables Dish customers to skip over commercials because Fox doesn’t own the copyright to the commercials, an appellate court found in affirming a trial court ruling. In addition, the appellate court said, while it is a “much closer” question, the trial court […]
Balough
December 23, 2013
A federal judge has referred a band of copyright troll attorneys to their respective state and federal bars for their “moral turpitude unbecoming of an officer of the court.” The judge also referred the attorneys to the U.S. Attorney’s office in California and the Internal Revenue Service for their scheme that “outmaneuvered the legal system” […]
Balough
December 16, 2013
A patient has sued his dentist over a contract that prohibits the patient from posting any comments about the dentist on the Internet. The complaint alleges that the dentist requires all her patients to sign a “Mutual Agreement to Maintain Privacy” before any dental work is performed. Under the agreement, the patient assigns all copyrights that […]
Balough
December 15, 2013
It’s OK to print and sell a copy of an old movie poster on a t-shirt, but only if it is not combined with any other element of the movie, a federal appellate court ruled. The trial court granted Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. and Turner Entertainment Co.’s request to stop two companies from reproducing old […]
Balough
December 15, 2013
The federal government infringed on the copyright of the person who designed the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C., when the postal service issued a stamp showing the memorial’s soldiers on a snowy day. Frank Gaylord, who designed and sculpted the 19 soldiers in the memorial called “The Column,” sued the United States over the stamp, […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
It is not a copyright violation for a plagiarism detection website to keep a copy of a student’s paper in its data base to use to check other students’ papers. The case arose when high school students were required to submit their papers to iParadigms, an online service that compares the students’ papers to other […]
