In 2007, Viacom filed a lawsuit against YouTube, seeking a billion dollars in damages for the infringement of Viacom copyrghts in videos uploaded to YouTube by third-party users. On Wednesday, a federal district judge granted YouTube summary judgment, saying the claims were barred by the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).
Tag: copyright
Are the SEC’s S&M copyright rules pre-empted by federal law?
The Attorney General of Tennessee recently opined that the SEC was within its rights to limit media access to college sporting events to those news organizations who were willing to sign away large sections of their intellectual property rights as part of a credentialing scheme.It’s a neat idea, and I’m sure it would be expedient for the SEC if the world really did work that way, but I’m afraid the Attorney General’s opinion raises more copyright questions than it answers—not the least of those questions being whether the SEC’s credentialing scheme is actually preempted by federal copyright law.Preemption is a doctrine that says, when there’s a disagreement between state laws and federal laws, the federal law wins.
$750 for downloading a pop song – that’s Ludacris!
Don't say that we didn't warn you: Copyright can be strong, strong medicine. Try "$750 per song" strong.For all of the thousands of Internet users who skate by unpunished for posting episodes of "Lost" or "The Daily Show" on YouTube, there's the occasional Whitney Harper to remind us that "everybody's doing it" won't get you out of a speeding ticket, and it won't get you off the hook for downloading copyright-protected music without paying for it either.Whitney was a 14-year-old Texas eighth-grader when she started using what was at the time a music file-sharing site, KaZaA (now operating as a paid subscription service) to download and share songs.
Next, NFL will claim it invented jambalaya
If you’re contemplating wearing your favorite Saints T-shirt to a Super Bowl party, make sure there aren’t any NFL lawyers invited first.That’s because the NFL has decided to commit the 21st century’s defining example of corporate shark-jumping by threatening to sue its fans.
Haitian earthquake photos available to student media
We have had several students contact us regarding their use of news media photos to include with their newspaper or yearbook coverage of the Haitian earthquake.As usual, the general rule for using copyrighted material applies: If you didn't take the photo and/or you don't own the copyright to it, you must first obtain permission, which sometimes requires paying for a license.
Great ‘Fair Use’ teaching tool — if you can get it…
The SPLC’s lawyers frequently lecture about the doctrine of “fair use,” and how – properly applied – it can enable journalists to sample lawfully from copyright-protected content.