Technically Legal

Episode 40: Goin Gaga

Ben Snitkoff — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:18:13 +0000

Innocent infringement off the table, Apple sues HTC, and is it illegal to poach tickets?

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Apple Sues HTC Over iPhone Patents This is still breaking, so we’ll have more coverage as...
Technically Legal Podcast: Episode 13 Apple and the FCC, Cyber Harassment, and the Redbox Suit....
Technically Legal Podcast: Episode 2 Tony LaRussa sues Twitter, Yahoo sues the NFL, and patents...

Hulu loses Daily Show and Colbert, Viacom to Sue Bloggers?

David O'Brien — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:55:18 +0000

Hulu announced on March 2, 2010, that Comedy Central (owned by Viacom) is pulling The Daily Show and The Colbert Report from the website.

Why?! The answer, it turns out, starts with an “S” superimposed with a vertical line (or two, if you’re like me). According to the New York Times, the pull is the result of failed negotiations and the culmination of a contract term. Translation: Colbert and Stewart weren’t worth their weight in Hulu’s advertising currency.

Given the rising popularity of Hulu, I was pretty shocked that Colbert and Stewart weren’t making the bucks. However, even more disturbing is a post I came across on THR, Esq., which quotes Tony Fox, a Viacom/Comedy Central PR rep, with a rather pointed remark when asked “whether [Comedy Central] will now target websites and bloggers who post unauthorized clips from the show”:

“Yes, we intend to do so. My feeling is if (websites) are making money on our copyrighted content, then that is a problem.”

Too bad that fails to take into account that little thing called Fair Use, the same principle which allows comedy shows interlaced with news to take swipes at popular culture and media from other networks. Fox’s statement does sounds somewhat unintentionally overinclusive–surely he didn’t mean all embedded video clips are instances of infringement. Even the players on www.thedailyshow.com and www.colbertnation.com allow embedding. Either way, the words were definitely provocative.

Tech Dirt followed up with the company and Viacom has since clarified the remarks:

“We have always tried to be as permissive as possible when looking at what might be fair use, and we haven’t changed our approach at all. Frankly, fair use works for us. I can’t recall a time we’ve ever sued a blogger for the use of a Comedy Central clip, and there’s no reason to believe that would be more likely to today.”

This answer is much more along the lines of what I would have expected from a PR representative. But does that make this PR fluff? Time will tell, I suppose. In the meantime, we’ll keep our eyes peeled for takedowns, nastygrams, and suits.

No related posts.

Yet Another Thomas-Rasset Trial, Set for Oct 2010

David O'Brien — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:12:15 +0000

This week, court documents were posted online indicating that Jammie Thomas-Rasset’s third trial is set for next October. Hat tip to Ben Sheffner for reporting this on Monday on his Copyrights & Campaigns blog.

A few weeks back on our Podcast and blog (see here, here, and here), we covered the first part of this story when Judge Davis granted a remittitur reducing the damages in the case from $1.92M ($80,000 per song infringed) to $54,000 ($2,250 per song infringed). As we noted, once a remittitur has been granted, the opposing party has the option to either accept the reduction in damages or have a new trial. They opted for the new trial, which will only concern the issue of damages.

A bigger question, as we (and Sheffner), have noted is whether the ultimate amount of damages will be capped in the new trial at $54,000 (based on the remittitur) or whether the plaintiffs will be able to cover any amount within the spectrum of statutory damages under the copyright act.

Damages Reduced for Jammie Thomas-Rasset The judge in the Jammie Thomas-Rasset case just reduced the...
RIAA Offers Thomas-Rasset Settlement, T-R Rejects The RIAA offered to settle Jammie Thomas-Rasset’s case for $25,000...
Tenenbaum Trial: Directed Verdict Granted Judge Nancy Gertner granted a motion for directed verdict (also...

The Supreme Court’s Copyright Ruling

Ben Snitkoff — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:08:51 +0000

Yesterday I mentioned on our twitter feed that the Supreme Court released an opinion relating to copyright law. Evan Brown, of Internet Cases and a regular TWiL panelist, wrote up a post that goes over the facts and ruling of the case. This case is a little dry, but if you’re interested, please hop over to his blog and check it out.

Bilski at the Supreme Court Today Today, the Supreme Court hears arguments on the Bilski case....
De-FUD: Sotomayor’s Stance on Copyright Infringement Wired’s Threat Level blog posted an article titled “High Court...
De-FUD: Supreme Court Serves Up Nothing Wired once again makes our De-FUD page. This time they...

Episode 39: Our Patented Newsfeed (Repost)

Ben Snitkoff — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:06:17 +0000

What damages for false DMCA takedown notices, employer liability for employee statements, Facebook Patents the newsfeed.

Please download the podcast, or subscribe to the feed. Feel free to e-mail us with questions, suggestions or comments.

Damages in False DMCA takedown

Rare Ruling on Damages for Sending Bogus Copyright Takedown Notice–Lenz v. Universal
Rossi Case

FTC Guidelines on Employer Liability for Employee Blog Posts

Potential Employer Liability for Employee Online Statements: New Guidelines by the Federal Trade Commission

Facebook Patents the Newsfeed

Facebook’s news-feed patent could mean lawsuits
Facebook Patents The News Feed (Updated)
The Patent

UPDATE: There seems to have been a glitch with the first post. Hopefully this will fix it.

Technically Legal Podcast: Episode 12 RealDVD case, Microsoft and the i4i Patent, and Copying Websites....
Episode 25: Where’s My IHOP Bilski, International Copyright Treaty, and Using Facebook as an Alibi...
Episode 40: Goin Gaga Innocent infringement off the table, Apple sues HTC, and is...

Apple Sues HTC Over iPhone Patents

Ben Snitkoff — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:11:00 +0000

This is still breaking, so we’ll have more coverage as the details of the litigation emerge.

Apple has sued HTC for infringement of Apple patents relating to the user interface and underlying hardware of the iPhone. While I don’t have my hands on a complaint yet, there’s a fair bet it involves the patent for capacitive touch screens Apple was recently awarded.

UPDATE: You can now download the relevant documents. I’ll try to get a look at them later today or this evening.

Apple to Defend Nokia Lawsuit “Vigorously” Recently, Nokia filed a patent infringement suit against Apple, alleging...
Apple Wins Injunction against Psystar AppleInsider reported that Apple won a permanent injunction against Psystar....
Bilski Is(n’t) About Software Patents In Podcast 2, we spent a good amount of time...

Episode 38: What’s the Buzz?

Ben Snitkoff — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:59:12 +0000

Google Buzz Class Action Lawsuit, Social Media and Burglary, and Searches of your P2P share folders.

Please download the podcast, or subscribe to the feed. Feel free to e-mail us with questions, suggestions or comments.

Google Buzz Class Action

Local class action complaint filed over Google Buzz

Social Media and Burglary

Your Rights Online: I Use Twitter, Please Rob Me
http://pleaserobme.com/

Search Warrants and Share Folders

Feds Can Search, Seize P2P Files Without Warrant

Can the Police Find Your Phone? Recently Mac developer and Somerville native Daniel Jalkut had his...
Google Class Action Eric Goldman reports on a class action law suit filed...
De-FUD: MA GPS Tracking Case Not to bite the hand that feeds us, but a...

Redbox Caves As Well

Ben Snitkoff — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:53:52 +0000

We’ve covered the Redbox suit before and are a little sad to report that they’ve agreed to Warner’s demands not to rent new releases for 28 days. Warner hopes that this will boost sales of DVDs. Presumably because if people didn’t want to see a movie in the theater, they will run out and buy the DVD, rather than just waiting another month before renting it. That makes sense? Right?

This announcement comes on the heels of Netflix caving to Warner’s demands in January.

Charges Dropped Against Party Filmer We mentioned earlier that an Illinois woman was detained and...
Filming Anything in a Movie Theater or BestBuy is Illegal in Illinois A 22 year-old Chicago woman was arrested and charged with...
Why Netflix Caved Netflix announced today that it will not rent Warner DVDs...

Episode 37: Largely Copyright

Ben Snitkoff — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:00:48 +0000

White House and Copyright, Streaming the Olympics, FBI and the Fourth Amendment

Please download the podcast, or subscribe to the feed. Feel free to e-mail us with questions, suggestions or comments.

White House and Copyrights

White House Makes Full Copyright Claim on Photos
Another Obama right-of-publicity violation; NY Times gets results!

Streaming the Olympics

Why you can’t see live streaming of Olympics — at least not legally

FBI and the Fourth Amendment

On the FBI, the Fourth Amendment and Your Cell Phone

Can the Police Find Your Phone? Recently Mac developer and Somerville native Daniel Jalkut had his...
Another E-mail Privacy Case The EFF has a great post up comparing the Oregon...
No Tweeting in Federal Court A Federal Court has found that live tweeting courtroom events...

This Week in Law #47: Felix Unger Wisdom

David O'Brien — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:19:24 +0000

Ben and I appeared as guest panelists yesterday, February 12, 2010, on TWiT network with fellow attorneys Ernie Svenson and Denise Howell. We had a lot of fun doing it and hit some great topics. Be sure to check it out. The audio podcast should be available early next week and the (unedited) video broadcast is available on twil.blip.tv (and below).

The Supreme Court’s Copyright Ruling Yesterday I mentioned on our twitter feed that the Supreme...
Delay in broadcast of Prop. 8 trial The Supreme Court has, at least temporarily, established a two...
SCOTUS Kills Prop. 8 Trial Broadcast In a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court said that the...

Technically Legal

Episode 40: Goin Gaga

Innocent infringement off the table

Apple Sues HTC

Poaching Gaga Tickets

Hulu loses Daily Show and Colbert, Viacom to Sue Bloggers?

Yet Another Thomas-Rasset Trial, Set for Oct 2010

The Supreme Court’s Copyright Ruling

Episode 39: Our Patented Newsfeed (Repost)

Damages in False DMCA takedown

FTC Guidelines on Employer Liability for Employee Blog Posts

Facebook Patents the Newsfeed

Apple Sues HTC Over iPhone Patents

Episode 38: What’s the Buzz?

Google Buzz Class Action

Social Media and Burglary

Search Warrants and Share Folders

Redbox Caves As Well

Episode 37: Largely Copyright

White House and Copyrights

Streaming the Olympics

FBI and the Fourth Amendment

This Week in Law #47: Felix Unger Wisdom