fair use

Future You Will Be Smarter than Present You

by Laura Bergus November 19, 2009 Podcasts

Fair use, smartphones, and whether or not you can break the BigLaw hierarchy.

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Holden Caulfield, Gay Superheroes, and the Death of The Author

by Sean McGilvray July 13, 2009 Legal Analysis

Two recent developments have raised questions about the amount of control an author has over his characters once they leave the womb of his or her creative imagination and enter the collective consciousness. There’s a fine line between the public awareness and the public domain, and just because a character has embedded itself in the [...]

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Family Guy Wins Court Battle Citing Fair Use

by Joshua Auriemma March 16, 2009 Legal

In another victory for fair use, Judge Deborah Batts ruled today that the adaptation of the song “When You Wish Upon A Star” was protected by Section 107 of The Copyright Act, otherwise known as the fair use exception. I’m always interested to see these parody cases play out because parody is so ingrained in [...]

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Palin v. Peta – Round 1

by Joshua Auriemma December 24, 2008 Legal

Hat tip to Andy here at LG for bringing this debacle to my attention.   Apparently, Sarah Palin and PETA have been slinging mud at each other over a PETA game parodying Governor Palin.   Of particular legal interest is the following email from Ingrid Newkirk of PETA to Bill McAllister from Palin’s office: Dear Mr. [...]

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Little Big Planet and Copyright Infringement

by Joshua Auriemma November 9, 2008 Geekery

For the unenlightened, Little Big Planet is a game which is heavily focused on user-created content.  While the game was recently delayed for references to the Koran, there are already a slew of youtube videos displaying some awesome custom content.  Anyway, it appears that Sony has been yanking levels containing copyrighted IP faster than c.  This [...]

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