After almost a decade-long fight between Google and Oracle, two of Silicon Valley’s tech giants, the Supreme Court will finally rule on a case which is considered by many to be the “most important copyright case of the decade.”1 The path which led up to this point is a long and complicated one. This article…
Tag: Copyright
The European Union vs. Silicon Valley
The European Union dealt a blow to major online service providers when the European Parliament approved an overhaul to existing copyright laws that place an affirmative duty on the tech industry’s biggest players to monitor their websites for potentially infringing content. The Copyright Directive, as it’s called, has been the subject of intense lobbying from…
Keeping Secrets: How Magicians Protect Their Ideas
Magicians and their ideas have come to occupy an area known as IP’s “negative space,” an area where certain creative endeavors lack access to traditional IP protections.1 Scholars have identified other elements that operate in this space including furniture designs, tattoos, computer databases, and hairstyles, among others.2 Legal scholars can gain valuable insights from the…
Fashion Designers Prematurely Cheer for Varsity Brands Case
On March 22, 2017, the Supreme Court decided Star Athletica, LLC v. Varsity Brands, Inc. 1 The Court’s 6-2 majority held that the pictorial and graphic designs on Varsity Brands’ cheerleading uniforms were separable from the uniforms’ utilitarian functions, and therefore eligible for copyright protection.2 While many commentators are touting this decision as a big…
Sound Recording Feedback: Efficiency Noise
In my prior post, I argued that the limited nature of the sound recording copyright has had adverse effects on the scope of protection for other copyrights.1 The copyright act defines a sound recording in terms of the process of fixation, not in terms of substantive expression.2 In response, courts developed bright-line rules towards copying…
Sound Recording Feedback: Bright-Line Rules and Blurred-Lines Jurisprudence
“[G]ood artists copy[,] great artists steal. And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.” – Steve Jobs1 Mimicry, homage, and blatant copying create the foundation for several artistic forms, including contrafacts and mash-ups.2 Yet, copying is merely the start of the creative process. At the heart of the arts is the copying-expression cycle:…