Here is some news for old fogey music lovers (like me). Remember the Spencer Davis Group? Stevie Winwood was the sixteen year old lead singer belting out hits like “Gimme Some Lovin’.” In 1966, the song reached the number 2 hit single position in the U.S. According to Muff Winwood, the bassist, it was “conceived, arranged, and […]
In the not too distant past, a person or company unhappy about a patent had two choices: (a) wait to be sued for patent infringement by the patent owner in Federal court and then challenge the validity of the patent, or (b) preemptively sue the patent owner in Federal Court and ask the court to […]
Dear Doc: I know that in the past you have said (complained, actually) that copyrights last far too long…for the life of the author plus another 75 years (or 95 years for corporate-authored works.) That said, it was not always the case that the term was so extensive. How can I know if a book […]
In many parts of the world, authors and artists also own “moral rights” in their works. Moral rights include the “right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and the right to the integrity of the work.” The “right to integrity” means that right to object to the “distortion, or […]
Many in the U.S. take advantage of low prices offered by Canadian ‘pharmacies’ by purchasing doctor-prescribed patented pharmaceuticals. The Canadian pharmacies are not pharmacies in the traditional sense. That is, they do not maintain stocks of drugs nor fill prescriptions from their own inventories. Instead, the Canadian pharmacies are “ordering services” that ship pharmaceuticals to U.S. […]
Dear Doc:I heard that it’s now legal to take someone else’s photograph, mess with it, and sell it as your own. That can’t be right, right? Please tell me that the copyright law is not that insane. Signed, Every person who ever took a photo. Dear Every: Yes, I am afraid that copyright […]