On May 28th, Phillies versus the Mets, ace-pitcher Cole Hamels, allowed four runs in eight innings but got out of an eighth-inning jam by making the right pitches at the right time. But it was first baseman Ty Wigginton’s game. He saved the day by going 3-for-3 with a double, home run, two walks, and […]
Copyright
Ask Dr. Copyright . . .
April 30, 2012
Ask Dr. Copyright, Copyright, Internet Law
Dear Doc: I hear a lot about storing files on “the cloud” these days. From your perspective, do I lose any rights when I use such a service? They sure are convenient! Signed, Will Robinson DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!!! DANGER!!! The “Doc” has reviewed the terms and conditions of the license agreements of a few “cloud” […]
Copyright Still Isn’t Fashionable!
April 30, 2012
Copyright
A recent question posed to us by a law student in Rotterdam, Netherlands (yes, you read correctly) about the status of copyright protection for fashion designs in the United States motivated us to revisit a previous article we wrote in 2009 about proposed copyright legislation referred to then as the Design Piracy Prohibition Act (H.R. […]
Ask Dr. Copyright
March 29, 2012
Ask Dr. Copyright, Copyright
Dear Doc: What ever happened to “RightHaven” that company you called a “copyright troll” and that was suing bloggers for quoting from the Las Vegas newspaper? Signed, Just Curious, With Nothing Better to Do Dear JC: It turns out that RightHaven was beaten back by some of the defendants that it sued, with the help […]
Ask Dr. Copyright
February 29, 2012
Ask Dr. Copyright, Copyright
Dear Doc, A few years ago, I remember reading that Google was digitizing every book in a bunch of libraries, and that soon, we would be able to search them all online. What’s up with that? Signed, Still Waiting After All These Years Dear SWAATY: You’re right – Google did start the Google Books Project […]
A Tale of (More Than) Two Brothers
January 31, 2012
Copyright
History, though sometimes a dry and dusty exercise, may occasionally teach important lessons in trademark law, and in common sense (a quality often found lacking in trademark attorneys). Case in point: the dispute between Warner Bros. movie studio and the Marx Brothers, over the film “A Night in Casablanca”. Our story opens in 1947. Groucho […]
Dear Doc: My company makes small electronic products. We design circuit boards and write software, selling the finished products to a variety of industries. Recently, we found out that a former employee may have given our designs to a competitor. Can copyright law help us? Signed, Ripped-Off Dear Rip: You betcha (as Sarah Palin has […]
Dear Doc: A friend of mine (if ya know what I mean) uses peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing software. She downloads cool things from the Internet, but then sorta-kinda-almost instantly erases them from her computer. Is this okay? Signed, MovieFan Dear Fan: Ahem…If I were your friend, I would stop doing that stuff. NOW! You see, […]
One of the exclusive rights in copyright granted to the creator of a work is the right to distribute it. For instance, if you self-publish a book — a popular activity these days — you also have the exclusive right to make copies and distribute them to whomever you want. The distribution right, however, is […]
Protecting oneself from personal liability is top on the list when a business owner forms a corporation or similar entity. Lawyers and courts refer to this protection as the “corporate veil”. Be careful, though, because your corporate veil is not armor clad. Larry Chasin, president of Ideal Diamond Solutions, Inc. (IDS), learned this the hard […]