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Entries from March 30th, 2010
Technorati Claim Token
March 30th, 2010 · Comments Off · Popular, Technology
Tags:technorati
Who Owns Your Second Life?
March 27th, 2010 · Comments Off · Copyright, Internet, Popular, Trademark
A few years ago Julian Dibbell wrote a book called Play Money — Or, How I Quit My Day Job And Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot, which detailed the year he spent trying to win a bet with himself. The bet: that he could make more money by killing trolls and demons (or making armor) [...]
The Magic Copryright Chart
March 24th, 2010 · Comments Off · Copyright
Cornell has graciously published a chart explaining both what is already in the public domain and when works are scheduled to enter the public domain under existing United States law. Under current copyright law, if someone stumbled across the missing suitcase of Hemingway’s short stories (described in my post below) and his heirs decided — [...]
Hemingway’s Suitcase
March 23rd, 2010 · Comments Off · Arcana
As the literary-minded will no doubt recall, on the cusp of Hemingway’s early fame virtually all of his finished but as yet unpublished work was lost in a bizarre twist of fate. The incident, which occurred in late December, 1922, is noted by Hemingway in A Moveable Feast and receives half a paragraph in Carlos [...]
Tags:Hemingway·novel·poems·short stories
Who Owns Captain America?
March 17th, 2010 · Comments Off · Copyright, Popular
In January, Marvel Comics filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York seeking a declaration that all of Jack Kirby’s creations belong to Marvel under the “work -for-hire” doctrine. This month, the Kirby kids have retaliated by filing suit against Marvel and Disney in federal court in Los Angeles seeking a declaration that the [...]
Double Falsehood Not False After All
March 16th, 2010 · Comments Off · Arcana, Popular
New evidence has come to light that the 18th century play Double Falsehood — whose author famously claimed (to mixed reviews) that it was based on Shakespeare’s missing play Cardenio — actually is derived from Shakespeare’s lost work. Rumors abound that the play will be performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company when the Swan Theatre [...]
Tags:falsehood·Shakespeare
Welcome to Wellywood?
March 10th, 2010 · Comments Off · Popular, Trademark
Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, plans to pay tribute to Hollywood by putting up a gigantic Wellywood sign in the hills above the city. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is less-than-thrilled by the idea, and considers it not so much a tribute as a gratuitous theft of goodwill. Well-known for litigiousness, the HCOC has been [...]
Copyrighting Fashion: One Step Too Far?
March 9th, 2010 · Comments Off · Copyright, Popular
There are many things that are subject to copyright protection — books, articles, film, pictures, music — but fashion design was not high on the founders’ list of concerns when they fashioned the first copyright laws. Nor has the legislature been impressed by past attempts at extending the scope (as opposed to the ever-growing length) [...]
Tags:Balenciaga·Chanel·design·fashion·Picasso
Kindle vs. iPad: Slicing, Dicing and Pricing Literary Rights
March 5th, 2010 · Comments Off · Popular, Technology
Apple recently announced that five of the big six publishers — everybody except Random House — were signing deals to provide content for the iPad. The driving force behind the publishing companies’ exodus from Amazon to Apple is their claim that Amazon’s $9.99 price for new best-sellers is a loss-leader that cuts into their revenues. [...]
When Is Re-Mixing Copyright Infringement?
March 1st, 2010 · Comments Off · Copyright, Popular
Helene Hegemann is pushing the limits set by writers like James Joyce (the original Mr. Cut-and-Paste) by freely grabbing content from other writers — in some cases, entire scenes — and appropriating it for her own use. This pastiche or collage style of writing has pushed hot buttons in the ongoing debate about what constitutes [...]
Tags:Bleak House·Hamlet·James Joyce·King Lear·New York Times·Romeo and Juliet·Shakespeare
I am a commercial litigator and intellectual property lawyer in San Francisco. Although my practice encompasses a wide variety of business disputes, I have a particular fondness for, and am prone to wax philosophical on, the subjects of copyright and trademark infringement in music, literature, art, and film.
