How Can Copyright Law Be Reformed to Avoid Results Like “Blurred Lines” and “Dark Horse”? Part 2. Damn the Damages! Full Speed Ahead! This is the third in a series of posts about the dread supposedly wrought by recent music copyright cases (all of which were filed in...
Reforming Copyright Law Last time, I questioned the premises and theses of the common notion that the “Blurred Lines,” “Stairway to Heaven” and “Dark Horse” cases are chilling creativity. My main point was that the only way to determine whether this was happening is...
And What Should We Do About It? Ever since the shocking “Blurred Lines” jury verdict, there has been a steady drum beat about how that case, and some subsequent music-and-copyright cases, has chilled songwriting. Since “Blurred Lines,” the same U.S. District Court has...
When Is it Appropriate to Knock Out a Copyright Case Based on Lack of Substantial Similarity? Last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals revised its opinion in the “Haters Gonna Hate” case, Hall v. Swift, which I blogged about recently. The main holding remains the...
Why Did the Easy One Fail and the Hard One Succeed? Many years ago, the Vinh-Sanh Trading Corporation began selling rice it imported from southeast Asia under the following trademark, which it called the THREE LADIES BRAND: Here it is on a bag of Thai jasmine rice:...
