Termination of Sound Recording Copyright Transfers — CLE Program

January 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I will be speak­ing at an upcom­ing CLE pro­gram on one of my favorite top­ics: record­ing artists’ recap­ture of their copy­rights from the record labels.  As 2013 (the first year that sound record­ing copy­right trans­fers will have ever been sub­ject to ter­mi­na­tion) approaches, this issue is get­ting on the radar of more and more folks.  I have been deal­ing with it for over a decade, hav­ing briefed the sound record­ing work for hire issue in the orig­i­nal MP3.com lit­i­ga­tion.  The pro­gram will take place on Tues­day, Jan­u­ary 24 in New York City.

My panel will be part of a much larger intel­lec­tual prop­erty law CLE pro­gram spon­sored by the New York State Bar Asso­ci­a­tion Intel­lec­tual Prop­erty Law Sec­tion.  I highly encour­age any­one inter­ested in any facet of intel­lec­tual prop­erty law to attend.  I am not aware of any other pro­gram where you can get 8 credit hours of CLE (includ­ing 1 hour of ethics credit) for only $125.  Here is a link to the reg­is­tra­tion mate­ri­als for those inter­ested, and here is a copy of the full-day program:

Filed Under: Events, Sound Recordings, Termination, Work Made For Hire

UMG v Veoh: Ninth Circuit Affirms DMCA Safe Harbor for Veoh

December 21, 2011 By 3 Comments

Copyright Into Infinity
Creative Commons License photo credit: Post-Software

The Ninth Cir­cuit has affirmed the dis­trict court’s deci­sion that Veoh’s user-generated video ser­vice was pro­tected from UMG’s copy­right infringe­ment claims by the DMCA safe har­bor pro­vi­sions.  In a com­pre­hen­sive and mostly well-reasoned 49-page opin­ion, the court method­i­cally rejected each of UMG’s argu­ments as to why the safe har­bor should not apply. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Attorney's Fees, DMCA Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Bill Patry’s How To Fix Copyright Released!

December 13, 2011 By 1 Comment

Just in time for hol­i­day gift-giving, Bill Patry’s great new book, “How to Fix Copy­right” is now avail­able for pur­chase.  This book is a follow-up of sorts to his prior work, “Moral Pan­ics and the Copy­right Wars.”

I have just bought my copy and will post my thoughts after I have had time to read and digest, but I had the oppor­tu­nity to review ear­lier drafts of a cou­ple of chap­ters and based on that I am really look­ing for­ward to read­ing the entire book.  Bill knows more about the his­tory and work­ings of copy­right law than any other liv­ing per­son.  His writ­ing is highly engag­ing and his ideas are always thought-provoking.

Highly rec­om­mended!!!!

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: , , , ,

You Could Be The Next Chief Copyright Royalty Judge!

November 11, 2011 By 1 Comment

The Library of Con­gress has just announced that is accept­ing appli­ca­tions for the posi­tion of Chief Copy­right Roy­alty Judge.  This is an extremely impor­tant posi­tion in the copy­right world.  The Chief Judge is one of three Judges who decide roy­alty rate-setting and license fee dis­tri­b­u­tion pro­ceed­ings relat­ing to var­i­ous com­pul­sory licenses set out in the Copy­right Act, as part of the Copy­right Roy­alty Board.  The Chief Judge, as the title indi­cates, serves a par­tic­u­larly impor­tant role in the admin­is­tra­tion of the Copy­right Roy­alty Board.

The Copy­right Roy­alty Board, in turn, serves a very impor­tant role, par­tic­u­larly with respect to set­ting rates for the var­i­ous com­pul­sory licenses, includ­ing those for web­cast­ing and other dig­i­tal music services.

Here is a link to the job list­ing at the usajobs.gov web­site.  I encour­age all qual­i­fied, inter­ested par­ties to apply!

Filed Under: Compulsory Licenses & Rate Court, Copyright Office Tagged With: , ,

Copyright Office Releases Report of Office Policies and Special Projects

October 25, 2011 By 2 Comments

The Reg­is­ter of Copy­rights, Maria Pal­lante, has issued an impor­tant report, high­light­ing key policy-based pri­or­i­ties and announc­ing sev­eral spe­cial projects that the Office will imple­ment over the next two years.  If you care about copy­right law, I highly rec­om­mend you read this report.

There is much good news in it, includ­ing the Register’s plans to con­tinue upgrad­ing the Office’s web­site and mak­ing more of the pub­lic record avail­able elec­tron­i­cally.  For those less famil­iar with the vast amount of impor­tant work the Office does in con­nec­tion with pol­icy stud­ies and leg­is­la­tion, this report will pro­vide ample proof of just how impor­tant a role the Copy­right Office plays with respect to shap­ing and imple­ment­ing copy­right law.

Of spe­cial note, the Office will be con­duct­ing regional roundtable-type events to obtain input from all of the copy­right law’s many stake­hold­ers (hope­fully includ­ing the pub­lic) and guide future poli­cies.  I will be sure to keep you apprised of such meet­ings.  As a spe­cial bonus for copy­right geeks, we will finally be get­ting a revi­sion to the Copy­right Office Compendium!

Here is the Register’s Report:

 

Filed Under: Copyright Office Tagged With: , ,
« Older Posts