Let’s start with five fundamental concepts:
 

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Continue Reading Estate Planning: Copyright and the Limits of Digital Property

The other day I was learning about a fellow lawyer, by reviewing her website. Her trademark practice is similar to mine. The site was inviting. She has a sense of humor.
“Nice,” thought I, “we should connect.”
I was reviewing her website because she’d made a mistake in a matter before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Suddenly, my respect for this lawyer circled down the drain.
Because of the mistake? Absolutely not. We all make mistakes.
I lost…
Continue Reading Working on Vacation

You’re a visual artist. You sell a work for $1000. Over time the value appreciates. Your buyer re-sells the work for $50,000. You get nothing (except requests to speak about your work, for no money!)

There is no law permitting artists to share in “resale royalties” when their works change hands. I discuss this in Conversation #31 (Droit de Suite) in my book, Arts Law Conversations: A Surprisingly Readable Guide for Arts Entrepreneurs.  

One way around this…
Continue Reading Getting a Cut When Your Work Re-Sells

The US Copyright Office is establishing a new option for registering multiple “online short literary works” as a group, with a single application and a single fee.
In plain English, that means: blog entries; social media posts; and short online articles.
They’re still rolling out the details — which I’ll describe here when they become available. For now, here is the official announcement.
Continue Reading New Copyright Registration Option for Blog Entries; Social Media Posts

Many of us, sheltered in place, are using video and web-conferencing services such as Zoom. How fortunate we are, to have such tools at our disposal.
While keeping physically healthy, here are three tips for staying legally healthy in your web-conferencing environment.

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Continue Reading Three Tips for Web-Conferencing

“Please don’t copy my work.”
They do it anyway.
Is it plagiarism or is it copyright infringement?
Plagiarism is a question of attribution. Let’s say GoodGuy actually created The Work.  BadGuy not only copies The Work, but passes it off as his own. BadGuy is “attributing” authorship of The Work to himself rather than to the actual author, GoodGuy. Bottom line, it’s a lie. It’s telling the world, “I created this” when that’s not true. This is plagiarism.
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Continue Reading Plagiarism v Copyright Infringement. What’s the Difference?

TIP #1. In recorded music there are almost always two separate copyrights:

TIP #2.  Until recently, sound recordings that were fixed before 1972 were not eligible for US copyright protection.
TIP #3.  There are new procedures for protecting pre-1972 sound recordings. This new scheme is not technically copyright protection, but it’s very similar. The new law itself appears here…
Continue Reading 3 Copyright Tips About {old} Sound Recordings

No such thing as a “normal” VARA case? Ha! Maybe not. But this one is taking place in Normal, Illinois.
The Town of Normal wants to destroy a mural that appears on a building, to make way for development. The mural was created by 13 artists. In April, the 13 artists sued the Town and the developer to prevent destruction of the work.
So far it sounds like a pretty “normal” case — right?
Now the twist. Attorneys for…
Continue Reading VARA: The Normal case

Bringing a copyright action in Federal court is expensive. There’s no question; the costs bar many aggrieved copyright owners from justice.
Several organizations representing copyright owners — along with the United States Copyright Office itself — have been working on legislation toward a copyright “small claims” system, providing an administrative (as opposed to judicial) option for the resolution of copyright-related disputes. Draft legislation was introduced last month, in both the House and the Senate.
Understandably, the sponsoring organizations are…
Continue Reading Copyright Small Claims: Weighing the Pros and Cons of the CASE Act