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Topics - Mulligan

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1
Legal Controversies Forum / Copyright Controversy of the Year?
« on: July 15, 2017, 05:35:42 PM »
I'm going to drop out of lurk mode for a moment to share a link that I know some of my buddies here on the forum will enjoy reading as much as I did:

https://petapixel.com/2017/07/14/photographer-broke-due-copyright-lawsuit-monkey/

Due to lack of time, I did not initiate a Kickstarter campaign for this poor photographer, but, mercy, I was tempted. I mean, honestly, given how many times the image in question has been shared on the web the photographer should be compensated with enough bananas to last for life.

As a teaser, here's a quote from the article that motivated me to share this link: “I’m bewildered at the American court system. Surely it matters that the right monkey is suing me.”

You just can't make this stuff up when it comes to copyright law in the digital age, eh? :)

2
Legal Controversies Forum / MP3 Ripping and YouTube
« on: October 26, 2013, 10:36:21 AM »
Here's a link to an article entitled "Major YouTube ripper loses court case for archiving MP3s, but won’t be closing shop." I thought this piece made for interesting reading:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/youtube-mp3-converter-loses-court-case/

3
Legal Controversies Forum / Oscar's Courtroom Strategy Blog
« on: August 19, 2013, 11:02:09 AM »
I'm a huge fan of Oscar's blog, CourtroomStrategy.com, and I check it every week or two to see the latest topic to go under the knife of Oscar's thinking and experience.

I found the most recent topic -- "What to Do When the Client Wants to Lie" -- particularly fascinating because it thoroughly answers a question about which I've long been curious.

If you want to see a sharp legal mind at work on a topic both interesting and relevant to today's courtrooms, surf over to this link and read the post:

http://www.courtroomstrategy.com/2013/08/what-to-do-when-the-client-wants-to-lie/

Thanks to Oscar for posting regularly on CourtroomStrategy.com. I'm not a lawyer, but I am a writer who appreciates good writing... and Oscar Michelen pens some of the most understandable and intelligent prose about matters of the law that I've ever seen from an attorney, many of whom write as if they're being asphyxiated by long words with Latin roots.

4
Legal Controversies Forum / Victory for College Students
« on: March 20, 2013, 05:13:46 PM »
Oscar's latest blog entry makes for very interesting reading at

http://www.courtroomstrategy.com/2013/03/supreme-court-upholds-first-sale-rights-of-foreign-bookseller/

I was happy to read about the decision in Oscar's blog post because the big textbook publishing houses for once got the short end of the stick... at least until their lobbyists (as Oscar points out) influence Congress to pass a law that'll once again protect their huge, unconscionable profits on educational textbooks.

Anyway, Oscar's observations about the Supreme Court decision are well worth reading. I especially enjoyed the little digs at Scalia and Thomas.

5
Legal Controversies Forum / Now Illegal to Unlock Your Cell Phone
« on: January 26, 2013, 11:44:21 AM »
Chalk up another victory for lobbyists working for big corporations because now it's illegal to unlock your cell phone according to the story at...

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/now-illegal-unlock-cellphone/story?id=18319518

The way things are going, at some point it will be illegal to visit a restroom without first getting a retinal scan to identify you as well as a rectal search to make sure you're not trying to smuggle illegal substances into a public toilet.

And if you have a wide stance, you really better look out!

6
Legal Controversies Forum / Tidbits from Oscar's Blog
« on: October 18, 2012, 04:17:16 PM »
I'm a regular reader of Oscar Michelin's interesting, informative, and often entertaining blog at http://www.courtroomstrategy.com/

Here's the latest tidbit I picked up for my files from Oscar's post on the topic of "Warner Bros. Beats Out Creators’ Heirs Over Rights to Superman":

But at the end of the day, especially if there is no official transcript produced of the oral argument, the court relies almost exclusively on the written briefs and may have completely forgotten what was said at the argument weeks (and maybe months earlier). The court may also just be less persuaded after the passage of time and after re-reading the briefs. That is why it is essential that lawyers NOT rely at all on oral argument and make certain that their written briefs clearly and completely make their point. Otherwise they may find that their clients legal rights will have sailed “up up an away.” (Couldn’t resist).*

I think this point is worth adding to ELI because knowing this information about the court will help people carefully prepare their letters to Getty and Getty surrogates.

If you haven't bookmarked Oscar's Courtroom Strategy blog, you should do so because it's packed full of good information for anyone interested in how lawyers and courts and legislators work as well as wannabe litigators. (Oh, to be 16 again and trying to decide what I wanted to do with my life!)

* extracted from http://www.courtroomstrategy.com/2012/10/warner-bros-beats-out-creators-heirs-over-rights-to-superman/

7
Legal Controversies Forum / Fair Use?
« on: September 28, 2012, 11:44:34 AM »
Out of curiosity this morning I tracked down literally hundreds of uses of a single frame image lifted apparently from one of the Batman movies, and that tracking led me to this page...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bat-signal_1989_film.jpg

... where there's interesting reading material regarding fair use.

I may have been reading too quickly, but near as I can tell the above page gives no definitive answer as to whether an image taken from a single frame of a movie could be copyright troll material.

Thoughts on this?

8
Legal Controversies Forum / Share Cool Stuff and Make Money
« on: September 13, 2012, 10:53:36 AM »
There's a WordPress plugin on the market until six p.m. EST today (9/13/2012) that I think raises some complex copyright issues, and I'm hoping some of you can take a few minutes to watch this sales pitch video about this "TrustJacker" plugin:



Using this plugin to frame content (articles) on other sites with an ad the site knows knowing about seems legally dangerous to me. What do you think?

9
Getty Images Letter Forum / Getty Images Sold!
« on: August 15, 2012, 09:11:38 AM »
Well, our pals at Getty Images are now owned by the Carlyle Group.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1343682c-e6d2-11e1-965b-00144feab49a.html#axzz23cV3U6Dy

10
Legal Controversies Forum / Google and Copyright Infringement
« on: May 25, 2012, 05:39:59 PM »
Here's another interesting article that I just read about Google and how it handles copyright infringements:

http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2012/0525/Google-releases-data-on-piracy-takes-copyright-infringement-pretty-seriously

Reading this and learning the number of take down requests boggled my poor old brain. The number of hours consumed by copyright issues in the digital age... mercy!

11
Legal Controversies Forum / Another Lawyer Feeding Frenzy
« on: May 25, 2012, 05:35:06 PM »
Matt, please delete this topic if it's too far off the ELI themes, but I thought to add a link to an article I just read about the lawyers circling for a feeding frenzy over the recent Facebook IPO. There's an interesting story at...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/25/us-facebook-lawyers-idUSBRE84O14Z20120525

12
Getty Images Letter Forum / Photographers and Creative Commons Copyright
« on: December 20, 2011, 09:43:27 AM »
I just read an interesting article with comments from professional photographers who are finding Creative Common licenses useful and lucrative. It's no wonder that companies like Getty Images that extort money from both photographers (taking 80% of the profits) as well as website owners are scared to death of CC licensing.

With a type of copyright that made sense and was a win-win for owner and user, the "license compliance specialists" would actually have to find honest work and do something to earn their paychecks.

The article is at...

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-12/16/creative-commons-gallery

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