Category: Copyrights

Copyrights, Moral Rights

What Artists Need to Know About Moral Rights

From the outside the art world seems beautiful and luxurious, creative, and carefree. While this is true, it is also full of tense litigation over rightful ownership, issues of authenticity, and copyright violations. Copyright protection is important to artists. Most people believe that copyright is important because it can prevent others from literally copying the artist’s works without permission. While this is true, there are another reasons why copyright protection is important. Continue reading “What Artists Need to Know About Moral Rights”

Madeleine Morris
Copyrights

Demystifying the Public Domain: How Expired IP Promotes Creativity

Before coming to law school, I only had a vague understanding of what the public domain was. Mostly, it seemed like a phrase people would throw around when describing music that was insanely old. However, a few of my friends make music in their spare time and seeing how they used music they found within the public domain” helped me understand its importance and how it functions.

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Kayla Stetzel
Copyrights, Fun Facts, Patents

Was Harry Houdini’s Most Famous Trick Understanding IP Law?

Intellectual property (IP) law probably isn’t the first thing you think of when you think of Harry Houdini. One probably envisions dramatic performances involving straightjackets, water barrels, or sleight of hand illusions. However, Houdini’s greatest trick may have been leveraging IP to his personal advantage.

While many know of the magician for his impressive feats of escape, the Hungarian-born immigrant was also an avid inventor. Harry Houdini, born Erik Weitz, came of age during the Industrial Revolution. As a product of his time, Houdini had high esteem for feats of mechanical engineering. This, along with a few other incentives discussed later, led him to patent the machines he created for his magic performances.

He designed created new machines that would dazzle his audiences with exciting performances. Patenting his inventions served a few important functions for Houdini. But before describing those functions, let’s first explain how patents work and what they do.

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Kayla Stetzel
Copyrights

Quilting and Copyrighting: Part 2

In my last post I analyzed whether the design of a quilt top meets the statutory requirements for copyright protection and determined that it does. But there are still some unanswered questions. For example, if I wanted to create and sell a pattern with instructions on how to make my original quilt, would that also be protected under copyright law? And, if so, what might infringe?

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Lily Parker
Behind the Scenes, Copyrights

Fair Use Flop: Understanding The Second Circuit’s Decision in Warhol v. Goldsmith

On March 26, 2021, the Second Circuit ruled that a decades-old series of prints created by Andy Warhol depicting music legend Prince infringed the copyrighted photograph by Lynn Goldsmith on which the series was based. Warhol’s series of prints takes Goldsmith’s traditional, black and white portrait of the singer and superimposes it with his signature pop art stylization. Goldsmith did not find out that Warhol had used her image until Prince died in 2016. The court’s decision overturned a district court ruling which declared Warhol’s works legal under the fair use doctrine. But what exactly is the fair use doctrine, and why was it so important in this case? Let’s find out.

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Lydia Bayley
Copyrights, Fun Facts

TikTok: A Copyright Time Bomb?

TikTok has quickly taken over the internet since its global launch just a few years ago. You have probably heard of this app, which allows users to create short videos. Despite being released globally in August of 2018, it is now one of the most-downloaded apps of the 2010s. But concerns of copyright infringement emanate throughout the platform. A copyright is a collection of rights that belong to someone who creates an original work of authorship, such as a book, song, painting, or sculpture. These rights include the exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivatives of the creative work. The person or entity to which these rights belong is referred to as the copyright owner. Copyright infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner. So, what are some of the copyrighted works that TikTok is infringing? Let’s find out…

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Lydia Bayley
Photo by Daniel Cheung on Unsplash
Behind the Scenes, Copyrights, Fun Facts

IP Did you know? Behind the Scenes of Copyright in Pop Culture

Intellectual Property (“IP”) is everywhere. IP laws cover things we interact with daily, like media, technology and even health care through patents, trademarks and copyrights. One of the reasons IP is so interesting is that despite its big impact it tends to be behind the scenes enough that many probably don’t even realize its influence. This post highlights some of these interesting behind-the-scenes tidbits of copyright law.

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Lily Parker
Copyrights

California College Athletes and Right to Publicity

On September 30, 2019, the California governor changed the playing field of college sports. California passed the Fair Pay to Play Act, which permits college athletes to profit from the use of their name, image, or likeness. This essentially gives them the right to publicity. This post will explore the right to publicity and what this Act entails.

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Erica Achepo