Category: Insights

Barb, a vegetarian nutritionist with a blog, decides she wants a photo of sprawling farmland at the header of her most recent post. Searching Google Images, she finds such a photo of an organic peanut farm, albeit with a group of hardworking nut harvesters at the bottom of the photograph. Seemingly innocuously, she saves the […]

On June 3, 2020, the U.S. Copyright Office (“Office”) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking and a notice of inquiry to request public comment concerning efforts to modernize the recordation of termination notices. Copyright owners should be aware of these potential changes as they are likely to ameliorate the burdens they face when attempting to […]

The debate over social media’s role in moderating user content, specifically political speech, heated up last month when Twitter started added fact checking and warning labels for the first time to a number of President Trump’s tweets. Traditionally, social media giants like Twitter and Facebook remain neutral, only intervening, and moderating user content when it […]

This post has been updated. Read the original post here, the second addendum here, the third addendum here and the fourth addendum here. As the COVID-19 crisis continues, royalty-free access to digital content remains a concern for academics at all levels of research and instruction. The Internet Archive copyright dispute, however, came to a head […]

Summer camps this year will overwhelmingly be virtual. In this new world, camp administrators cannot simply reuse the legal agreements and releases, privacy policies, codes of conduct and copyright policies they have been using for in-person camps. Each of these elements, together with the camp’s insurance coverage, forms part of an overall risk management program […]

This is the third in a series of articles about the Music Modernization Act (“MMA”). Click here for the first and second. In this post, we highlight the benefits of the MMA for all parties involved in creating a musical work or sound recording. Although the MMA centralizes information and royalties with the Music Licensing […]

This is the second in a series of articles about the Music Modernization Act (“MMA”). Click here for the first and third. Here, we examine the protocol for prospective blanket licensees and individual voluntary licensees. Although radio stations and cable operations have dealt with similar licensing schemes for years, the MMA will significantly alter the […]

This is the first in a series of articles about the Music Modernization Act (“MMA”). Click here for the second and third. In October 2018, the Music Modernization Act took effect, paving the way for changes in how copyright holders are compensated for their work by streaming services and others who make copies of their […]

On May 4, 2020, for the first time in history, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments through a telephone conference call in United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V. The Court considered whether the online hotel reservation company, Booking.com, is entitled to federal trademark registration for its company name or whether simply adding […]

This post has been updated. Read the first addendum here, the second addendum here, the third addendum here and the fourth addendum here. With libraries at K-12 schools, universities and local communities closed, the Internet Archive provides an increasingly valuable resource for educators and distance learning. Before diving into this vast wealth of content, however, […]