Insights

Native American Mascoting in K-12 Schools

Carolyn Wimbly Martin and Sara Etemad-Moghadam

This is a continuation of our conversation about renaming entities, including educational institutions, public spaces and museums, and holidays like Columbus Day. Native American names, symbols and innuendos have been used in the sports world for more than a century. While many college and professional sports teams have addressed their offensive mascots and sport traditions, there […]

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Fair Use Defense After Warhol v. Goldsmith SCOTUS Decision

Carolyn Wimbly Martin and Sara Etemad-Moghadam

On May 18, 2023, the Supreme Court, in a 7-2 opinion, affirmed the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in favor of photographer Lynn Goldsmith (“Goldsmith”) holding that the “purpose and character” of the particular commercial use by the Andy Warhol Foundation (“AWF”) of Goldsmith’s photograph did not meet […]

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Satire and Parody in the Recent SCOTUS Decisions

Carolyn Wimbly Martin and Dana Sussman

Update: The Ninth Circuit case Diece-Lisa Industry, Inc. v. Disney Store USA LLC, U.S., No. 22-347, may shed some light on the line between artistic expression and source identification. Originally, the Rogers test had cleared Disney’s use of the mark at issue, but the case has been remanded in light of Jack Daniel’s Inc. v. […]

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Deepfakes and the 2024 Election

Carolyn Wimbly Martin and Sara Etemad-Moghadam

In March 2023, a photograph of Pope Francis showed him uncharacteristically fashionable in a long white cinched puffer coat. That same month, photographs of former President Trump being tackled by New York City police officers circulated on Twitter, attracting five million views. If these events seem implausible, or you’re surprised that they didn’t make major […]

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Youth Privacy and Data Collection Online

Carolyn Wimbly Martin and Sara Etemad-Moghadam

While technology provides children with the benefits of social connection and belonging, there are also adverse effects on children and teens’ physical and mental well-being and concern about how their personal data is used. Children are accessing the Internet from an early age and they and their parents need to understand what data is being […]

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How to Protect Your Domain Name Using UDRP Proceedings

Jeannette Maurer Carmadella and Sara Etemad-Moghadam

The state of Maryland learned the hard way about the risks of not maintaining domain ownership. In order to appreciate the pickle the state got itself in, it’s necessary to understand the importance of separately protecting trademarks and domain names in order to ensure full brand protection.  Domain Names vs. Trademarks From 2012 to 2016, […]

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The Writers Guild of America Strike, the Creative Industry and Artificial Intelligence

Carolyn Wimbly Martin and Dana Sussman

Update: On June 4, 2023, the Directors Guild of America (“DGA”) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (“AMPTP”) reached a tentative agreement, with ratification scheduled for June 6. AMPTP and the DGA have agreed that AI is not a person and therefore cannot be used to replace the duties performed by DGA […]

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Copyright and Photography: Vila v. Deadly Doll Holds That Photo of a Useful Article of Clothing with Copyrighted Artwork Is Not a Derivative Work

Carolyn Wimbly Martin and Dana Sussman

This post is the fifth in a series on Copyright and Photography. Read the first post here, the second post here, the third post here, the fourth post here and the sixth post here. On March 27, 2023, photographer Carlos Vila won a double victory in the United States District Court for the Central District of California in […]

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Internet Archive’s Open Library and Copyright Law: Third Addendum

Carolyn Wimbly Martin and Dana Sussman

This post is an update. Read the original post here, the first addendum here and the second addendum here. Throughout 2020, Lutzker & Lutzker published multiple insights relating to the copyright dispute between Internet Archive and four major publishing companies — Hachette Book Group Inc., HarperCollins Publishers LLC, John Wiley & Sons Inc. and Penguin […]

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