As reported in my article, the difficulty with fair use is that “it is sometimes difficult to predict how a court will rule on a fair use case.”  Well, even the courts don’t always agree with each other. Take, for example, the  Gaylord v. The United States case.  The U.S. Court of Federal Claims (a [...]

The issue as to whether photographs of copyrighted works is a derivative work/infringement has raised its head again, and Mike Hipple probably thinks that it’s ugly. Specifically, as explained by my November 17, 2009, blog, courts have disagreed as to whether photographs of copyrighted works are derivative works.   And for Hipple, the question is complicated by [...]

Check out attorney/photographer Samuel Lewis‘ important article on “Get It In Writing” in this month’s Digital Photo Pro.  To compare, see what happened when deals were being made for the “Precious” movie, as explained by the Property Intangible blog. The Consumerist reports Walmart would not print some photos of a dead relative for a funeral. [...]

The Tuscaloosa News reports that Daniel Moore’s fight against the University of Alabama for his use of trademarks in his paintings of the University’s football scenes does not infringe the University’s rights.  Check my January 6, 2006, blog for the background on Moore’s fight since March 2005.  The court determined that: “[Moore's] depiction of the [...]

Check out the article by attorney Tim Wu on Slate.com who does a great job of demystifying fair use.

The UK’s Intellectual Property Office (“IPO”) along with the UK’s Department for Business Innovation and Skills (“BIS”) have published a report entitled, “© the way ahead: A Strategy for Copyright in the Digital Age.”  Based on the findings, the Government’s reported intentions are: • for authors of copyright works; to support fair treatment through new model contracts [...]

The Internet is all abuzz about the Shepard Fairey news.  In short, Fairey has admitted that he provided fake documents and destroyed evidence in his lawsuit against The Associated Press about his use of the Barack Obama photograph for his Hope poster. You can read the reports on The New York Times website, in the [...]

Doug Lichtman, Professor at the UCLA School of Law, recently talked with the attorneys for Shepard Fairey (Mark Lemley) and The Associated Press (Dale Cendali), along with Ken Richieri, an attorney for The New York Times, about the Fairey v. The Associated Press case and generally about fair use.  You may listen to the discussion [...]

Nancy E. Wolff, counsel to the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA) and the American Society of Picture Professionals’ (ASPP) “2007 Picture Professional of the Year,” has prepared an excellent downloadable Power Point presentation that covers the basics of copyright, including some interesting illustrative cases. PACA has made the presentation available to the public for [...]