A film festival’s use of a stylized photo of a Washington D.C. neighborhood known for its vibrant nightlife was not a fair use that protected the festival from lawsuit alleging copyright infringement, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ...
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Videographer Frederick Allen in 2013 sued the state for allegedly pirating videos and pictures he took of Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard’s 18th-century pirate ship that sank off the North Carolina coast. Allen alleged, and the federal court for the ...
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Read More »The federal Copyright Remedy Clarification Act’s broad abrogation of states’ sovereign immunity for copyright infringement was not a valid exercise of Congressional authority, either under Article I’s Copyright Clause or § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Background In 1717, the ...
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Remember C+C Music Factory’s hit song “Gonna Make You Sweat”? Everybody dance now! Or how about Lenny Kravitz’s “Fly Away”? The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers certainly hasn’t forgotten about those jams from the 1990s. And now the ...
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Read More »OpenRisk, LLC v. MicroStrategy Services Corp. (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-196-17, 22 pp.) (Pamela Harris, J.) 16-1852; Nov. 13, 2017; USDC at Alexandria, Va. (Anthony John Trenga, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: Plaintiff’s tort claims under the Virginia Computer Crimes Act are ...
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In a fraud and copyright infringement case involving competing computer software companies, a Carolina-based judge’s ruling trumps a decision made across the pond, according to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The SAS Institute Inc., which is headquartered in ...
Tagged with: Copyright Software
Read More »Baronius Press, Ltd. v. Saint Benedict Press LLC (Lawyers Weekly No. 004-017-17, 6 pp.) (Graham Mullen, J.) 3:16-cv-00695; W.D.N.C. Holding: Plaintiff’s unfair trade practices claim is based on the same allegations as its copyright infringement claim. In opposition to a ...
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Read More »Arnett v. Jackson (Lawyers Weekly No. 002-036-17, 10 pp.) (James Dever III, C.J.) 5:16-cv-00872; E.D.N.C. Holding: Since public dissemination of a work merely creates the possibility of access, the court does not infer defendant’s access to plaintiff’s song, Remember Me, ...
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Read More »Allen v. Cooper (Lawyers Weekly No. 002-020-17, 28 pp.) (Terrence Boyle, J.) 515-cv-00627; E.D.N.C. Holding: Congress expressly abrogated Eleventh Amendment immunity for copyright claims against a state, its instrumentalities, or its officers or employees in their official capacities; consequently, plaintiffs ...
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Read More »After a jury found Nov. 23 that the defendant ceramics manufacturer willfully injured the plaintiff by infringing on its trademarked phrase, it made its damages award — $1. According to the judgment, based on the facts before the jury, the ...
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North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
