When an artist grants the transfer or license of copyrighted material to another party, is that assumed to be in perpetuity or can they reclaim copyright at some point? Is it solely on the creator to set time limits for these agreements? Fortunately for creators, the...
As we have discussed in previous posts, protecting your intellectual property is important – but it is not worth pursuing at all costs. We can see this in the recent progression of a case brought by Aristocrat Technologies, a slot machine creator, whose complaint...
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is meant to absolve internet hosts of the infringement sins of their users. Without it, they would face the virtually perpetual burden of policing any and all posts for copyrighted material. But is there any exception to...
As we have covered on this blog previously, one rule of thumb in intellectual property law is: “Just because you can does not mean you should.” This applies to copyright infringement in the commercial space, where the onus is on the copyright owner to decide whether...
A quick internet search of "concert phone video" proves not only that a significant number of people do, in fact, post these types of videos – but also that the act of recording of music concerts is a sort of cottage industry. Lots of people post tips on how to do it,...
Creators of two-dimensional art tend not to register their work for copyright protection. According to surveys by the Coalition of Visual Artists and the Graphic Artists Guild, somewhere between 50-60 percent of artists haven’t registered any of their work. For a...
If you pay any attention at all to copyright and public domain, you have probably heard the big public domain news happening this year – the original Mickey Mouse, Steamboat Willie is becoming public property. (Except, as we previously covered, it is not quite as big...
Over the last few decades, the internet has become an increasingly large part of our lives and digital media has proliferated. It has become easier than ever to find and use copyrighted material without realizing you are doing anything wrong. I have spoken with...