On December 21, 2020, Congress passed the long-awaited Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2019 (the “CASE Act”), as part of its omnibus spending and COVID-19 relief bill, H.R. 133. The law was enacted on December 27, 2020 and is poised to reform copyright litigation in the United States in the coming year, creating

What recourse exists when a tenant hands over a rental home to an adult film production company, which proceeds to film fourteen feature-length adult movies onsite, without the owner’s knowledge or permission, over the course of five months? Turns out, copyright law. This was the crisis facing Martha’s Vineyard homeowner Leah Bassett in 2015, when

As COVID-19-related disruptions and social distancing measures continue across the country and throughout the summer, many public institutions are seeing continued curtailment to their operations. It can be overwhelming to parse through ever-changing, institution-specific pandemic protocols, which is why we have put together an overview of the Copyright Office’s current practices in response to the

1. AB5 Brings Uncertainty: The new California Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) became effective on January 1, 2020. Originally created to codify the California Supreme Court’s decision in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903 (Dynamex), and to address the increase of misclassification of workers as independent contractors, the

In 2014, the United States Supreme Court, in American Broadcasting Companies v. Aereo, Inc., held that unlicensed re-broadcasts of copyrighted content over the Internet constituted public performances of copyrighted works in violation of content owners’ exclusive rights under the Copyright Act; as part of its discussion, the Court analogized services like Aereo’s to “cable services.”  Emboldened

After sorting through the tangled 80-year history behind the song “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town,” the Second Circuit recently held that rights to the Christmas classic will revert back to the songwriter’s heirs on Dec. 15, 2016. Rights to the composition, written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, are currently held by EMI

Election season is upon us, and while music may not be the first thing that comes to mind amidst scandals, poll numbers, and innumerable primary debates, politicians’ use of theme songs almost inevitably becomes a hot-button issue for musicians, recording artists, and lawyers.  Two presidential candidates have already angered artists who feel their music was

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Maloney v. T3Media, Inc. recently held that state right-of-publicity claims brought by former college basketball players complaining of photographs licensed of their likenesses without consent warranted dismissal with prejudice pursuant to California’s anti-SLAPP statute, which prohibits suits aimed at inhibiting free expression.  Members of