On April 1, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit handed down a 2-1 decision affirming a lower court’s ruling that a broadcast television retransmission system was unlikely to be liable for copyright infringement due to the Second Circuit’s holding in Cartoon Network LP, LLLP v. CSC Holdings, Inc., 536 F.3d 121

Luxury fashion brand Tory Burch scored a victory in the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, as the court granted its motions for a temporary restraining order, domain name transfer order and other relief against a syndicate of Chinese counterfeiters selling counterfeit goods across the internet. The unnamed defendants were using hundreds of interactive websites

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit substantially affirmed a district court judgment in favor of several film studios in Columbia Pictures Industries v. Fung, holding on March 21st, 2013 that the defendant was liable for contributory copyright infringement because its bittorrent hosting service, known as isoHunt, induced third parties to download

In the recent case of Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, the Supreme Court held that the first sale doctrine, codified in Section 109(a) of the Copyright Act, applies to copyrighted works manufactured overseas. Kirtsaeng, a Thai national studying mathematics in the United States, made himself thousands of dollars reselling textbooks on eBay that had

The Associated Press scored a significant victory this past week in a case indicating that the scales may be beginning to tip in favor of content owners in the battle over online copyright infringement. In Associated Press v. Meltwater, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted plaintiff The Associated

Renowned documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and his film company, Florentine Films, won a significant legal victory recently as a Magistrate Judge ruled that they do not have to produce unused material from his documentary The Central Park Five to New York City. On February 19, 2013, Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis ruled that Burns and Florentine

A recent lawsuit between two members of a 1990’s and early aughts alternative rock band whose debut album sold over 6 million copies in the U.S. should open the eyes of new artists to the importance of getting partnership agreements, and not just lyrics, written down on paper.

In February, we discussed Effie Film, LLC v. Pomerance, in which the Southern District of New York held that the Emma Thompson scripted film Effie did not infringe upon the copyrights in two screenplays by another writer on a similar historical subject. The upcoming film won another victory in the Southern District this week in

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued new guidelines this week for media outlets, advertisers, brands, celebrity brand spokespeople and other parties advertising products online. The report, titled “.com Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising,” builds upon the FTC’s previous report on digital marketing practices, issued in 2000. In addition to emphatically clarifying

In Apple v. Superior Court of Los Angeles ex rel Krescent, the Supreme Court of California examined whether online transactions fall within the scope of a 1971 credit card act that prevents retailers in California from requesting personal identification information. An important milestone in what is likely to be an extended wave of decisions in