On Eve of ‘Blurred Lines’ Appeal Hearing, Richard Busch is the Music Industry’s Most Feared Lawyer — Oral arguments in the “Blurred Lines” case, on appeal after a jury held that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams infringed on Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up” when they created “Blurred Lines.” Rob Levine interviews the attorney who represented two of Gaye’s children in the case. The Ninth Circuit provides live streaming of oral arguments, which you can access here.
A Small Claims Court is on the Horizon for Creators — Great news for creators, as this week a bipartisan group of legislators introduced the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act of 2017. The bill would establish a voluntary tribunal within the Copyright Office to hear claims under $30,000.
Working in the International Arena: The Special 301 Process — Emily Lanza at the Copyright Office peels back the curtain on that agency’s role in the Special 301 process, which monitors trading partners and identifies countries that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property.
Publishers and societies take action against ResearchGate’s copyright infringements — The coalition statement reads in part, “ResearchGate’s primary service is taking high-quality content written and published by others and making as many as 7 million copyrighted articles – 40% of its total content – freely available via its for-profit platform…ResearchGate’s business model depends on the distribution of these in-copyright articles to generate traffic to its site, which is then commercialised through the sale of targeted advertising. ResearchGate often also substantively alters articles for the same purpose, and where corrections or retractions are issued, it fails to update articles accordingly on its site, undermining research integrity.”
U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Review Kim Dotcom Case — Finally, Dotcom, who consistently proclaims his innocence on charges of criminal copyright infringement, loses another attempt to delay actually appearing in court.