Copyright Archives - Page 5 of 6 -

Are your musical works protected like Taylor Swift’s?

On behalf of The Myers Law Group posted in Copyright on Wednesday, March 7, 2018. Pop star Taylor Swift recently prevailed in a lawsuit regarding one of her popular songs. Four co-songwriters claimed that she copied a phrase from their 2001 song written for another band and used it in her 2014 hit song "Shake If Off." The lyrics regarding the notions that players play and haters hate was used in both songs. Fortunately for Swift, the judge decided that the "two truisms" were not creative and original enough for copyright protection, and he dismissed the case. While the songwriters have the right to [...]

Nicholas D. Myers2025-03-06T12:21:55+00:00March 7th, 2018|Tags: Copyright Infringement, Intellectual Property|

Copyright issues, like nightmares, can keep you up at night

On behalf of The Myers Law Group posted in Copyright on Friday, November 3, 2017. Did you watch your favorite horror movie this Halloween? "It: Chapter One" is the most recently released horror film. Based on a Stephen King novel, It (as it is commonly known) hit the big screens last month to wide success. Some claim it is one of the scariest movies in recent history. Before It came along, another nightmare began brewing. Conjuring up a serious lawsuit A little background: Gerald Brittle is the author of The Demonologist, a book he wrote in the 1980s about real life paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren. Brittle claims that [...]

Nicholas D. Myers2021-10-13T16:23:53+00:00November 3rd, 2017|Tags: Copyright|

Monkey’s selfie case is a lesson in copyright law

On behalf of The Myers Law Group posted in Copyright on Friday, August 18, 2017. The story sounds a bit like the beginning of a joke: A photographer goes into the jungle. A monkey grabs his camera and takes a selfie. Who owns the rights to the photo? The funny -- not funny -- thing is that this is no joke. In 2011, freelance photographer David Slater traveled to Indonesia to photograph macaque monkeys. After coaxing some of the monkeys into taking photos of themselves, Slater copyrighted his favorite photo and published it in a book. Why the photographer was sued by PETA The [...]

Nicholas D. Myers2025-03-06T12:19:08+00:00August 18th, 2017|Tags: Copyright, Copyright Infringement|

Can you copyright a joke?

On behalf of The Myers Law Group posted in Copyright on Friday, June 16, 2017. Are jokes intellectual property? Can you protect them from being used without your permission? This is a topic of intense interest to joke writers and stand-up comedians -- as well as authors of other types of entertainment fodder. The issue is making its way to the forefront because of a lawsuit regarding late-night monologues that is heading into court later this summer. Copyrightable or non-copyrightable? If you tell a joke you heard a colleague tell at the water cooler, that is clearly a non-copyrightable situation. But it's very different when comedy [...]

Nicholas D. Myers2021-10-13T16:30:38+00:00June 16th, 2017|Tags: comed, Copyright, humor, intellectual, IP, joke, property|

Music copyright battle over Prince’s unpublished songs

On behalf of The Myers Law Group posted in Copyright on Monday, May 8, 2017. When Prince died suddenly last year, he left behind a number of unpublished songs. Just days before the one-year anniversary of the famous musician's death, his former sound engineer and mixer, George Ian Boxill, released six songs. Within days, a court in Prince's home state of Minnesota ordered Boxill to unpublish the songs at the request of Prince's estate. A temporary injunction stopped the release of the songs with the exception of the 'Deliverance' single, which is still available for downloading. Boxill claims that he and Prince jointly owned [...]

Nicholas D. Myers2025-03-06T13:07:17+00:00May 8th, 2017|Tags: Copyright Infringement|

7 MUST KNOW FACTS ABOUT U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW

On behalf of The Myers Law Group posted in Copyright on Friday, September 30, 2016. 1. What is a copyright? A copyright allows authors of "original works of authorship," such as literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and other intellectual property works to have a form of protection. 2. What are your rights granted under copyright? A copyright grants you many exclusive rights including: reproducing the work, creating derivative works based on the work, distributing copies of the work, publicly displaying the work, performing the work and performing the work publicly by means of digital audio transmission (for sound recordings). 3. What cannot be copyright protected? [...]

Nicholas D. Myers2025-03-06T13:07:17+00:00September 30th, 2016|Tags: Copyright, Intellectual Property|

FASHION DESIGNERS HIT A ROAD BLOCK: Moschino and Roberto Cavalli Sued For Infringing on Street Art

By The Myers Law Group posted in Copyright on Friday, September 30, 2016. Lately, fashion designers have been losing their artistic inspiration and instead have turned to grabbing the design work of others, specifically street artists. Italian Fashion house Moschino was sued by street artist Joseph Tierney, also known as Rime, for using his "Vandal Eyes" mural in Moschino's February 2015 fashion line. The brand also publicly flaunted the design on singer Katy Perry alongside Moschino designer Jeremy Scott at the 2015 Met Gala, an event that is highly publicized. Tierney claims that the dress constituted unfair competition and violated his publicity rights. Right of [...]

Nicholas D. Myers2021-10-13T16:45:45+00:00September 30th, 2016|Tags: Copyright, Copyright Infringement, fair use, Intellectual Property|

PIKASUE NO MORE: RageOn Clothing Company and Pokemon Company Settle Copyright Infringement Lawsuit

By The Myers Law Group posted in Copyright on Friday, September 23, 2016. RageOn, a Cleveland based t-shirt company, recently faced a copyright infringement lawsuit from Pokemon Company International for depicting their protected Pokemon characters on clothing. One character in question was Pikachu, dressed as a Hasidic Jew surrounded by piles of cash and renamed as Pikajew. Another shirt had a character called Jiggly Puff that was smoking marijuana. RageOn claimed protection under the fair use doctrine because their shirts are "clearly socially and politically-relevant commentary." However, the Court would have looked at the four factors of fair use: (1) the purpose and character of [...]

Nicholas D. Myers2023-08-16T09:45:37+00:00September 23rd, 2016|Tags: Copyright, Copyright Infringement, fair use, Intellectual Property, licensing agreements|

Copyright Infringement and the Fair Use Defense

On behalf of The Myers Law Group posted in Copyright on Thursday, July 23, 2015. One of the main defenses against a copyright infringement claim is fair use. This means, essentially, that while a copyright was infringed, the user is allowed to do so. This may seem contrary to the exclusive rights given to an author of original creative works, however, fair use is not meant to entirely remove those rights, but to simply permit certain limited and "transformative" uses of copyrighted material, including commentary, criticism, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. To determine whether the fair use doctrine applies, courts will look to [...]

Nicholas D. Myers2025-03-06T12:23:01+00:00July 23rd, 2015|

Protecting Against and Responding To Copyright Infringement

On behalf of The Myers Law Group posted in Copyright on Wednesday, July 22, 2015. Copyright is a form of intellectual property applicable to any creative work that is both fixed in some tangible medium and at least minimally creative, or original. Works that may receive copyright protection include: literary works, movies, musical works, sound recordings, paintings, photographs, software, live performances, architectural works, choreographic works, and television or sound broadcasts. Creators of such works are granted exclusive rights in their works at the time of creation. For example, whenever you write a blog post or make a drawing or other artwork, you automatically own [...]

Nicholas D. Myers2025-03-06T12:18:56+00:00July 22nd, 2015|