Media & Entertainment Law

Stanford E-Commerce Conference 6/13

Posted on May 21, 2008
Hope to see you at the E-Commerce Best Practices Conference at Stanford Law School on June 13.   I think it's consistently one of the best events around about online legal issues -- credit organizers Roland Vogl, Mark Lemley, and Ian Ballon, among others...

Happy Holidays!

Posted on December 24, 2007

Shout out to the Copyright Office!

Posted on December 18, 2007
Back in the fall I noticed and blogged that the Copyright Office did not have an up-to-date version of the Copyright Act on its web site.  The legal code was actually several years out of date.  On Thanksgiving Day no less, they announced the launch of an updated version, and I've been meaning to post about it...

Happy 5th Birthday, Creative Commons!

Posted on December 16, 2007
Last night Creative Commons celebrated the 5th anniversary of the launch of the Creative Commons licenses!    I attended the San Francisco celebration -- JD Lasica has blogged what was a wonderful event.   Also blogged by Freedom for IP...

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Hail Stanford, 20-13 over Cal!

Posted on December 01, 2007
The Axe returned; the rightful order of things restored; celebration!

1st Amendment prevails in fantasy league case

Posted on October 17, 2007
The 8th Circuit issued an opinion today in the fantasy baseball case, CBC Distribution & Marketing v. MLB Advanced Media, in which MLB asserted that fantasy leagues need permission to use players' names and other data.  The court affirmed the district court ruling, which held that the First Amendment trumps the player's publicity rights and thus permits usage without a license...

A small observation about the Copyright Office web site

Posted on October 10, 2007
Here's the story of a simple fix to the Copyright Office site that should probably be moved up on the priority list:I was looking on the Copyright Office web site for the text of Section 506, regarding criminal copyright infringement, for the "making available" language, as discussed in my prior post...

More on the metaphysics of "making available"

Posted on October 10, 2007
In anticipation of the appeal of the recent RIAA P2P victory, Fred von Lohmann reviews the "make available" vs. "distribute" debate in the copyright law.   It's more than a sematics issue -- from Ars Technica it appears the defense appeal will challenge the validity of a jury instruction about "making available" as an infringing act...

RIAA victory round-up and notes

Posted on October 07, 2007
Here are some perspectives on the much-publicized RIAA victory ($220K plus jury verdict) this week against the P2P file-sharer, Jammie Thomas:Bob Lefsetz takes his music industry to task, with rhetorical flourish:  "What the fuck are we gonna DO ABOUT IT?"Dennis Crouch compares to "patent sharks" of the 19th century, and resulting patent reform...

Off-topic: 24-23 at the Coliseum!

Posted on October 07, 2007
We missed the first half because my younger son had a birthday party today.  My older son checked the Stanford game in the third quarter -- we finally found it on the Versus channel -- and we wondered what had happened in the first half, with USC up just 9-0?  Then it all unfolded...

Check out my home boy Yokum -- and his startup company lawyer blog!

Posted on September 16, 2007
Something truly wonderful happened while I was taking my blogging break -- about the same time my partner Yokum Taku filled the void with his new Start-Up Company Lawyer blog.  It's a terrific resource about start-up company issues and has some tutorials on corporate and venture finance issues -- recent topics include first offer rights, lock-ups and registration rights -- also here, here,and here...

My turn on Five Questions with Kevin O'Keefe

Posted on September 13, 2007
Kevin O'Keefe's blog did a piece today about my relaunching my blog, as I've come back after an extended break.  When I told Kevin that I was going to relaunch, he suggested a guest interview on his ongoing Five Questions feature.  I readily agreed and very much enjoyed working with Rob La Gatta on it...

Hello again and maybe we'll see you in Cambridge!

Posted on September 12, 2007
Hello again and happy fall. If you follow my blog you may have noticed that I took a hiatus that lasted through the summer. While I’ve enjoyed some time offline, now I’m really missing the blogging community and glad to be jumping back into the conversation...

Yale hosts "Legally Female" conference March 31

Posted on March 26, 2007
Yale Law Women host a conference March 31 titled “Legally Female: What Does It Mean to Be Ms. JD?" where Ms. JD, a new weblog and online community for women in the legal profession will be introduced.  Here is the conference schedule...

SCU's Eric Goldman hosts Bay Area legal blogger event

Posted on March 25, 2007
Santa Clara University's High Tech Law Institute is sponsoring a get-together for Bay Area legal bloggers, and other kindred spirits who blog or are interested in blogging, this coming Wednesday night March 28 from 6-8pm at SCU:Says organizer/host Eric Goldman:  "Our goal is to get all of us together in a room to meet each other, socialize a bit, and discuss topics of common interest in a group discussion" -- potential discussion topics here...

XM + MP3 player infringement case proceeds

Posted on January 22, 2007
XM Satellite's motion to dismiss was denied last Friday in Atlantic v. XM Satellite, the copyright infringement case brought by record labels over the XM + MP3 player.   The ruling is here.XM Satellite sought to dismiss the case on the grounds that its MP3 player is exempt from infringement claims under Section 1008 of the Audio Home Recording Act, which provides:"No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device [DARD], a digital audio recording medium, … or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog recordings...

Make Way for Duck Bites -- Roommates.com

Posted on December 31, 1969
Jumping in with a few thoughts on the 9th Circuit's Roommates.com decision, which came out last week -- some viewpoints include Eric Goldman, Michael Erdman, and Evan Brown.Roommates was sued for violating the fair housing laws, and it unsuccessfully argued that as an interactive computer service it was immune from liability for the content posted by its users, under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act...