Russell Law

VARA = The Visual Artists Rights Act. Commissioning parties often present artists with a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum: waive your VARA rights or forget about getting this job. That’s legally permissible, but unconscionably contrary to VARA’s intent. VARA is meant to be a balance between the artist’s moral rights and the owner’s control over the tangible art in its possession.

Second Circuit: VARA Permits Building Owner To Hide Visual Art – Russell Law Second Circuit: VARA Permits Building Owner To Hide Visual Art August 22, 2023/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Elizabeth RussellKerson v. Vermont Law School, Inc. (2023 WL 5313521, 2d Cir. August 18, 2023) Artist Samuel Kerson painted two large murals directly onto the walls inside a building on the...

US Supreme Court: Warhol Foundation’s Use of Prince Photograph Not Fair Use. In this long-awaited opinion, the Court clarifies a common misunderstanding: calling a work “transformative” does not make it so.

US Supreme Court: Warhol Foundation’s Use of Prince Photograph Not Fair Use – Russell Law US Supreme Court: Warhol Foundation’s Use of Prince Photograph Not Fair Use May 18, 2023/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Elizabeth RussellIn 1981 Andy Warhol used a photograph made by Lynn Goldsmith as reference for an illustration of the musician Prince. Vanity Fair magazine had hired Warhol to m...

Last week, the US Copyright Office published a policy statement on the extent to which works containing Artificial Intelligence-Generated material can be registered. It doesn't break any ground. A claimant has to identify the parts of the work that were generated by AI (which do not qualify for protection), and the parts that were authored by a human (which do qualify for protection). The AI piece is treated like any other technology an author might use in their process.

Federal Register :: Request Access Due to aggressive automated scraping of FederalRegister.gov and eCFR.gov, programmatic access to these sites is limited to access to our extensive developer APIs.

Photographs became eligible for US copyright protection on March 3, 1865. President Lincoln was all about new technology, and championed the birth of photojournalism.

(And how handy is that? Summaries in the margin so we can find the parts we're looking for!)

The US Patent and Trademark Office launched a user-friendly tool last week, to help creatives and take stock of their intellectual property.
https://ipidentifier.uspto.gov/ #/identifier/welcome

IP Identifier

https://erklaw.com/us-copyright-applications-not-as-simple-as-you-think/

US Copyright Applications: Not As Simple As You Think – Russell Law US Copyright Applications: Not As Simple As You Think January 16, 2023/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Elizabeth RussellHave you ever convinced yourself that something is simple…just because you want it to be simple?   You’re not alone. In the context of applications for US copyright and tradem...

New York Governor Kathy Hochul just signed the Digital Fair Repair Act ("DFRA"). The DFRA gives New York consumers the right to have their electronic devices repaired by services of their choosing, rather than having to go through the device manufacturer. DFRA is the first "Right to Repair" law in the United States. With certain exceptions, it will require original equipment manufacturers to make essential parts and information available to independent repair providers.

New York Governor signs historic digital right to repair bill into law Consumer Reports applauds Governor Hochul for signing the Digital Fair Repair Act, which will provide consumers with new rights when in need of repairs of…

Fighting Back Against Data Scrapers. This is why it's important to have a laser-focused Terms of Use agreement. That recycled one you found online is not going to cut it, when your site content gets scraped.

You are being redirected...

Wondering what to do with your old, ivory-keyed ? More to the point: did you even consider that just owning it is a problem? Here's a great article:

The Careful Collector: What to Do with Your Ivory Keyed Piano? Kim and John Holland have lived in the same Colonial-style brick house in a leafy area of Northwest, Washington, D.C, for over twenty years. The time has finally come for them to start downsizing in

The new Copyright Claims Board will begin accepting claims on Thursday, June 16, 2022. The CCB is a small claims tribunal for resolving claims up to $30,000. https://www.ccb.gov/

If products are a problem for your , learn about Etsy's new reporting portal. You can now register your brand assets with , which enables you to report knockoff listings in a far more efficient procedure than the whack-a-mole system that has prevailed to date.

https://etsy.me/3LTbn88

Etsy Reporting Portal Etsy Reporting Portal

Caution: Seemingly legit DMCA takedown notices can be phishing scams. On the one hand: Do not ignore them because if they are legit you must respond promptly in order to preserve safe harbor. On the other hand: if they are scams, opening the file or clicking the link opens you up to the threat actor. So make a plan (today!) for ensuring that all takedown notices get immediate review for IT safety, and then prompt attention by your copyright counsel.

https://bit.ly/3i7kepU

Legitimate DMCA takedown notice or phishing scam? Clients should be aware of a troubling trend: phishing emails disguised as legitimate Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices. Such emails could force an unsuspecting recipient to choose between potentially ignoring a valid notice and facing potential liability, or clicking the embe...

The US Supreme Court issued an opinion last week holding that inadvertent mistakes of law on an application for US copyright registration do not, necessarily, invalidate the registration. It depends on the applicant's knowledge surrounding the mistake. This is good news for DIY applicants. You should still get good advice! But this could save some registrations that would otherwise have been doomed.

March 8. This is an in-person event. Nonmembers may attend for a small fee.

https://iwoc.wildapricot.org/event-4716391

Independent Writers of Chicago - Monthly Meeting | Tips and Myths: Legal Best Practices for Freelance Writers Non-members are eligible for a 10% discount on their first year of IWOC membership with a coupon code available at the meeting.

Why do I like this article? Content, sure, but "no copyright for recipes" isn't exactly breaking news. I like the title. It rejects the trend for cute, clever and click-bait (e.g., "Copyright plaintiff barks up wrong tree" or "Chef gets a Woof of defeat"). Thank you, author. A million times. Thank you.

Oh, and don't worry about me. Things worked out well for both Scrooge and the Grinch, so I'll be fine by the weekend.

https://bit.ly/3yTvJsF

Vegan Dog Treats and Copyright Chef Chloe Coscarelli - the first vegan chef to be crowned a winner on the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars - has been waging a years-long, epic battle…

Jeff Koons is an artist I love to hate. I don't need to express why I don't like him; I just don't. On the other hand, he spends boatloads of money defending himself in copyright cases that really do help develop the law of fair use. And a developed body of law is good for all.

https://bit.ly/3IOVAXy

Jeff Koons sued for copying another artist’s sculpture Renowned American pop artist Jeff Koons faces an infringement lawsuit for allegedly copying a sculptural stage setting of a serpent wrapped around a…

Just in case you still need convincing that it's important to have an agreement in place BEFORE doing work as (or with) an independent contractor.

https://bit.ly/3IzGDZ0

Like Buttah: A Copyright Dispute Over Ownership of Contributions to a High-End Baking Website Thebutterbook.com is (according to the site) a "baking platform with video recipes designed to inspire sweet and delicious creations in the kitchen"…

When Quentin Tarantino signed his deal with Miramax for the movie Pulp Fiction, nobody had heard of NFTs. We don't know how this case will turn out, but it will 100% ride on an obscure phrase in the contract, "in all media now known or hereafter devised...." That's the kind of phrase that seems like superfluous fluff to non-lawyers, crammed into the contract for no reason other than making it long and complicated.

No. It's in there for precisely this scenario. The client who would have demanded, "just make the contract short and simple" would have been shooting themself in the foot; and the lawyer who caved to that demand would have been ineffective.

I say this with both kindness and respect: please let us do our jobs, or else don't call us in the first place. The words in your contract are there for a reason.



https://bit.ly/3nLS4Vq

NFTs x Entertainment Litigation: Miramax Sues Quentin Tarantino Over Pulp Fiction NFT Drop (via Passle) On November 16, 2021, Miramax filed a complaint against Quentin Tarantino in the Los Angeles federal court.  Miramax alleges that Tarantino’s planned dr...

Trademark owners not making actual use of all the goods/services in their US registrations may find themselves on the receiving end of two new USPTO proceedings: re-examination and/or expungement. Whether you're a US or foreign registrant, now is the time to take stock of your portfolio.

https://bit.ly/3qJ6tU3

New Nonuse Provisions of Trademark Modernization Act May Significantly Impact Non-US Trademark Owners | Wolf Greenfield New Nonuse Provisions of Trademark Modernization Act May Significantly Impact Non-US Trademark Owners

Remember how the 2020 CASE Act established a copyright "small claims court?" (No? You had other things on your mind in 2020??) In my opinion it's a complete sham. But anyway, we're starting to get a glimpse of how it might work. Take a look and if you care, submit your comments to the Copyright Office. https://bit.ly/3kPhnUX

www.govinfo.gov

Embedding allows a website coder to incorporate content located on a third party's server, into the coder's website. Common tools for accomplishing this are the embedding "APIs" (bits of code) that social media platforms make available. The content doesn't live on your site, meaning you don't have an actual copy of it on your computer. It still lives on its original servers. But (unlike linking) your viewers get to see the content on your actual site, without navigating away.

This used to be OK. For the second time, however, federal judges in the Second Circuit have found it to be copyright infringement. It will take more time and court decisions to know for sure where things stand.

So for now embed with caution or, better yet, permission.



https://bit.ly/3xFzqQp

Embedding Images May Be Copyright Infringement After All Another bombshell has dropped. Is change coming? For over a decade, it was generally considered safe to include an image or a video on your website…

Copyright registration for choreography and, in this particular project, for choreographers.

https://bit.ly/3CbEK1w

JaQuel Knight Helps BIPOC Choreographers Secure Copyright Registrations Renowned and respected choreographer JaQuel Knight (of “Single Ladies” fame, among other things) is helping ensure that BIPOC choreographers not only…

Just because you've organized as an LLC doesn't mean the LLC owns your copyrights. This is why I'm constantly encouraging LLC owners to take care of copyright formalities.

$424,384,787!! That's how much is sitting around in unclaimed royalties for songwriters after passage of the 2018 Music Modernization Act. The Copyright Office says it needs to do more outreach and be more transparent so songwriters know how to claim their money. Good idea. Maybe you'd like to start with this 118-page treatise? Let me know when you finish it. https://www.copyright.gov/policy/unclaimed-royalties/FINAL--Unclaimed--Royalties--Study--WEB--July7.pdf

www.copyright.gov

Nonprofits: donor and participant lists can be protected as trade secrets. But only if you take the necessary steps, with intention.

https://bit.ly/2Tx9YyT

The Economic Value of Nonprofits—Donor and Participant Lists Nonprofit organizations rely heavily on funding from donations, gifts, and the like to make an impact in the communities they serve. Such resources…

In Spanish, "pedrera" means "quarry." For this reason, the US trademark application for QUARRY VINEYARD (for wine) was refused based on likelihood of confusion with a registration for PEDRERA (for wine). The case is: In re FN Cellars, LLC, S/N 88902267. The takeaway is: searching matters, and it's not just about finding your exact mark.

New York law will require publishers to offer e-book lending licenses to public libraries.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/86637-new-york-legislature-passes-library-e-book-bill.html

New York Legislature Passes Library E-book Bill New York this week became the second state to pass a bill that would ensure public libraries the right to license and lend e-books that are available to consumers in the state. The bill is now headed to governor Andrew Cuomo's desk.

Great article by about why corporate and tax lawyers should consult with trademark counsel early on. https://bit.ly/3rEptQj

Avoiding Mangled Marks Avoiding Mangled Marks