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Case Analyses for Intellectual Property Law and New Media

by Steven L. Baron (Author) Edward Lee Lamoureux (Author) Claire Stewart (Author)
©2015 Textbook VIII, 188 Pages
Series: Digital Formations, Volume 107

Summary

This text is a companion to the 2nd edition of Intellectual Property Law And New Media: Free for a Fee. Moving the coverage of case analysis to this separate volume, enables the authors to focus their attention on important trial and legal procedures that apply extant law to, largely, new circumstances.
Readers can focus on history and concepts while reading the main text, allowing them to bring understandings derived there to bear on the cases found in this analytic text. The approach offers relief from information overload and allows time and space to «shift gears» between concepts and cases. To aid understanding and learning, the authors provide focused interpretations and analysis throughout.
The coverage allows these books to serve as an excellent resource for undergraduates studying interactive media, as well as being a primer for first year IP law students, a handbook for entrepreneurs, a guidebook for general lawyers to assist in referrals, and an interesting read for those simply curious about the field.
The books are supplemented by freeforafee.com, a blog providing textual updates, online links to bibliographic materials, and extensive resource aggregation. Learning objectives for each chapter and a glossary of key terms are provided within the texts.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author(s)/editor(s)
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Table of Contents
  • Preface to the 2nd Edition
  • Chapter One: Copyright Cases
  • Traditional Media Copyright Cases with New Media Implications
  • New Media Cases and Copyright Law
  • Learning Objectives and Discussion Questions
  • Chapter Two: Three Copyright Issues Cases
  • Traditional Special Copyright Issues Cases with New Media Implications
  • New Media Special Copyright Issues Cases
  • Learning Objectives and Discussion Questions
  • Chapter Three: Patent Cases
  • Traditional Media Patent Cases with New Media Implications
  • New Media Cases and Patent Law
  • Learning Objectives and Discussion Questions
  • Chapter Four: Open Source Cases
  • New Media Open Source Cases
  • Learning Objectives and Discussion Questions
  • Chapter Five: Trademark Cases
  • Traditional Media Trademark Cases with New Media Implications
  • New Media Cases in Trademark Law
  • Learning Objectives and Discussion Questions
  • Chapter Six: Trade Secrets Cases
  • Traditional Media Trade Secret Cases with New Media Implications
  • New Media Cases in Trade Secret Law
  • Learning Objectives and Discussion Questions
  • Chapter Seven: Tort Laws for Intellectual Property of the Persona Cases
  • Traditional Media Right of Publicity Cases with New Media Implications
  • New Media Cases in Right of Publicity Law
  • Traditional Media Privacy of the Persona Cases with New Media Implications
  • New Media Privacy of the Persona Cases
  • Traditional Media Defamation Cases with New Media Implications
  • New Media–Related Cases in Defamation Law
  • Learning Objectives and Discussion Questions
  • Chapter Eight: International Intellectual Property Laws and Systems Cases
  • New Media Cases Illustrating International Intellectual Property Law
  • Learning Objectives and Discussion Questions
  • Chapter Nine: Digital Rights Management Cases
  • Cases Illustrating DRM
  • Learning Objectives and Discussion Questions
  • Chapter Ten: Intellectual Property Law in Virtual Worlds and Games Cases
  • Cases Involving Virtual Worlds and Games
  • Learning Objectives and Discussion Questions
  • Notes
  • Glossary
  • Works Cited
  • Cases
  • About the Authors
  • Index
  • Series index

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Preface to the 2nd Edition

The 2nd edition of Intellectual Property Law and Interactive Media: Free for a Fee, improves on the 1st edition in form and content. Although developments in the law tend to move somewhat slowly, the new media environment changes rapidly, such that while the decisions that are made follow time-worn practices (the law), the case specifics present new, innovative, and challenging legal dilemmas. The 2nd edition moves our coverage of case analysis to this separate volume, Case Analyses for Intellectual Property Law and New Media, enabling us to focus our attention, and that of our students and readers, on important trial and legal procedures that attend applying extant law to, largely, new circumstances. Moving the case analyses to this separate volume enables students/readers to focus their attention on history and theory while reading the conceptual text, then bring understandings derived there to bear on cases found in this analytic text. The approach offers relief from information overload and arms one with time and space to “shift gears” between concepts and cases. The 2nd edition includes the most important cases presented in the 1st edition, and updates case selections to include the most recent key cases prior to publication.

Each case summary begins with a brief statement highlighting the importance of the litigation’s outcome. This element is added to our approach in the 1st edition where we left this interpretation to the reader/student. The new précis provide focus that is especially important given the complexities found in many of ← vii | viii → the cases. The authors are well aware of, and sensitive to, the fact that few in our target audience have experience with legal terms or protocols. Providing focused interpretations in addition to analysis aids understanding and learning.

Full case citations are given within this text. Having the proper case citation is crucial for accurate searching. When we note cases in the concept text, and when we analyze them in detail, here, in the companion volume, we provide a full case listing using Harvard Law Review Association’s The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, 19th ed. (2010, sixth printing, 2012) style. Additionally, readers/students may go to our companion website, freeforafee.com, and find there a list of URLs that link to case files from the litigation covered in this text.

Marc Cooperman and Robert Resis authored portions of the case analyses in the 1st edition. Many of those passages have been edited/modified and the attributions (that appeared in the 1st edition) are removed in this 2nd edition. Nevertheless, we thank these outstanding intellectual property lawyers for allowing us to build on their work. Additionally, Steve Baron expresses sincere gratitude to attorney Tina Salvato who assisted in compiling case summaries for this 2nd edition.

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CHAPTER ONE

Copyright Cases

Traditional Media Copyright Cases with New Media Implications

Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 99 (1879).

Baker v. Selden, well prior to the Copyright Act of 1909, deals with the idea versus expression dichotomy in copyright law and the differences between copyrights and patents.

The US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) in Baker v. Selden considered what aspects of Selden’s book relating to an improved bookkeeping system could be protected by copyright. Selden’s book contained mostly bookkeeping forms and descriptions of how to use the new bookkeeping system. The case involved an attempt to keep Baker from selling a book describing a similar system. The Court held that, although copyright law granted Selden the right to prevent others from printing or publishing any material part or his entire book, the system that Selden devised was merely an idea and therefore not subject to copyright protection. The specific layout and presentation of Selden’s book was subject to copyright protection, but Baker was not copying the text or presentation from Selden.

The Court went on to distinguish copyright and patent laws. The particular description of the system itself (the expression of ideas) can be protected by ← 1 | 2 → copyright, but not the abstract idea of the method or system—inventions, if they qualify, are protected by patent.

Mazer v. Stein, 347 U.S. 201 (1954).

Mazer v. Stein supported the validity of copyright protection for certain kinds of design elements.

Stein designed statuettes of male and female dancing figures intended for use as bases for table lamps. The statuettes, without any of the components used for lamps, were registered with the Copyright Office as works of art. Stein then sold the statuettes for use as the bases on fully equipped lamps. Mazer copied the designs of the lamp bases and sold them as fully equipped lamps as well. Stein sued Mazer for copyright infringement.

The SCOTUS evaluated whether a work of art, intended for use as an element in a useful manufactured article, is copyrightable. The Court affirmed the appellate court and held that such a use of a copyrighted work of art does not affect the ability to protect against copyright infringement of the work of art. The Court held that the statuettes in Mazer were an original, tangible expression of the author’s ideas and that the reproduction of the statuettes as lamps did not bar or invalidate the statuettes’ copyright registration.

The Court found that the statuettes were subject to copyright protection: “the dichotomy of protection for the aesthetic is not beauty and utility but art for the copyright.”

Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984).

Sony v. Universal City Studios is a seminal case involving consumer rights to copy and time shift broadcast television and for device manufacturers to provide recording equipment. The case also speaks to issues of private use and fair use.

In Sony, various movie studio companies elected to sue Sony for copyright infringement based on its production of home video recorders. The studios argued that notwithstanding some non-infringing uses, the primary purpose of home video recorders was to make unauthorized copies of copyrighted material. Sony argued that: (1) recording copyrighted broadcasts to be watched at a later time for noncommercial use was simply time-shifting, that—even if unauthorized—is a fair use, and (2) there were substantial non-infringing uses, including the copying of non-copyrighted material or copyrighted programming whose owners consent to such copying.

The SCOTUS established a test for determining whether video tape recording devices violate copyright law. In a narrow majority, the Court stated: “the sale of ← 2 | 3 → copying equipment, like the sale of other articles of commerce, does not constitute contributory infringement if the product is widely used for legitimate, unobjectionable purposes.” The Court examined whether the allegedly infringing device “is capable of commercially significant non-infringing uses” and agreed with Sony that there were substantial non-infringing uses and that recording programming for a noncommercial home use is a fair use of the copyrighted material. The Court emphasized that the public was invited to view the broadcast free of charge; the home video recorder allows them to do that, but at a later time.

Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises Case Media, 471 U.S. 539 (1985).

Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises Case Media examined publishing copyright protected material based on the theory of “the public’s right to know” as it is related to fair use in news and publishing.

Details

Pages
VIII, 188
Year
2015
ISBN (PDF)
9781453916056
ISBN (ePUB)
9781454189411
ISBN (MOBI)
9781454189404
ISBN (Softcover)
9781433131011
DOI
10.3726/978-1-4539-1605-6
Language
English
Publication date
2016 (February)
Keywords
patent new media traditional made, trademark cases copyright
Published
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 2015. VIII, 188 pp.

Biographical notes

Steven L. Baron (Author) Edward Lee Lamoureux (Author) Claire Stewart (Author)

Steven L. Baron is a partner in the Chicago-based law firm of Mandell Menkes LLC. He received the JD from the University of Minnesota. Edward Lee Lamoureux (PhD, University of Oregon) is a Professor in the Department of Communication and the Department of Interactive Media at Bradley University. Claire Stewart is the Associate University Librarian for Research and Learning at the University of Minnesota Libraries and holds an MLIS from Dominican University.

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