As you may have heard, the EU is debating a quite controversial proposal to reform its copyright laws. Now, a number of high-profile people, including the inventor of the World Wide Web himself, Tim Berners-Lee, has come out in opposition to the directive. So what’s going on? The problematic provision is Article 13 of the… Read more »
One of the defining features of modern U.S. Copyright law is that it is very easy for works to receive copyright protection. Nearly any work that is recorded in some permanent form qualifies for copyright. However, even though it may be easy for a work to qualify, not everything does. In fact, some things aren’t… Read more »
Last week, I wrote about a case involving How the Grinch Stole Christmas and a parody play that follows Cindy Loo Who later in life. Now a new post at the Trademark and Copyright Law blog reminded me of an important issue about fair use that I should address. That is, what is the difference between… Read more »
One of my favorite things about the holiday season is my annual viewing of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Thurl Ravenscroft’s voice on You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, combined with Dr. Seuss’s lyrics, makes it an all time classic, and not just great for Christmas music. So, when I read about a recent copyright lawsuit over a… Read more »
One common argument you’ll hear for open scholarship is that by loosening copyright restrictions on scholarly works, we can in turn increase their impact. The argument here is pretty straightforward: if you make scholarly works more easily available, then people are more likely to use them in their own work. However, there hasn’t been much… Read more »
