Copyright Infringement Advisor

Monthly Archives: November 2011

Fair Use Defense to Copyright Infringement: What it is and what it isn’t

By John Whitaker on Posted in Fair Use, Infringement Defenses, Litigation Damages

As a copyright lawyer, I hear a lot of people say “as long as I don’t copy more than 10% of something, it’s fair use.”  Or sometimes you hear them say “as long as I change something, it’s fair use.”  These people are destined for trouble. The “fair use” defense to copyright infringement is actually… Continue Reading

Grooveshark v Universal: Can you believe some people?

By John Whitaker on Posted in DMCA Safe Harbor, Interesting Cases

Grooveshark is an online music community that lets users search for, stream, and upload music.  I think it is essentially trying to be like Facebook for music.  Since there is music involved, naturally UMG sued Grooveshark for copyright infringement.  Of course they did. Ordinarily, this would be just another “music industry sues website” case without… Continue Reading

BMI Copyright Lawyers Frequent Willie’s Wet Spot

By John Whitaker on Posted in Interesting Cases

What those lawyers were doing at the “Wet Spot” is anyone’s guess, but they did it frequently. BMI sued Wille’s Wet Spot for copyright infringement.  The allegation is that the club allowed unauthorized public performances of music that BMI licenses.  If you are not familiar with BMI, that is what they do.  BMI representatives go… Continue Reading

Apple keeps getting sued for copyright infringement

By John Whitaker on Posted in Firm Cases, Interesting Cases

Apple is in trouble again for copyright infringement.  They were recently sued for copyright violations for selling an application through the iStore that extracts pictures from Flickr and then re-publishes them.  The application doesn’t seek permission in advance, and it even (allegedly) strips any embedded copyright management information. This is a problem, in general, in… Continue Reading