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Determining the Rights of Heirs In Copyright-Renewal Interests
The digital age and widespread, unauthorized Internet downloading have raised doubts about the strength of copyright protection. But the durability of entertainment content has nevertheless kept renewal interests in copyrights alive. It is often the children and spouses of deceased artists who are involved in fights over the economic promise of these copyright renewals.
Though federal copyright law currently protects a work for the life of an author (or of the last living co-author) plus 70 years, under 17 U.S.C. 304(a), works registered before Jan. 1, 1978, remain subject to an initial 28-year copyright term plus an additional 67 years renewal.
Primary issues in cases claiming renewal-interest rights include the limitations period for filing a claim and how the renewal interests should be divided among an artist's heirs. Two recent cases demonstrate how these claims play out.
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Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
Legal Possession: What Does It Mean?
Possession of real property is a matter of physical fact. Having the right or legal entitlement to possession is not "possession," possession is "the fact of having or holding property in one's power." That power means having physical dominion and control over the property.
The Anti-Assignment Override Provisions
UCC Sections 9406(d) and 9408(a) are one of the most powerful, yet least understood, sections of the Uniform Commercial Code. On their face, they appear to override anti-assignment provisions in agreements that would limit the grant of a security interest. But do these sections really work?