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Second Circuit Examines Evolving Infringement Standard
Tasked with formulating a legal definition of “hard-core pornography” in 1964, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart demurred with the famous observation “I know it when I see it.” Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 197 (1964) (Stewart, J., concurring). Fifty years later, intellectual property lawyers might be forgiven for falling back on some similar formulation when asked to advise their clients on copyright infringement. Infringement analysis has always been a complex and fact-intensive exercise, and recent developments in the case law, statutes and regulatory environment have made these problems so knotty that practitioners may be tempted to fall back on experience to supplement their usual factual and legal review. Yet even for experienced lawyers, outcomes are increasingly difficult to predict. Today, a business model that looks problematic may be saved by ' among many other things ' the fair use doctrine, a statutory safe harbor provision, a judicially created exception (such as “substantial non-infringing use”), a compulsory license, or even a change in the technology used to implement it.
This complexity and flexibility has benefits. It enables copyright law to adapt to the rapid social and technological change around the works it is designed to protect. But it also means that the line between legitimate service and actionable infringement can get fairly blurry, sometimes making innovation a dangerous (and expensive) gamble. Nowhere is this more evident than in the developing fields of content delivery and cloud services.
The Demand for New Services
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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.
Removing Restrictive Covenants In New York
In Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?
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.