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Recent Disputes over Copyright Licenses

BY Richard Raysman
December 02, 2016

Copyright license disputes truly run the gamut. Many involve the entertainment industry, which naturally makes the cases well-publicized. In the last year, high-profile disputes over alleged violations of copyright licenses have involved, just to name a few, tattoos on athletes as depicted in video games, a sample in the Madonna song “Vogue,” a photograph that precipitated a request for a $1 billion damage award, and a depiction of a shark attack in a movie.

This article discusses disputes involving the use of copyrighted works or intellectual property underlying that work, under a license, or in one case, under an implied license. The parties thereto are not nearly as well-known, but the legal conclusions reached may have farther reaching implications.

The three cases analyzed below involve: 1) whether the duration of digital sample rights to a work extend past the relevant license; 2) if and when source code provided, or promised to be provided, to a licensee can sustain either contract or tort claims; and 3) the assignability of copyrighted architectural renderings via an implied license.

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