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Recent Disputes over Copyright Licenses

By Richard Raysman and Peter Brown
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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