Instagram isn’t liable for copyright infringement because it provides embedding tools that allow third-party websites to retrieve and display copyrighted photos, according to a recent appellate decision. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals based
its decision in Hunley v. Instagram on the fact that the third-parties’ servers never make copies of the photos during the…

In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court found that an Andy Warhol silkscreen of the singer Prince, sourced from an original Lynn Goldsmith photograph, did not qualify for the Copyright Act’s “fair use” defense because both the photograph and the silkscreen had the same use, which was to illustrate commercial magazine articles about the singer.…

This may be news to the photographers who continue to make claims against news organizations, but use of photographs in news reporting is presumptively fair use, according to a recent decision.A Fox TV affiliate in Florida, reporting on the first anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, interviewed Kelly Meggs, one of the convicted insurrectionists from…

The recent decision in Petersen v. Diesel Power Gear [1] highlights the risks to executives and owners of any business that engages in advertising.The plaintiff in Petersen is an artist who creates large and dramatic murals on building walls, including commissioned murals for his clients. One of his murals is called “Godlike.” The defendant, Diesel…

Patent and trademark applicants need to be pretty careful in their registration applications, but the Supreme Court has made things a bit easier for copyright applicants. The Court ruled in Unicolors, Inc. v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz, L.P. that legal inaccuracies in a copyright application do not invalidate the copyright if the applicant didn’t recognize them…

Here are seven resolutions – not including the obligatory “get in shape” or “be more organized” – that you may want to consider for 2022.

• Copyright Ownership. Check that you own your website’s content, which generally requires that your employees created the content in the regular course of their duties, or that you have a

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A California judge has dismissed the copyright infringement and Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) claims of a photographer who sued Pinterest after he found his photos on the popular social media website. Professional photographer Blaine Harrington brought the claims against Pinterest, but the Court dismissed his lawsuit, finding that Harrington failed to plead sufficient facts…