Kerson v. Vermont Law School, Inc. (2023 WL 5313521, 2d Cir. August 18, 2023)
Artist Samuel Kerson painted two large murals directly onto the walls inside a building on the campus of Vermont Law School. Kerson intended the works to depict the United States’ sordid history with slavery and Vermont’s participation in the abolitionist movement.
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SCOTUS: Warhol Foundation’s Use of Prince Photograph Not Fair Use
In 1981 Andy Warhol used a photograph made by Lynn Goldsmith as reference for an illustration of the musician Prince. Vanity Fair magazine had hired Warhol to make the illustration; it was to accompany an article about Prince in the magazine’s November 1984 issue. Goldsmith had issued a limited license for this purpose. The license…
Estate Planning: Copyright and the Limits of Digital Property
Let’s start with five fundamental concepts:
…
US Copyright Applications: Not As Simple As You Think
Have you ever convinced yourself that something is simple…just because you want it to be simple?
You’re not alone. In the context of applications for US copyright and trademark registration, people decide every day that do-it-yourself (DIY) is an acceptable option because, to their wishful eyes, “it’s just paperwork.”
Or maybe they think,…
Fighting Back Against Data Scrapers
During these joyous holiday times, thoughts turn to peace on Earth, goodwill toward all and, of course, data scraping.
The United States Supreme Court is presently deciding whether to review a Second Circuit case that gave Google a free pass to scrape the content from another business’ website. The business that got scraped (Genius…
Working on Vacation
The other day I was learning about a fellow lawyer, by reviewing her website. Her trademark practice is similar to mine. The site was inviting. She has a sense of humor.
“Nice,” thought I, “we should connect.”
I was reviewing her website because she’d made a mistake in a matter before the Trademark Trial and…
Getting a Cut When Your Work Re-Sells
You’re a visual artist. You sell a work for $1000. Over time the value appreciates. Your buyer re-sells the work for $50,000. You get nothing (except requests to speak about your work, for no money!)
There is no law permitting artists to share in “resale royalties” when their works change hands. I discuss this in…
New Copyright Registration Option for Blog Entries; Social Media Posts
The US Copyright Office is establishing a new option for registering multiple “online short literary works” as a group, with a single application and a single fee.
In plain English, that means: blog entries; social media posts; and short online articles.
They’re still rolling out the details — which I’ll describe here when they become…
Three Tips for Web-Conferencing
Many of us, sheltered in place, are using video and web-conferencing services such as Zoom. How fortunate we are, to have such tools at our disposal.
While keeping physically healthy, here are three tips for staying legally healthy in your web-conferencing environment.
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Plagiarism v Copyright Infringement. What’s the Difference?
“Please don’t copy my work.”
They do it anyway.
Is it plagiarism or is it copyright infringement?
Plagiarism is a question of attribution. Let’s say GoodGuy actually created The Work. BadGuy not only copies The Work, but passes it off as his own. BadGuy is “attributing” authorship of The Work to himself rather than to…