Copyright Law

Copyright and the Creator

Gizele Rubeiz | Posted 05.07.2012

Gizele Rubeiz

One of the least understood principles of copyright is the method by which it is acquired. Copyright exists automatically, as soon as an original work is created in fixed (tangible) form.

Creativity Endures: The 'Amen Break' and Copyright Law

Network Awesome | Posted 04.24.2012

Network Awesome

What do Amy Winehouse, N.W.A., David Bowie, a Jeep 4x4 commercial, and the cartoon Futurama all have in common? Believe it or not, they all share six seconds of drum music.

Reevaluating Ownership

Jennifer Hamady | Posted 04.09.2012

Jennifer Hamady

Trademarks are becoming as common as commas, yet with a far greater impact than overused punctuation. While the legal lockdown of conversational language is progressing, the copyright law and rights are being thoroughly challenged.

Saki Knafo

Is Outkast's Big Boi A Pirate? How Twitter Cracks Down On Copyright Violations

HuffingtonPost.com | Saki Knafo | Posted 02.09.2012

In early June, about three weeks before Beyonce's latest album came out, one of her songs, a collaboration with the rapper Andre 3000, made its way to...

SCOTUS Adds More Fuel to the Copyright Debate With Golan V. Holder

Christina Gagnier | Posted 03.19.2012

Christina Gagnier

The case marked a continuance of the debate over the Copyright Clause of the United States Constitution that was broached in the 2003 Supreme Court decision in the Eldred v. Ashcroft case.

Author Of SOPA Is A Copyright Violator

VICE | Posted 01.13.2012

US Congressman and poor-toupee-color-chooser Lamar Smith is the guy who authored the Stop Online Piracy Act. SOPA, as I'm sure you know, is the shady ...

America Vs The Public Domain

Jennifer Jenkins | Posted 03.10.2012

Jennifer Jenkins

Copyright law gives authors and publishers exclusive rights for a "limited time," to encourage them to create and distribute works. So what is entering the public domain in the U.S. this year? Not a single published work. Why should you care?

Andrew Burmon

PHOTOS: The Unauthorized, Racy Adventures Of Tintin

HuffingtonPost.com | Andrew Burmon | Posted 12.17.2011

Editor's note: This article contains graphic descriptions that may be upsetting to some readers. When Herge died in 1983, many assumed that Tintin,...

Did "Glee" Producers Steal An Idea From A Fan?

Posted 10.25.2011

How woud you react if the producers of your favorite show used one of your ideas but never gave you credit for it? Because that's exactly what a ...

Rethinking the Music Business

Jason Schmitt | Posted 07.05.2011

Jason Schmitt

As the record industry started to dry up and die and the major labels were sort of crippled and starving -- it was a land grab. It was, "I just fired ...

If Works of Art are 'Strikingly Similar,' Is That a Problem?

Daniel Grant | Posted 05.25.2011

Daniel Grant

One talks of "drawing from life," perhaps of being a "plein-air" artist, but the fact remains that most art looks more like other art than like life, ...

Jason Linkins

Argument For Copyright Protection Undermined By Half-Baked Metaphor About Shakespeare

HuffingtonPost.com | Jason Linkins | Posted 05.25.2011

I missed this on Valentine's Day, but in that day's edition of the New York Times, Scott Turow, Paul Aiken, and James Shapiro published an op-ed weigh...

White House Will Propose New Digital Copyright Laws

CNET News | Posted 05.25.2011

The Obama administration has drafted new proposals to curb Internet piracy and other forms of intellectual property infringement that it says it will ...

Cory Doctorow On Copyright

guardian.co.uk | Cory Doctorow | Posted 05.25.2011

In my world, copyright's purpose is to encourage the widest participation in culture that we can manage -- that is, it should be a system that encoura...

Sarah Palin Book Excerpts Must Be Removed From Gawker, Judge Rules

AP / The Huffington Post | Posted 05.25.2011

NEW YORK — A federal judge on Saturday ordered Gawker Media to pull leaked pages of Sarah Palin's forthcoming book "America by Heart: Reflection...

Michael Moore, Like Obama, Is Also Guilty of Being too Soft

Max Keiser | Posted 05.25.2011

Max Keiser

Copyright abuse is the biggest threat we face. Locking up our ideas on corporate balance sheets and cutting us off from our intellectual and creative birth right is tantamount to performing a species wide lobotomy.

Glenn Beck's F.U.* Problem

Art Brodsky | Posted 05.25.2011

Art Brodsky

Glenn Beck's response to Jonathan McIntosh's brilliant remix video is worthy of a close look because in just a few words, Beck shows what he is all about, and that he has no concept of fairness, or of fair use.

The "Imbecile" and "Moron" Responds: On the Freedoms of Remix Creators

Lawrence Lessig | Posted 05.25.2011

Lawrence Lessig

We need an anti-moron norm: If something sounds crazy, assume its not. Assume you've missed something, and check again. If after reading and trying to understand the issue and the person more, you still think its crazy, go slow.

Runway Ripoffs: Tailored in China?

Stacie Nevadomski Berdan | Posted 05.25.2011

Stacie Nevadomski Berdan

After window shopping in the Chanel, Moschino and Versace boutiques, I'd sit with my tailor, describe an outfit I'd seen, she'd sketch it out, and one week later I'd walk out, arms loaded with my precious purchase.

Slowed-Down Bieber: A Glacial Victory for Fair Use

Jason Sigal | Posted 05.25.2011

Jason Sigal

Multiple major labels have lent their support to a hugely popular (and quite excellent) 800%-slower remix of Justin Beiber's song "U Smile." This, despite the fact that it is arguably a copyright infringement.

A Promotion for Progress: Seeking the Third Way for Copyright

Christina Gagnier | Posted 05.25.2011

Christina Gagnier

A week ago, the damages award heard around the copyright world came with United States District Court Judge Nancy Gertner's decision to slash the dama...

Eight Thoughts About Election Day and Words and Music

Michael Sigman | Posted 05.25.2011

Michael Sigman

1.Tuesday's election wins by Sharron Angle in Nevada and Nikki Haley in South Carolina were helped immeasurably by those candidates' association with ...

Google Books Reaches Deal With Italy: Will Other Countries, Including The US, Follow Suit?

The Huffington Post | Jessie Kunhardt | Posted 05.25.2011

Google Books has extended its presence in Europe with a deal reached Wednesday to digitize "up to one million" ancient Italian texts from libraries in...

30,000 Songwriters in the Making

Paul Williams | Posted 05.25.2011

Paul Williams

If new technologies are just enablers for taking music without any means for compensation, the chance for future songwriters to make a decent living is in serious jeopardy.

Google: 'We Will Bring Books Back To Life'

The Guardian | David Drummond | Posted 05.25.2011

Imagine if that information could be made available to everyone, ­everywhere, at the click of a mouse. Imagine if long-forgotten books could be enjoy...