Prequel: A Sequel in the Rye
J.D. Salinger has persuaded a district court judge to elevate a temporary restraining order to a preliminary injunction in his effort to prevent American audiences from reading 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, which uses an aged Holden Caulfield in a narrative sequel to - or parody of — [...]
Salinger Takes Another Round
July 2nd, 2009 · 7 Comments
Tags: Copyright Law
Copyright and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
June 30th, 2009 · 5 Comments
Matthew B. Crawford’s new book, “Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work,” gives IP lawyers quite a lot to think about. (An excerpt appeared recently in the New York Times magazine, and the book as a whole originated as an essay at The New Atlantis.) Crawford is offering a modern take [...]
Tags: Copyright Law
IP and Children, in the Wilderness
June 30th, 2009 · No Comments
Michael Chabon has an elegiac essay in the New York Review of Books (”Manhood for Amateurs: The Wilderness of Childhood”) on what is denied to our children:
This is the kind of door-to-door, all-encompassing escort service that we adults have contrived to provide for our children. We schedule their encounters for them, driving them to and from [...]
Tags: Copyright Law · Ideas
Vuvuzelas
June 29th, 2009 · No Comments
The gang at Language Log provides a thorough overview of the meaning and function of the vuvuzela, the device that provided the soundtrack to the just-concluded Confederations Cup soccer tournament in South Africa (the result in yesterday’s final: Brazil 3 - USA 2, more or less as I predicted last week). It leads me to [...]
Tags: Ideas · Intellectual Property Law · Just for Fun · Law & Technology
Netflix Prize Won?
June 29th, 2009 · No Comments
It appears that the Netflix Prize has been won.
Thet Netflix Prize is a $1 million prize being offered by Netflix for development of a “movie recommendation system” that is 10% better than Netflix’s own Cinematch system as predicting the movie preferences of Netflix subscribers. [Older story from the NYTimes here.] From the prize website, here are [...]
Tags: Commons · Ideas · Just for Fun
A Note on the World Copyright Summit
June 23rd, 2009 · No Comments
The recent “World Copyright Summit,” sponsored by CISAC (the “International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers”) only came to my attention after the fact. Glancing through the program materials, I came across a framing editorial for the conference that begins this way:
Faced with an era of digital disruption, what would Michelangelo think of the [...]
Tags: Copyright Law
A Sequel in the Rye?
June 21st, 2009 · 2 Comments
For the moment, J.D. Salinger has in hand an order prohibiting the distribution in the U.S. of 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, which is either an unauthorized sequel to (i.e., derivative work, based on) and an invasion of the privacy of the author of The Catcher in the Rye, more or less akin [...]
Tags: Copyright Law
Pen and Parchment at the Metropolitan Museum
June 21st, 2009 · No Comments
I’ve had the pleasure of wandering through the Metropolitan Museum in New York many times over the years, but for the first time, perhaps, yesterday I was fortunate to see an exhibition that really changed the way I (and perhaps others) think about the world of art. If you’re able, run - do not walk [...]
Tags: Copyright Law · Ideas
A New Low
June 18th, 2009 · 6 Comments
The recording industry’s inquisitorial pursuit of downloaders has reached new heights - or depths. Map Boon onto the interests represented by the RIAA and Katy onto the interests represented by the accused in this sequence from Animal House:
Boon: Unbelievable. A new low. I’m so ashamed. Almost sorry l missed it.
Katy: What did you do, human sacrifice?
Boon: [...]
Tags: Copyright Law
Property, Identity, and Giuseppe Rossi
June 17th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Finally, the United States bred a world class soccer talent. But Giuseppe Rossi was born in New Jersey to Italian parents and dreamed of playing for Italy, as the rules of international soccer allow. Now he is not only playing for Italy - but he’s scoring the goals that beat the United States.
The United States, [...]
Tags: Ideas · Just for Fun
The Values of the Bat Signal
June 16th, 2009 · 2 Comments
I drove to Boulder and back earlier this month, which is nothing of consequence except for the fact that I live in Pittsburgh and, with an excursion to Minnesota on the return, I put 3,400 miles on our vehicle. Picture me in a large blue pickup under the blue Nebraska sky, cruising comfortably in a [...]
Tags: Academia · Ideas · Just for Fun
Googlebombing Pittsburgh?
June 10th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Here in Pittsburgh, civic enthusiasts are so giddy over the prospect of the G-20 summit coming to town next Fall that that they just can’t help themselves. A local marketing firm has announced that it is launching a campaign to create a network of links that would cause the Google search engine to reply “Pittsburgh” [...]
Tags: Law & Technology
The Pirate Party Expands by Another Country
June 1st, 2009 · No Comments
The Pirate Party has planted another official flag: Finland, where its 5,000 signatures made it an officially recognized party. [H/T: Orgtheory.net]
About the Pirate Party, from Wikipedia:
The Pirate Party (Swedish: Piratpartiet) is a political party in Sweden. Its sudden popularity has given rise to parties with the same name and similar goals in Europe and worldwide. [...]
Tags: Art and Politics · Copyright Law · Intellectual Property Law
When Paintings Perform
June 1st, 2009 · 1 Comment
Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker reported on the copyright story behind Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, which I haven’t seen. Among the pieces in the museum that come alive as part of the film, paintings literally leap off the walls:
There is an animated (and occasionally talkative) Degas ballerina, a Jackson Pollock [...]
Tags: Copyright Law · Just for Fun · Law & Technology
The Issue is, What is a Potato Crisp?
June 1st, 2009 · No Comments
Because I’m not a tax lawyer, I didn’t see Paul Caron’s coverage of the Court of Appeal judgment in the Pringles case, but I did see the New York Times opinion piece this morning. It’s interesting to watch an obscure little case generate so many different interpretations.
The facts are pretty simple: Most food items are [...]
Tags: Copyright Law · Intellectual Property Law · Just for Fun
Up … and Back
May 29th, 2009 · No Comments
[Cross-posted from Concurring Opinions]
I just came back from seeing the new Pixar animated film Up . It’s a charracteristically charming Pixar effort; all thumbs up! Plus, I got these neat-o 3D glasses. There’s a little IP angle to the film, though, and I want to use that to anchor this last of my guest posts.
It [...]
Tags: Intellectual Property Law · Just for Fun · Trademark Law
The Watchmakers’ Court and Related Curiosities
May 22nd, 2009 · No Comments
[Cross-posted from Concurring Opinions]
This recent New Yorker piece about “Baselworld,” the annual watchmakers’ confab in Switzerland (Patricia Marx, “Face Value,” May 25, 2009) included a throwaway line that I found fascinating. Baselworld is so large that it has its own police force and “a judiciary to settle trademark disputes.” Whoa. Huh?
Technorati Tags: baselworld, trademark, private [...]
Tags: Ideas · Intellectual Property Law
Where Trademarked “Eagles” Dare
May 21st, 2009 · No Comments
[Cross-posted from Concurring Opinions]
The world is again safe for trademark law, now that the National Rifle Association has put an end to efforts at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to name the university’s eagle mascot “Eddie.”
For 20 years, the eagle has been the mascot of athletic teams at UW-L. Only earlier this month, however, did [...]
Tags: Just for Fun · Law & Technology
More on Comic Norms, and Virtual Symposia
May 20th, 2009 · No Comments
[Cross-posted in part from Concurring Opinions]
I posted earlier about the Virginia Law Review In Brief responses to Dotan Oliar’s and Chris Sprigman’s UVa Law Review article, There’s No Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy, 94 Va. L. Rev. 1787 (2008).
In Brief just published Oliar and Sprigman’s [...]
Tags: Academia · Ideas · Law & Technology
Best Practices in Fair Use
May 19th, 2009 · No Comments
Following up on Ann’s post yesterday, and cross-posted from Concurring Opinions:
Yesterday, the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University’s Washington College of Law and the Center for Social Media at AU’s School of Communication released “Remix Culture: Fair Use Is Your Friend,” a video that accompanies and explains the Code of Best [...]
Tags: Law & Technology







