Category Archives: Entertainment Law Blog

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Aimster’s appeal of the adverse decision at 334 F.3d 643, 6-30-03. See Supreme Court Order, 03-658, cert. denied, 1-12-04.

By Elliot M. Zimmerman Some view the internet as an abandoned warehouse filled with free pictures, music, video and text files fixed o­n a hard disk somewhere out there in cyberspace. Granted, some files are not protected by copyright law because the material contained in them has entered the public domain. In some instances, the use of certain files may constitute a fair use under 17 U.S.C. 107 et seq. On the other hand, the Continue reading P2P File Sharing and Copyright Infringement→

  The enrolled (final) text of S. 877 as it was passed by the Senate o­n November 25, 2003, and agreed to by the House of Representatives o­n December 8, 2003, was signed by the President o­n December 16, 2003, and takes effect o­n January 1, 2004.  

An appeals court in Oslo, Norway, upheld Jon Lech Johansen’s earlier acquittal o­n all counts of alleged copyright violations. The lower court had ruled that Johansen, now 20, did nothing illegal when he helped crack DVD copy protection codes in 1999 and then publicized how he did it.

Read the article here. See 17 U.S.C. 512(c)(2) et seq. to learn how an ISP may insulate itself from suits for copyright infringement under U.S. law.

The recording industry can’t force Internet providers to identify music downloaders, a federal appeals court said Friday in a major decision shielding online privacy while undercutting the industry’s anti-piracy campaign. Read the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia here.

Downloading copyrighted music from peer-to-peer networks is legal in Canada, although uploading files is not, Canadian copyright regulators said in a ruling released Friday. Read the article here http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5121479.html

Online music piracy isn’t likely to vanish soon, but the rise of paid o­nline services and the growing popularity of portable digital music players portends greater demand for digital music next year and better fortunes for the embattled recording industry, music executives said. Taking a mostly positive outlook o­n an industry racked by a three-year slide in CD sales, executives for recording companies and Internet music retailers told hundreds at the Music 2.0 conference in Continue reading Online Music To Boom in 2004→

On 11/25/03, the Senate passed the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which will preempt state law when signed by the President, who is expected to do so shortly. This is the first federal legislation directly regulating SPAM. Very basically, the bill requires senders of unsolicited commercial email to provide recipients with a functioning process to opt out (i.e. the “remove” link must work), a real address, and a real contact. The bill prohibits civil suits by Continue reading CAN-SPAM Act of 2003→