"Lilly Pulitzer, known for its bright and unique fabric patterns, is suing Old Navy for copyright infringement, saying the Gap-owned unit blatantly stole two of the designer’s fabric prints. While apparel designs are not covered by any intellectual property laws, one-of-a-kind prints and patterns do fall under that protection. Sugartown Worldwide, which owns the Lilly Pulitzer brand and its 33 retail stores, alleged that Old Navy knocked off two of its colorful prints, causing “irreparable harm” to the company."
Friday, July 31, 2015
Lilly Pulitzer sues Old Navy for copyright infringement; Fortune, 7/30/15
Laura Lorenzetti, Fortune; Lilly Pulitzer sues Old Navy for copyright infringement:
Librarians stir the pot for copyright reform; Brisbane Times, 7/31/15
Natalie Bochenski, Brisbane Times; Librarians stir the pot for copyright reform:
About 1500 libraries around Australia will on Friday, July 31, take part in ALIA's Cooking for Copyright campaign, with everyone else encouraged to take part as well. Sue McKerracher, of the Australian Librarian and Information Association, said it was inspired by the thousands of vintage recipes that lay dormant in unpublished library collections. "What we want is for everyone to cook something, photograph it, and send it to us using the hashtag," she said. Advertisement "That will effectively give us a good petition to take to the government and ask the Attorney-General to review the legislation, make this change and give a gift to the Australian people." ALIA has declared Friday, July 31, Cooking for Copyright Day, to draw attention to the quirk of legislation that prohibits unpublished documents from being uploaded online. "We've got lots of real treasures locked up in museums, libraries, galleries, historical societies that can't be shared online with the Australian public because of this copyright restriction," Ms McKerracher said... Ms McKerracher said the National Library in Canberra alone held more than two million unpublished works. "Those include letters from Jane Austen, Prince Albert, Captain Cook, Charles Darwin, Dame Nellie Melba, Christobel Pankhurst and Banjo Patterson, but you wouldn't know that, because we can't put them on the web," she said."
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Conan O'Brien Targeted in Lawsuit Claiming He Lifted Jokes from Twitter; Hollywood Reporter, 7/27/15
Eriq Gardner, Hollywood Reporter; Conan O'Brien Targeted in Lawsuit Claiming He Lifted Jokes from Twitter:
"The new lawsuit comes amid some focus on joke theft on Twitter. This past week, a few jokes published on the media service were removed, apparently at the request of a freelance writer. This led to numerous articles that Twitter was taking joke theft seriously, though it's probably nothing more than an individual submitting a simple form pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Internet service providers only give light scrutiny towards takedown requests. By expeditiously removing material that's claimed to be a violation of copyright, services like Twitter gain an affirmative defense against copyright liability. Users who have material removed then have the opportunity of submitting a counter-notice, which typically results in restoration and provides notice to the rights holder of whom to sue if there's still a dispute."
Pitt Law Librarians Help Uncover Smoking Gun Evidence in Historic “Happy Birthday” Song Lawsuit; Pitt Law, 7/28/15
Pitt Law; Pitt Law Librarians Help Uncover Smoking Gun Evidence in Historic “Happy Birthday” Song Lawsuit:
"It’s evidence that might prove conclusively there is no copyright to the lyrics of the “Happy Birthday” song, and attorneys for the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit Good Morning To You Productions Corp. v. Warner/Chappell Music, Inc discovered it was housed in the University of Pittsburgh’s library storage facility. Scrambling to get a hold of it, the attorneys contacted Pitt Law professor and intellectual property law expert Michael Madison. He put them in touch with the Barco Law Library's interim director Marc Silverman and law librarian Linda Tashbook. The fourth edition of The Everyday Song Book was published in 1922 and contains lyrics for “Happy Birthday To You” without any copyright notice, which predates Warner/Chappell’s 1935 copyright registration... Now with the help of Pitt Law and the University, the world’s most recognized song in the English language (according to the Guinness Book of World Records) may become free to the public. In a new filing in the case (PDF), the attorneys for the plaintiffs write, “[T]he documents prove conclusively that the song is in the public domain, thus making it unnecessary for the Court to decide the scope or validity of the disputed copyrights…""
"Happy Birthday" Lawsuit: "Smoking Gun" Emerges in Bid to Free World's Most Popular Song; Hollywood Reporter, 7/27/15
Eriq Gardner, Hollywood Reporter; "Happy Birthday" Lawsuit: "Smoking Gun" Emerges in Bid to Free World's Most Popular Song:
"The filmmakers working on a documentary about the world's most popular song, "Happy Birthday to You," and currently suing Warner/Chappell for the right to use the song in the documentary without any license fee, filed court papers on Monday touting newly uncovered evidence that "proves conclusively that there is no copyright to the Happy Birthday lyrics." The "proverbial smoking gun," as the plaintiffs put it to a California judge, is a book of children's songs that comes straight out of Warner/Chappell's digital library. Betsy Manifold and Mark Rifkin, attorneys for the plaintiffs, were only given access to these files just three weeks ago. They were told the documents were held back "mistakenly." What they found was a blurry version of the 15th edition of The Everyday Song Book, published in 1927. The book contained Happy Birthday lyrics. Intrigued by the discovery, and looking for a cleaner version, the lawyers started hunting down earlier editions, and in the archives of The University of Pittsburgh, they came upon the fourth edition, published in 1922, which included the famous Happy Birthday song without any copyright notice."
Patent Protection for Drugs Puts Pressure on U.S. in Trade Talks; New York Times, 7/30/15
Jonathan Weisman, New York Times; Patent Protection for Drugs Puts Pressure on U.S. in Trade Talks:
"“The goal of the pharmaceutical industry is to change the rules internationally, to change global norms with a new monopoly that is cheaper for the companies and stronger,” said Judit Rius Sanjuan, a legal policy adviser for Doctors Without Borders’ medical access campaign, which wants lower-cost drugs on the market faster. On the other side, Senator Orrin G. Hatch, the Utah Republican who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, singled out the next generation of pharmaceuticals, called biologics, and warned on Wednesday that “a strong intellectual-property chapter — including strong patent and regulatory data protections for biologics — is vital to securing congressional support for this trade deal.” The complexity of the pharmaceutical issues illustrates how difficult it will be to agree on broad trade rules for 12 countries, including giants like the United States and Japan and developing counties like Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam and tiny Brunei. United States negotiators are using novel arguments to secure positions. For instance, they are pushing to mandate open access to the Internet as an antipiracy measure, so Hollywood can use streaming videos to completely cut out the often-copied DVD."
Pitt library songbook key to lawsuit over ‘Happy Birthday’ rights; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 7/30/15
Luke Nozicka, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Pitt library songbook key to lawsuit over ‘Happy Birthday’ rights:
"The plaintiffs argued in a court filing this week that the copyright for the song expired when both versions of the song were published in the 1922 “Everyday Song Book.”... On July 21, Mike Madison, faculty director of Pitt Law’s Innovation Practice Institute, received an email from Mr. Rifkin asking if a law student could send him copies of a 1916 version of the book located in Pitt’s Theodore M. Finney Music Library. But Jeanann Haas, head of Special Collections at University Library System, said no “Happy Birthday” lyrics were found in it. However, the lyrics are in the 220-page 1927 version, a 12th edition, located at Hillman Library in Pitt’s Special Collections Department. Librarians there faxed a copied version of song 16 in the book published by The Cable Company in Chicago, titled “Good Morning and Birthday Song” to the attorney, which was used as evidence at the hearing Wednesday. The attorneys said the Pitt songbook was the “smoking gun” evidence that would prove once and for all that the song is not copyrighted... Regardless of how the judge rules, Mr. Silverman said it is almost funny how much attention Pitt is getting from this, considering all they really did “was copy a couple pages and fax them off.” “We pull rabbits out of the hat day in and day out,” Mr. Silverman said. “We fax a couple pages to an attorney... and all of a sudden, the whole world is coming to our doorstep and saying, ‘Man, the librarians are really great.'"
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