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Crackdown on Live Streaming of Sporting Events

This week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shut down a number of websites that were offering live streams of professional sporting events (source).  The central claim was that the video delivered through those websites is protected by copyrights.

While I’m sure there are some hippies those out there who would take the position that a sporting [...]

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Being a douche nozzle is no way to keep clients

Of course the headline here seems like common sense, but what’s surprising is that many attorneys have trouble with this bit of wisdom.  As surprising as it may be, understanding why practicing attorneys have trouble controlling their aggressive tendencies is not difficult when you think about it.  The problem is, when you have to spend [...]

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Limewire Shutdown Over Copyright Issues

Limewire joins the list of infamous internet services deemed to be overwhelmingly used for copyright infringement (source).  Napster, Mp3.com, and Grokster rumored to be throwing a welcome bash for the new fish.

This article was originally posted on The Legal Satyricon

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Suck it, El Jobso

A while back, attorneys for Apple concocted a creative argument for why jailbreaking your iPhone constituted an infringement of the copyrights in the device’s software, based on the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (more familiarly known as the “DMCA”).  The Library of Congress (as the body that promulgates regulations for enforcement of [...]

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IP Holding Companies – Why You Need One

If you’re running your own small business, and you don’t have a holding company for your intellectual property, you should make an appointment to have your head examined.  Creating a separate entity, solely for the purpose of owning your IP, is the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to insure the goodwill associated with your business.

I [...]

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IOC Uses DMCA to Suppress Luge Accident Video

The opening day of the 2010 Winter Olympics was marked with tragedy when 21-year-old Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, was involved in a fatal crash during a training run. The horrific event dampened the spirit of the international competition and colored the mood at the opening ceremonies later that night. As anyone would expect, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sprung into action, responding to the accident with a multi-point [...]

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Space Coast Business Magazine prints one of my articles :)

One of the partners at my law firm, Mark Malek, and I put together a quick overview (800-words-or-less) about patents and copyrights for Space Coast Business Magazine.  They ran it in their January issue, and you can read the full text here.

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“Twenty-Something Arrested at Twilight Movie” or “State Law Copyright Enforcement?”

Earlier this month, 22-year-old Samantha Tumpach was arrested exiting a showing of the new douchey-little-vampire-kid movie, The Twilight Saga: New Moon.  No, she wasn’t detained for a psych eval, as anyone over the age of 16 should be for watching that movie.  (The only problem with implementing that policy is that state mental health facilities [...]

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Does Disney Own the Concept of a Castle?

It is a well known axiom of U.S. intellectual property law that there is no protection afforded to mere ideas.  In order to employ the force and power of our legal system to enforce your intellectual property rights, you must have something more concrete than an idea.  In patent law, for example, you must have [...]

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IP Overview: Copyrights Explained

United States copyright law protects original works of authorship that have been fixed in any tangible medium of expression.  Pretty much anything that you can write down or record is automatically protected from direct copying without your permission.  Everything from that flier for your company’s last promotion to the business plan that you spent weeks [...]

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