Category: Blog

It’s worth remembering that after the many hearings hauling Silicon Valley’s titans before Congress to address disinformation on social media, Congress has done nothing.  Even the most modest intervention is stalled.  This is the Honest Ads Act, introduced in the Senate in October 2017.  I wrote about it last year with Lyndsey Wajert. It would … Continue reading Honest Ads Act – Even This Modest Corrective is Stalled…

WINNER OF THE THIRD ANNUAL LASTOWKA SHORT-FORM WRITING COMPETITION By Matthew Yost (Rutgers Law Student) In July of 2016, Justin Goldman took a photograph of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady alongside Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge and posted the photo to Snapchat. Goldman’s photo went viral, working its way from Snapchat to Reddit to Twitter. … Continue reading Embedded Tweets Infringe, But the Internet is Not Doomed…

By Timothy McMahon (Rutgers Law Student) In 2016, a Federal District Court in California sent shock waves throughout the realm of sound recordings. ABS Entertainment vs. CBS Corporation, ABS v. CBS, began when a collective group of copyright owners of pre-1972 sound recordings brought suit against CBS for infringing on their public performance rights under … Continue reading A Court’s Ruling Demonstrates the Need for a Heightened Originality Requirement for Derivative Sound Recordings…

By Timothy McMahon (Rutgers Law Student) Currently a trio of acts are making their way through Congress that could forever change copyright law for sound recordings. The Music Modernization Act and the Allocation for Music Producers Act (AMP Act) are aimed at altering mechanical licensing, ASCAP and BMI rate setting, and the procedure on how … Continue reading Could Pre-1972 Sound Recordings Finally Attain Federal Copyright Protection?…