Category: Copyrights

Truth or Fiction . . . or Copyright Infringement?

Author Denise Shull lost her challenge to the Showtime television show Billions, which she claims copied the character bearing her name in Shull’s book Market Mind Games: A Radical Psychology of Investing, Trading and Risk. Shull alleges that she was never paid for the time…

It’s a Hard Knock Life for Damon Dash’s Planned NFT Sale

Roc-A-Fella Records (“RAF”) owners Jay-Z and Damon Dash are clashing over Dash’s plans to sell an NFT (“nun-fungible token”) representing either a 1/3 share of the copyright to Jay-Z’s album Reasonable Doubt (if you believe RAF and Jay-Z) or a 1/3 ownership interest in RAF…

Nintendo Commences Legal Battle Against Real World Bowser

Any fan of Nintendo games and consoles can tell you that the company’s most iconic virtual villain is King Bowser Koopa, generally referred to as simply “Bowser.” In a strange instance of life imitating art, Nintendo filed a copyright infringement complaint on April 16, 2021,…

A Tale of Two Princes

An important decision by the Second Circuit in The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, Case No. 19-2420-cv (2d Cir. Mar. 26, 2021), has, in important respects, upended how the defense of fair use is applied in copyright cases, with potentially…

Fair Use Mashup Theory Ga-Fluppted by Ninth Circuit

Just in time to steal ComicMix’s Christmas, the Ninth Circuit recently held that the bookmaker’s mashup story Oh, the Places You’ll Boldly Go! (which combines elements of the Dr. Seuss book Oh, the Places You’ll Go! with Star Trek) is not a defensible fair use…