The “Star Power” theory of damage reduction in copyright infringement actions Most consumers instantly recognize brand names such as Coca-Cola®, Nabisco®, Frito-Lay®, and Sony®. As a result of their prior purchasing experience with these brands, a consumer is much more likely to purchase a new brand of cookies bearing the Nabisco®® label than they are […]
This article originally appear in the print edition of Law on the Row, Volume 2, Issue 1 on September 9, 2002. Imagine two musical works written in a minor key using a standard jazz progression such as I-IV-II-V. Further imagine that Work B is alleged to be an infringement of Work A. The author of […]
The author, Steven Corn is the co-founder of Big Fish Media, a digital music distribution company working with all the major download music services like iTunes, eMusic and Napster. He is the author of the blog, The Digital Lowdown. This article appeared in Issue 32 of Royalty Week, dated October 9, 2007 and is reprinted here with […]
Imagine that you have a wireless network router in your home which you set up yourself. Also imagine that, because you are not computer saavy, you failed to establish a password for that router, or established a “weak” password consisting of only numbers, or your birthdate, or something of that nature. Consider now the proximity […]
Expecting a reasonable verdict from a jury of twelve men and women who are incapable of getting out of jury duty to analyze the intricacies of The Copyright Act as applied to the Internet is somewhat tantamount to putting twelve monkeys in a well-equipped laboratory and expecting them to come up with a cure for […]
For a very reasoned commetary on the potential impact of Virgin v. Thomas on other Internet activity, read John Mahoney’s article entitled Forget File Sharing: the Internet is on Trial at his blog, The Digital Edge. Thanks for the insight John. Mr. Mahoney correctly points out that in this age of wireless technologies and computer […]
In a blow to the Recording Industry Association of America, U.S. District Court judge Michael Davis ruled yesterday that the infamous president of the RIAA, Cary Sherman, could not testify in the trial of accused music-sharer Jammie Thomas because “nis testimony would not be relevant,” despite the arguments of Plaintiff’s attorney, Richard Gabriel, that Sherman’s […]
Judge Michael Davis is moving the case of Virgin Records, et al. v. Jammie Thomas (Case No. 06–cv-1497) along quickly, as the jury was impaneled at 9:30 and testimony began less than two hours later in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. See my related blog entry True Test of RIAA’S Legal Theories […]
On Thursday, October 5th, Billboard magazine will release its 2nd Annual “Women in Music” issue which honors the top 20 women in music. The list will be revealed at a special breakfast for the honorees at The Core Club in New York. In conjunction with delivering the keynote speech at the breakfast, Music Row’s own […]
After almost thirty years, my favorite band of all time, The Eagles, have recorded a new album entitled Long Road out of Eden, which features the single “How Long.” The song is climbing the Billboard country chart and currently resides at No. 26. The new single was originally written and recorded by J.D. Souther in 1972 on his […]