Yesterday, a group of copyright holders and musicians joined the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and other music industry entities in a letter to Congress, asking it to upend one of the legal cornerstones of the Internet. That cornerstone, Section 512 of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, is something that DisCo has covered frequently over the years ([1],…

RSVP Today! Re:Create To Host Copyright Event On June 20. The Re:Create Coalition will host “How It Works: Understanding Copyright Law in the New Creative Economy” on June 20 at the Capitol Visitor Center. The internet powers the local and national economy, enabling more than $8 trillion in e-commerce each year. At a time when online creativity is flourishing, Re:Create…

As predicted here two weeks ago when the jury found that Google’s use of Java declaring code in the Android operating system was a fair use, the presiding judge has rejected Oracle’s motion for a judgment as a matter of law. Oracle argued that no reasonable jury could find against it, but the judge ruled that based on the law of fair…

On May 26, 2016, a jury ruled in favor of Google’s use of Java’s API in its Android system, finding that the inclusion of the code was fair use.  Oracle filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law, arguing that no reasonable jury could have found against Oracle.  Last week, the district court judge denied Oracle’s motion. Jonathan…

Re:Create To Host Copyright Event On June 20. The Re:Create Coalition will host “How It Works: Understanding Copyright Law in the New Creative Economy” on June 20 at the Capitol Visitor Center. The internet powers the local and national economy, enabling more than $8 trillion in e-commerce each year. At a time when online creativity is flourishing, Re:Create is convening…

How Copyright Law Could Affect Comic-Con And Cosplay. The ongoing Star Athletica, LLC v. Varsity Brands copyright lawsuit over cheerleader uniforms may have implications for cosplayers at Comic-Con, notes JD Supra in the blog post Comic-Con, Costumes and Copyright Concerns. The Copyright Office has previously upheld that clothes and even costumes are not copyrightable due to their utilitarian nature, but…

  Today, a jury verdict in the Oracle v. Google case found that Google’s use of elements of the Java programming language was fair use. The following can be attributed to John Bergmayer, Senior Staff Attorney at Public Knowledge: “The jury’s finding of fair use in the Oracle v. Google case is great news for software developers and users. Software…

The jury in the ongoing copyright infringement litigation between Oracle and Google returned a verdict today in favor of Google. This welcome verdict renders moot my earlier post about Google’s equitable estoppel defense, which would have come into play had the jury ruled against Google. Because the decision was rendered by a jury, rather than a judge, there is no…

On May 26, 2016, a jury returned a verdict in favor of Google in its battle against Oracle.  Oracle brought suit claiming that Google infringed  by using Java application product interface (API) in Android’s mobile operating system.  Google argued that its use of the code in the Android system, which relies partly on Java (an open source code that was acquired…

  As you may have heard, Google won a major fair use victory yesterday against Oracle involving Google’s implementation of certain Application Program Interfaces (APIs) of the Java programming language in its popular Android mobile operating system. The case has been running for six years, has important consequences for software and innovation, and featured a number of twists and turns….