There is a famous quote attributed to Mark Twain, who in turn erroneously attributed it himself to Benjamin Disraeli, which has been used by many, and is absolutely one of our favorites. It goes: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” This will be a blog article on statistics. Some in […]
Archive for category Legal Things
For most people who are familiar with snow, July and August means hot, lazy days at a beach or pool with an adult beverage in hand. For Ed it is all that and more. Summer is the season when copyright infringers and their lawyers blame summer interns for…well, for just about everything. In July alone […]
Happy Birthday Without Fear
Jul 31
A few years ago, Jack was in a men’s room in the Atlanta Airport and noticed the water faucet playing a tune when it turned on. It played the familiar “Happy Birthday To You” tune. He smiled, as he knew right away that its recommended best practice, that you wash your hands for the length […]
Our B&H lecture is now up on YouTube here. It was up last week, but our blog was down then and it’s now all corrected. Check out the video. Lots of new stuff.
Much confusion and consternation has been caused by Amazon’s securing a patent for itself on a lighting arrangement that has been in widespread use by photographers for at least three decades. See: PetaPixel Link here- http://petapixel.com/?s=Amazon+Patent The patent is in the opinion of every patent attorney we have consulted (both in this office and elsewhere), […]
We get so many questions about the nuances of copyright law that we feel it never hurts to address the basics. While saying “I’ve been ripped off” is a perfectly descriptive term, it is not a legal one. The Copyright Law classifies what most people call “stealing” as falling into one or more of four categories […]
The Math of Infringement
Apr 28
I never did very well in math – I could never seem to persuade the teacher that I hadn’t meant my answers literally. ~Calvin Trillin We are often asked (by “we” we mean Ed) what is the formula the Federal Courts use to determine the amount of statutory damages a copyright holder can be awarded […]
Two ladies, both “of the media” who at first blush appear to have little in common, now share the title, “litigant”. Though they live some 1,500 miles apart from each other, have dissimilar backgrounds and neither would be confused for the other, they are now sisters in litigation. First up – daytime TV star, real […]
For those readers who cling to the absurd notion spread by your comrades that written, signed model releases aren’t really that important, be warned that this article will upset you. We hope it scares the heck out of you. Here are the relevant facts and portions of the March 6th decision of Justice A. Singh […]
Check Us Out
Mar 29
We both did a webinar for Wacom last week and had a great time. We had a set of material to present and we got through 5% before some really great questions came flooding in. So we spend most of the hour answering as many as we could. Check it out at http://youtu.be/h8BanE6LF6Y
