P-Funk at Brooklyn Law School

P-Funk at Brooklyn Law School by Ryan Thompson (court@brooklyneagle.net), published online 10-20-2011   Parliament Funkadelic’s George Clinton Joins Local Attorneys Monday To Discuss Music and Copyright LawBy Ryan Thompson Brooklyn Daily Eagle George Clinton with President, Chancellor and Deans of Brooklyn Law School JORALEMON STREET — Funk music mastermind George Clinton is coming to Brooklyn Law School. Clinton, singer and leader of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic in the 1970s and ’80s, will join Brooklyn Law School Professor Jason Mazzone and Manhattan attorney Michael Elkin on Monday evening to discuss music and copyright law. Perhaps there is no better musician than Clinton to discuss such legal issues, as Parliament-Funkadelic’s music and distinctive “P-Funk” style continues to not only be imitated but sampled in various hip-hop songs today. Clinton, who is now 70 years old, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame over a decade ago. Using Professor Mazzone’s new book, “Copyfraud and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property Law,” as a springboard for the discussion, Clinton and Elkin, a Brooklyn Law graduate and managing partner at Winston & Strawn LLP, will examine the challenges faced by today’s artists and music labels, the impact of digital technology, and possible reforms that could benefit the listening public. For full coverage of the event, see an upcoming issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle & Daily Bulletin. Copyright, Composers and Hendrix WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg invoked her fellow Brooklynite Aaron Copland. The chief justice countered with Jimi Hendrix. The high court’s generational divide was on display earlier this month as the justices heard arguments about whether Congress acted properly in extending U.S. copyright protection to millions of works by foreign artists and authors that had been in the public domain — meaning they could be performed and used in other ways without paying royalties. Community orchestras, academics and others who rely on uncopyrighted works are challenging a 1994 law that made copyrights available to the foreign works. Google, with its YouTube and digital art and library projects that depend on works in the public domain, is backing the challenge. Composers, authors, songwriters, photographers and others who depend on copyright protection are urging the court to uphold the law. Copland and Hendrix were Americans — Copland from Prospect Heights in Brooklyn and Hendrix from Seattle, Washington. The two justices used them to illustrate differing views of the case. For the 78-year-old Brooklyn-born Ginsburg, the case appeared easy. She talked about two Russian-born composers, Dmitri Shostakovich and Igor Stravinsky, whose works were never copyrighted in the United States. A copyright allows artists, or the copyright holder such as a deceased artist’s estate, a fixed period of time in which they can permit or deny others the right to use or reproduce their work or demand a royalty payment for doing so. “What’s wrong with giving them the same time Aaron Copland got?” Ginsburg asked the lawyer representing the law’s challengers. Chief Justice John Roberts was 14 years old when Hendrix performed his “distinctive rendition” of the “Star Spangled Banner” at the Woodstock music festival. Roberts, now 56, voiced concern that Hendrix’s freedom of expression could have been compromised under the government’s argument.v “Assuming the national anthem is suddenly entitled to copyright protection that it wasn’t before, he can’t do that, right?” Roberts said. The court ruled in 2003 that Congress may extend the life of a copyright, but it has never said whether published works lacking a copyright could later be protected. The case argued Oct. 5 concerns a 1994 law that was intended to bring the United States in line with an international agreement.

Arts+Labs Statement on Introduction of Stop Online Piracy Act

Arts+Labs Statement on Introduction of Stop Online Piracy Act

By Arts+Labs on October 28, 2011 1:16 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

New York, Oct 28, 2011 - The introduction in the House of Representatives of legislation to combat the theft of U.S. intellectual property represents an important step in the fight to sustain American creativity and support individual innovators.  The newly-introduced Stop Online Piracy Act, along with the PROTECT IP legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate earlier this year provide a way to push back against rogue websites that seek to profit from digital counterfeiting and piracy.

While adjustments will be necessary to reconcile the House and Senate bills and secure the votes for final passage, Arts + Labs endorses the key premise in both measures: namely, that all actors in the Internet ecosystem must play a role in helping protect the rights of those who create content while fostering innovation.  Ultimately, these twin goals help fight the digital theft that robs the U.S. economy and threatens creativity.  We also are pleased that the proposals recognize the critical need for substantial due process safeguards and the central role of federal law enforcement.

Arts + Labs offers a special thanks to House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R- Texas) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich) for working across party lines on this economically critical measure.  We also applaud the similar bipartisan efforts of IP Subcommittee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) and Ranking Member Mel Watt (D-NC) and the eight other co-sponsors.

We look forward to working with Congress to ensure that the needs of creative communities, as well as those who provide Internet services and sustain its commerce, are fairly represented in this legislation to protect, preserve, and enhance the American workforce.

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Arts+Labs is comprised of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, AT&T, Broadcast Music, Inc., Cisco, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Songwriters Guild of America, Verizon and Viacom.

Copyright Office Initiates Study and Seeks Comments on Small Copyright Claims

Copyright Office Initiates Study and Seeks Comments on Small Copyright Claims

Today the Copyright Office published a Federal Register notice requesting written comments on how copyright owners have handled small copyright claims. Specifically, the Office seeks comments on how copyright owners and defendants use the current legal system for small copyright claims; the obstacles and benefits of using federal district courts; potential alternatives for handling copyright claims that have a relatively small economic value; the logistics of potential alternatives; and the benefits and risks presented by different types of processes. Over the next two years, the Office expects to seek additional comments, conduct roundtables or hearings, and meet with stakeholders. The notice of inquiry is now available at www.copyright.gov/docs/smallclaims. The deadline for comments is January 16, 2012.

Register of Copyrights Names Associate Register for Policy and International Affairs

Register of Copyrights Names Associate Register for Policy and International Affairs

Register of Copyrights Maria A. Pallante has named Michele Woods to the position of Associate Register for Policy and International Affairs. The appointment was effective on October 23, 2011. Woods has extensive experience in both domestic and international copyright policy, including through prior positions with the U.S. Copyright Office. She has headed the Office of Policy and International Affairs for the past year on an acting basis, and before that served as Senior Counsel for Policy and International Affairs from March 2009 to October 2010.

"The position of associate register is a critical position within the Copyright Office and the greater copyright community," Pallante said. "Michele’s talents and experience are tremendous assets to the office and greatly appreciated by all who work with her."

The Office of Policy and International Affairs (PIA) is responsible for an important portfolio of copyright matters that includes analysis and support on copyright legislation, policy studies, and review of foreign copyright laws. Enforcement and anti-piracy efforts are also an important focus for PIA attorneys, who frequently serve on U.S. delegations to international organizations and in trade and other international negotiations with foreign governments.

Prior to joining the Copyright Office, Woods was in private practice in Washington, D.C., most recently from 2000 to 2009 as counsel in the Intellectual Property and Technology group at Arnold & Porter LLP. Her copyright practice included a wide range of domestic and international copyright policy, legislative, litigation and counseling matters. Woods litigated extensively and appeared before numerous United States federal courts, the Copyright Office, the Copyright Royalty Board, the former Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panels and the Copyright Royalty Tribunal. She was also with the law firm of Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C.

Woods received both her J.D. and LL.M (in International and Comparative Law) degrees from the Duke University School of Law. She received an A.B. from Princeton University and a Master of Studies from Oxford University. Since 2003, she has been an adjunct professor at the Catholic University Columbus School of Law, where she teaches an upper-level seminar on international intellectual property.

A Village Person Tests the Copyright Law

The prefab, gaudily costumed 1970s group the Village People and its big hit “Y.M.C.A.” are enduring symbols of the disco era. But now this campy and eternally popular song has become the centerpiece of what could be a significant test of copyright law.
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Victor Willis, the original lead singer of the group, filed papers this year to regain control in 2013 over his share of “Y.M.C.A.,” whose lyrics he wrote, under a copyright provision that returns ownership of creative works to recording artists and songwriters after 35 years. His claim to “Y.M.C.A.” and 32 other Village People compositions, however, is being contested by two companies that administer publishing rights to the songs.

The companies, Scorpio Music, a French business, and Can’t Stop Productions, one of its American affiliates, do not deny that Mr. Willis, who dressed as a police or naval officer in the group’s live performances, is one of the writers of several of the songs, which have made many millions of dollars. But they have asked a court in Los Angeles to deny his attempt to exercise what are known as “termination rights,” arguing, among other things, that the two companies “employed defendant Willis as a writer for hire, and he therefore has no rights” to any share of ownership of the songs.

Victor Willis in 2007

“This is going to be an important case because they claim my client was a worker for hire,” said Mr. Willis’s lead lawyer, Brian D. Caplan of the New York firm Caplan & Ross. “We are quite confident there will not be finding of work for hire, and that the rationale of such a decision will have implications for many other cases.”

Lawyers for the two companies, however, dispute the facts and significance of the case and have asked a court to declare Mr. Willis’s filing “void and of no force.” They say his situation has nothing in common with those of Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Tom Petty, the Eagles and other pop stars of the same era, some of whom are beginning to invoke termination rights on their recordings or compositions.

“This is totally different, and outside the scope of these termination rights issues,” said Stewart L. Levy, of the New York firm Eisenberg Tanchum & Levy, who is representing the publishing companies. “The Village People were a concept group, created by my clients, who picked the people and the costumes. It was probably no different than the Monkees when they started. We hired this guy. He was an employee, we gave them the material and a studio to record in and controlled what was recorded, where, what hours and what they did.”

In 1976 Congress revised copyright law, inserting a provision that allows musicians and songwriters to regain control of work initially registered with the United States Copyright Office after Jan. 1, 1978. Artists must file termination notices at least two years before the date they want to recoup their work, and once a song or recording qualifies for termination, its authors have five years in which to file a claim; if they fail to act in that time, their right to reclaim the work lapses.

Mr. Levy said that Mr. Willis, now 58, also does not qualify for termination rights because he is only one of several creators of a “joint composition,” and that a majority of the writers must want termination for the claim to take effect. He also said that in some cases Mr. Willis was merely a translator or “adapter of French songs” that are not subject to American law and that were originally written by his clients.

“Victor Willis does not speak French, so he could not have translated anything,” Mr. Caplan said in response. “And I dare you to go to Paris and find a Y.M.C.A.”

Of the 33 songs that Mr. Willis is seeking to reclaim, the most valuable is clearly “Y.M.C.A.” One of the best-known compositions of the disco era, the song is even today frequently found on film and television soundtracks, is played in baseball and football stadiums, is available as a telephone ringtone and is even used in Xbox games.

Screenwriter Claims Copyright Infringement In ‘Hangover Part II’ Lawsuit

Bradley Cooper, Ken Jeong, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis in "The Hangover Part II" (photo: Warner Bros.)

The Warner Bros. comedy blockbuster “The Hangover Part II” has been hit with another lawsuit.

According to EW.com, a screenwriter Michael Alan Rubin has sued the studio and filmmakers over the film, claiming copyright infringement, defamation, fraud and other charges.

Rubin is claiming that the screenplay for the film copies his script, titled “Mickey and Kirin,” which details his wild personal experiences in Asia after his marriage to a Japanese woman fell apart during his honeymoon in 2008.

In the lawsuit, Rubin said “The Hangover Part II” is copied from his treatment of the script, and “from the real life incident of the Plaintiff, because the protagonist in ‘Hangover 2′ travels from the United States to an Asian country to marry his Asian girlfriend.”

In the movie, the characters in the original “Hangover” movie travel to Bangkok to celebrate the marriage of Stu (Ed Helms). But prior to the wedding, another blackout happens and the men attempt to find Stu’s future brother-in-law, who has gone missing.

EW said the lawsuit blames Rubin’s ex-wife, Tamayo Otsuki, for giving the filmmakers the story. He claims the filmmakers defamed him with the description of Stu, who married a prostitute in Las Vegas, and that he had sex with a transsexual prostitute while under the influence of drugs.

Rubin is representing himself in the case, EW said.

This is the third lawsuit resulting from “The Hangover Part II.”

A tattoo artist settled with the production out of court over claims that Stu’s tattoo in the film copied the design of Mike Tyson’s tattoo; and a stunt double for Helms in the film filed a suit against Warner Bros. claiming a car crash on the Bangkok set during filming left him with “likely permanent brain and physical injuries.”

The film, directed by Todd Phillips and also starring Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis, grossed more than $581 at the box office worldwide during its theatrical run.

Welcome To The World Of Copyright Fraud

Come January 1, 2012, after 28 years, artist will be able to reclaim their works of art, many of the copyrights granted under the practice of fraud.

Maria Pallante,
U.S. Copyright Office Registrar 

Join us as we countdown for the fireworks because we know these major corporations are prepared to drop billions in litigation just to keep the artist starving, literally.

We shall venture into the world of copyright fraud through court cases, legislation and whistleblower stories.

As it stands, the U.S. Library of Congress has failed the American people as being the nations recordkeeper.  The purpose of this site is to put those in charge of the U.S. Copyright Office on notice, that it is time to get their act together.

Let this be formal notice that this site will be putting all the dirty laundry of the U.S. Copyright Office on the cyber-front lawn.

Maria Pallante, get ready, Beverly Tran is going to make you famous.