Regulating the Film Industry in China: A New Approach

ABSTRACT: For U.S. filmmakers, the People’s Republic of China represents a prodigious market opportunity. Yet, true exploitation of the market is simply chimerical due to an obstinate web of import quotas, censorship, and government intervention, all founded upon a guise of cultural protectionism. Brian R. Byrne argues that: (i) China’s authoritarian approach to film distribution, coupled with its deficient intellectual property regime, actually promotes the dissemination of Western culture within its borders – a direct perversion of its intentions; and (ii) in order to achieve its cultural objectives, China must undertake a number of key reforms.

How to Protect Against a Licensing Partner’s Bankruptcy: Patent Licenses and the Bankruptcy Code

ABSTRACT: Since the financial crisis of 2008, many contractual partners who formerly looked rock solid have experienced major cash-flow problems. In addition, it has always been the case that in some fields of technology, such as biotech, a significant number of businesses are expected to fail. Thus, it is important to think through at the outset how a license might be treated by a bankruptcy court, and where possible, to structure the agreement accordingly. How to best do this will depend primarily on whether a party is the patentee or the licensee, and on the extent to which rights are transferred (i.e. whether the transaction results in a sale or merely a license agreement). As Jordan Markham argues, in the context of a bankruptcy proceeding, the patentee is generally better served by a greater, and a licensee by a lesser, transfer of rights.

“Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night”: The Implications of Recent Delaware Case Law on the Film Industry

ABSTRACT: Recently, the Court of Chancery in eBay v. Newmark doubted the ability of firms to cite a threat to corporate culture as legitimate grounds for implementing a takeover defense. Just over a year ago, the Court in Amylin expressed doubt about a firm’s ability to impede changes of control by embedding financial penalties, for lack of a better word, in otherwise ordinary business transactions. Jason Tyler argues that Hollywood presents an exceptional context, or, to put it another way, that the economic reality of movie studios pushes at the logical assumptions that underlie the eBay and Amylin holdings. Accordingly, if applied broadly, eBay and Amylin may threaten movie studios in particular.

Student Speech in Online Social Networking Sites: Where to Draw the Line

ABSTRACT: Do Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace require courts to Tinker with the Supreme Court’s student speech trilogy of Tinker to Bethel to Morse? Michael J. Kasdan examines the struggle to define the proper place of so-called “student internet speech.”

Using Clean Hands To Justify Unclean Hands: How the Emergency Exception Provision of the SCA Misapplies an Already Controversial Doctrine

ABSTRACT: While the government’s encouragement—and even reliance—on third-party monitoring of citizens is not a new phenomenon, the emergency exception to the SCA adopted in the Patriot Act oversteps constitutional bounds by providing the executive with the incentive to exaggerate potential threats in order to gain the collaboration of the telecommunications companies. The policies underlying this strategy are similar to those explained and adapted by the Sixth Circuit while articulating its Clean Hands Exception. Brendan Coffman argues that by allowing the government to gain access to evidence it normally would not be able to obtain, and ignoring the normal parameters of the exclusionary rule, the Sixth Circuit created a regime encouraging complicity between law enforcement and private citizens. Similarly, the arguments running contrary to the Clean Hands Exception ring true when assessing the emergency exception: the government has too great an incentive to encourage third parties to violate the privacy rights of others, and the third parties, especially telecommunications companies, are ultimately trapped in a Hobson’s Choice.

Software Developers, On Guard!: Offering Software For Sale Can Trigger A Bar To Patentability Even If The Software Is Untested And Incomplete

ABSTRACT: Paul A. Ragusa and Jack Chen discuss the on-sale bar to patentability in the context of nascent software. They conclude that a simple investigation concerning whether software code was complete at the time of an offer for sale is insufficient to establish the critical date for the purposes under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) (“Conditions for patentability”).

Student-Athletes and the NCAA: Playing by the Rules

ABSTRACT: When student-athletes seek representation or advisement to evaluate post-collegiate playing opportunities, their eligibility may be in jeopardy. Steven Olenick suggests a checks and balance system to truly evaluate post-collegiate playing opportunities for students.

Contributory Liability for Trademark Counterfeiting in an Ecommerce World

ABSTRACT: Scott Gelin and G Roxanne Elings analyze the current standard of contributory liability in the wake of Tiffany (NJ) Inc. v. eBay, in which the Second Circuit affirmed the Southern District’s finding that eBay is not liable to trademark owners for counterfeit sales of their products by third parties on its site. After highlighting certain ambiguities in the current state of the law, the authors propose practical tips to help brand owners protect against counterfeit sales, and to help service providers and selling platforms avoid secondary liability.

Mixed Signals: Takedown but Don’t Filter? A Case for Constructive Authorization

ABSTRACT: Scribd, a social publishing website, is being sued for copyright infringement for allowing the uploading of infringing works, and also for using the works themselves to filter for copyrighted work upon receipt of a takedown notice. While Scribd has a possible fair use defense, given the transformative function of the filtering use, Victoria Elman and Cindy Abramson argue that such filtration systems ought not to constitute infringement, as long as the sole purpose is to prevent infringement.

Girl Talk, Fair Use, and Three Hundred Twenty-Two Reasons for Copyright Reform

ABSTRACT: The music of the artist known as Girl Talk consists of hundreds of pre-existing samples taken without permission from popular songs. As Girl Talk becomes more prominent, lawyers, journalists and bloggers have entered the debate regarding whether the use of pre-existing samples from copyrighted works is a “fair use” as defined in the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. Brian Pearl analyzes the merits of the “fair use” argument in light of sparse and largely unsympathetic case law regarding music sampling and ultimately concludes that Girl Talk’s use of pre-existing samples fails to qualify as a “fair use.” The Article further proposes an amendment to the Copyright Act that would enable Girl Talk to record legally while fairly compensating the owners of the sampled works.