HHR New Media, Entertainment and Technology Group

Matt Syrkin will be presenting and producing a panel for the New York Chapter of the Copyright Society of the USA titled “Copyright and Content in the Cloud”  featuring Dan Schnapp as a moderator and other prominent practitioners. The panel, scheduled for September 15, 2011, will tackle the critical legal issues raised by the expansion of cloud computing and explore how stakeholders can balance the need to comply with evolving laws, standards and court decisions with the need to exploit new technological advancements that lead to improved services and enhanced user experiences. Continue Reading »

Matt Syrkin will be presenting and producing a panel for the New York Chapter of the Copyright Society of the USA titled “Copyright and Content in the Cloud”  featuring Dan Schnapp as a moderator and other prominent practitioners. The panel, scheduled for September 15, 2011, will tackle the critical legal issues raised by the expansion of cloud computing and explore how stakeholders can balance the need to comply with evolving laws, standards and court decisions with the need to exploit new technological advancements that lead to improved services and enhanced user experiences. Continue Reading »

Turntable.fm is the recently launched online music service that caught the attention of the music industry, music-loving consumers and digital media commentators.  The service enables users to become DJs in a virtual music club divided into multiple rooms, each with enough space for five DJs and an audience of listeners.  The DJs take turns playing songs to the entire room, pulling from a wide catalog that Turntable.fm licenses through MediaNet.  Users then interact with each other, rating the last song played and discussing the music in an in-room chat.  In theory, this interaction guides the flow of the other DJs and helps to shape future music played in the room.

As unique as the service is though, it appears that many of its features were designed and implemented to enable Turntable.fm to operate as a “non-interactive” service under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), similar to an internet radio station, thus avoiding the need for direct licenses from the music labels.  For Turntable.fm, the distinction could mean the difference between sustaining a viable business or joining a long line of digital music services that were unable to survive because of the burden of paying license fees to the labels.  While it is too early to determine if this strategy will be challenged and/or whether it will ultimately prevail, Turntable.fm’s service clearly raises some unique legal issues. Continue Reading »

A recent settlement has spared Warner Bros the potential expense of having to alter “The Hangover, Part II” prior to its scheduled home video release.  However, the underlying questions raised by S. Victor Whitmill, who has a copyright in Michael Tyson’s famous facial tattoo and claims that Warner Bros. infringed that copyright when actor Ed Helms wore a similar tattoo in the film, remain unanswered.  The question of whether a valid copyright can exist in a design inscribed on another person’s body is a novel one for copyright law.  However, while cases involving copyrights in tattoo art may not necessarily be commonplace, the implications of the case illuminate a broader problem for content producers.  As copyright protection expands into previously unrecognized forms of artistic expression, such producers much consider whether the copyright clearance process they have in place is adequate to address potentially novel claims in the future.  Continue Reading »

A recently filed complaint is sending shock waves through the application developer community.  On May 31, 2011 Lodsys, LLC filed a complaint against seven application developers for iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system.  Lodsys seeks an injunction and treble damages for willful infringement of two of its patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 7,620,565 and 7,222,078) that are directed to systems and methods for providers of products and/or services to interact with users of those products and services to gather information from those users and transmit that information to the provider.  The wrinkle here is that Apple itself already has licensed the patents in dispute, and it contends that its license agreement with Lodsys extends to third party application developers.  Continue Reading »