Continue Reading Top Copyright Policy Issues for 2025

Sharing culture makes for a better world!
Continue Reading Podcast discusses the importance of Fair Use

This company needs to be reigned in, people are SUFFERING BIG TIME!

One thing I know for sure, people who use BitTorrent or other related applications and download adult movies can find themselves in quite a bind.

People make mistakes, but should you have to pony up your life savings to avoid a copyright infringement lawsuit? Strike 3 Holdings believes you do, and they literally have no mercy for the clients; many are Asians in the Bay area and elsewhere.

They will send subpoenas to the ISP’s and seek to hold them liable for infringement, many times to the tune…
Continue Reading Strike 3 Holdings Infringement

Fair Use needs to be more predictable.

Here is a quick list of 5 items that should be considered “fair use” under the copyright laws. This should be codified as a “Fair Use Bill of Rights.” Let me know your thoughts, if you agree, disagree, or would add other things:

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Continue Reading Isn’t it time for the “Fair Use Bill of Rights?”

Those in the business of tracking and monitoring illegal software usage with “phone home” technology should be held to a strict reading of the statute of limitations.

As a seasoned software copyright lawyer having handled hundreds of infringement defense matters with various companies such as Ansys, Siemens, Autodesk, Microsoft, Solidworks/Dassault, Vero/Hexgaon, Synopsis, and others, I have come to find a common trend that may need legislative addressing. This deals with companies that use “phone home” technology that notifies the software publisher whenever unlicensed software is being used.

The companies in this arena vary, and this monitoring of a company is…
Continue Reading Software publishers, piracy, and the statute of limitations

Strike 3 Holdings has filed THOUSANDS of lawsuits across the United States in states like Illinois, Washington, California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and other states.

Typically, they are extracting settlements anywhere from $150 to $750 per movie allegedly infringed. This can add up. For example, if an adult downloads 100 movies and shares them via BitTorrent protocol via “the swarm” the so-called John Doe Defendant can be on the hook for a $20,000 to $50,000 settlement.

Many people who are sharing their movies online have no idea they are doing anything illegal. For example:

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Continue Reading Strike 3 Holdings continues to extract large settlements, it’s time for warnings

Breaking Copyright News – Copyright Claims Board (CCB) is set to take its first infringement filing on June 16, 2022.
So, what will it be?  A photo infringement case by AP, Reuters, or Agence France Presse?  A fabric design infringement (Etsy dispute), infringement of a jewelry design or architectural plan, or good old-fashioned music or video piracy case.  It remains to be seen, but as we have mentioned, the cases can go up to $30,000 so this is not really a “small” claim anymore.
Listen here for more information
https://www.blogtalkradio.com/attorneysteve/2022/06/02/copyright-small-claims-board-is-open-for-business-on-june-16-2022
Continue Reading Copyright Small Claims Board, here we go!

Steve Vondran, Founder of Copyright Policy Group
The library of congress provides exemptions for copyright law.  For example, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”).  Many vehicles nowadays, including cars, trucks, tractors and even boats and yachts are run by software (ex. driving and braking assistance, power windows, seats and doors, navigation and media/entertainment systems.
Many times, when you “buy” a vehicle you may not be actually “buying” the software that runs the vehicle.  That may be subject to a copyright “license” meaning you cannot violate the copyright holder’s rights without legal rights to do so (for example, “fair use” rights).
Continue Reading News from the Copyright Office – you can hack your own vehicle!!

Well, they finally passed the CASE ACT (slipped it into a Coronavirus spending bill), and now there will be a copyright small claims court handling cases up to $30,000.  I will be posting a video on this shortly.  From what I can tell, new cases can be filed as early as December 2021 if nothing halts implementation.  I am not sure how they will handle a slew of cases that I expect will be filed by photographers, software companies, authors, video production companies, and others.
 
Continue Reading Small Claims Court coming to D.C. – get ready for a slew of copyright infringement cases

GIVE PEOPLE A BREAK – GIVE COURTS A BREAK!
Difficulties that immigrants face trying to make it in the U.S.A.  Click here to view our copyright petition on Change.org.
So many people are being sued – and threatened to be sued – by “copyright trolls” which are holders of intellectual property rights (such as video, film, photos, software, boxing broadcasting rights and other creative content) who seek top profit in the Courts by pursuing copyright infringement cases.
Our country is a country of immigrants and very few people understand the intricacies of copyright law.  Nevertheless, “everyone is presumed to know…
Continue Reading Petition on Change.org to cut down on Copyright Bullies!

Using the “Heart of the Work” is something everyone should consider before relying on the fair use defense

Plaintiff Los Angeles News Service (LANS) licensed its news stories, photographs, audiovisual works, and other services to other news media outlets. While covering the 1992 Los Angeles riots, LANS filmed several segments of nighttime rioting, including the iconic segment titled Beating of Reginald Denny. Although LANS refused to grant defendant Channel 9 television station a license, the station broadcast the footage a number of times on commercially sponsored news programs.

Plaintiff sued the defendant for using an excerpt of its copyrighted videotape…
Continue Reading Fair use case confirms that using short video clips does not insulate from copyright infringement claims.

Here are some recent cases that have come down dealing with Copyright Law.

“The fair use affirmative defense exists to advance copyright’s purpose of “promot[ing] the Progress of Science and useful Arts.” U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 8 ; see also Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. , 510 U.S. 569, 575, 114 S.Ct. 1164, 127 L.Ed.2d 500 (1994).
The defense does so by allowing “others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed…
Continue Reading Recent Copyright Caselaw