Stanford Center for Internet and Society

EMI Records sought to enjoin Premise Media Corporation (Premise) from using a clip from John Lennon’s song, Imagine, in the documentary film, EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed. The court did not issue guidance on the exact amount of use needed to constitute copyright infringement. Instead, the court ruled that EMI was unlikely to win on the merits of the case because the fair use defense likely applied to Premise’s use of Imagine. The court denied the injunction since granting one would cause harm.

EMI Records v. Premise Media

As reported by Lessig and others, the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded yesterday a ruling by the Northern District of California which denied the copyright claims of an open source software developer for violations of the Artistic License. This is a landmark decision which is likely to influence all types of free licensing, including Creative Commons licenses and the question of enforceability of copyright claims upon violation of free licenses in general. Here are four quick points on the decision:

In a decisive victory for defendants beleaguered by baseless copyright infringement claims, U.S. District Court Judge Pauley ruled last week that Plaintiffs Ralph Vargas and Bland- Ricky Roberts must pay Defendants BT and East West Communications $175,000 in attorneys' fees and costs.

Floyd Webb successfully defeated William Aguiar’s motion for a preliminary injunction last Friday at a hearing before Judge Wolf in the Massachusetts District Court in Boston.

On the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, Dan Slater notes the growing reaction against Rowling's copyright claims against RDR Books, and generates a spirited discussion of her position. Read it all here.