I know the title sounds a bit  provocative.  But the opinion in Sony BMG v. Tenenbaum protects a willful music downloader in copyright infringement litigation based on a bizarre interpretation of the Digital Theft Deterrence Act of 1999. Here is my article published in a recent BNA Patent Trademark & Copyright Journal (respectfully) critical of the court’s …

How much creativity does copyright require? Thankfully for copyright creators, not much. A dash will do. But in the rare case when that dash is absent, the owner of the work cannot protect it. Express, LLC  v. Forever 21, Inc., recently decided in the Central District of California, is the latest example of copyright litigation that …

On July 9, Judge Nancy Gertner in Sony BMG v. Tenenbaum did what no court has ever done before. The court held unconstitutional an award of statutory damages in copyright litigation even though the award was within the statutory range set by Congress. This ruling, if affirmed on appeal, will change the shape of copyright litigation for …