Recent Articles

Why are free and open sources licenses different?

Raymond Nimmer
May 18, 2010 19:49

  Millions of dollars and thousands of hours have been spent during the last decade worrying about how to deal with free and open source software licenses. This leads me to ask ‘what makes these licenses different in a way that attracts all of this attention, both negative and...

Has the worm turned on transformative use?

Raymond Nimmer
April 24, 2010 02:25

  A while ago, I commented about the misreading that courts were doing with respect to fair use, especially with respect to so-called “transformative use.” Maybe they heard, but at least they have begun to figure it out. The worm may have begun to turn. ...

Indirect Trademark Liability - who takes the risk?

Raymond Nimmer
April 18, 2010 20:04

  Online aggregators, site operators and search engines are in a seemingly endless conflict with content providers and rights owners. This extends to trademark law. The confrontation relates to deciding what obligations aggregators (and others) have to police and prevent advertising and...

Standard Forms Often Need Reconsideration

Raymond Nimmer
November 22, 2009 21:14

In light of the many changes in privacy, intellectual property, and e-commercial law that have occurred in the past decade, standard forms and model agreements that were first brought into existence only a relatively short time ago should be re-examined to make them consistent not only with...

The Limits of First Sale Doctrine

Raymond Nimmer
November 08, 2009 21:03

One clear message of intellectual property law is that mere possession, or even ownership, of a product or a copy does not vitiate the rights-owner’s interest in and right to control use or disposition of the product or copy. First sale doctrine carves out a very limited exception to...

Posting as Implied License

Raymond Nimmer
October 24, 2009 15:52

  Merely posting a work online does not relinquish all rights. As in other environments, merely placing property in public does not release property rights. The Internet context, however, may indicate that some actions with respect to the work are implicitly permitted.  ...

Google Book "Settlement" is Bad Law and Bad for Copyright owners and Users

Raymond Nimmer
September 02, 2009 12:08

 Many have asked my opinion of the Google Settlement. I join the broad opposition to the “settlement”: This is a bad deal for everyone other than for Google (which will become an entrenched monopoly). It is also bad precedent, taking legislative prerogatives, the...

Should Google be a regulated utility under its "Settlement"?

Raymond Nimmer
September 01, 2009 23:57

  The Google Book Settlement (GBS) would give Google unprecedented power over hundreds of thousands of copyright owners and control of an asset that may become essential to 1) book publishers, 2) book authors, and 3) any entity that desires to operate a search or archive function regarding...

Google Book "Settlement" is Bad for Law, Copyright owners and Users

Raymond Nimmer
August 25, 2009 14:46

Many have asked my opinion of the Google Settlement. I join the broad opposition to the “settlement”: This is a bad deal for everyone other than for Google (which will become an entrenched monopoly). It is also bad precedent, taking legislative prerogatives, the property...

Content Protection and Copyright

Raymond Nimmer
August 15, 2009 21:57

Amid the information explosion brought on by digital technology, some important, content industry business models are failing. Indeed, we are in the midst of what may be a failure of some of business models of content industries such the traditional newspaper industry; significant economic...