Recent Articles

Four Days in November: Reflections From the Gut

John T. Mitchell
November 07, 2008 04:11

Morning of November 5, 2008, I reluctantly crawl out of bed, extend checkout time long enough to get breakfast, and contemplate the 3-hour drive back from Hampton, Virginia to my home in Maryland. I emerge from the Holiday Inn elevator to receive the well trained – and rote – greeting from the 5 hot...

Owner of Legal Software Can Sell on eBay

John T. Mitchell
May 22, 2008 04:39

For a long time now, owners of lawfully made copies of software have been subjected to baseless claims that software is “licensed, not sold,” and therefore the right the Copyright Act gives to owners of lawfully made copies to sell them is trumped by the license. A seller of lawfully...

Observations on Professor Patry’s making available observations

John T. Mitchell
April 07, 2008 19:44

Excellent observations by Professor William Patry, in The Patry Copyright Blog: The recent making available cases commenting on the three recent cases ruling in one way or another on the “making available” theory of liability for infringement of the exclusive right of distribution without actually m...

Gray Market Piracy? Come on!

John T. Mitchell
January 07, 2008 04:51

I nearly fell out of my chair when I read CRM News: Strategy: Is Your Supply Chain Going Gray? Frustrated that the Supreme Court has made is so that “Copyright lawyers won’t save you” because the Copyright Act makes it clear that copyrights do not extend to control over...

Law Journal Succumbs to Doublespeak on Intenet Deregulation v. Regulation

John T. Mitchell
October 19, 2007 20:41

The article by Shannon P. Duffy appeasing in Law.com’s 3rd Circuit Upholds FCC’s Deregulation of High-Speed Internet Access succumbs to the regulation/de-regulation doublespeak pressed by the Internet regulators. I would have hoped a law rag would have been sharp enough to avoid such...

Parents Need Relief from Parenting When it Comes to Video Games, says Parents Advocacy Group

John T. Mitchell
September 13, 2007 05:13

My jaw dropped open when I read the press release of the Parents Television Council, PTC Applauds Gov. Schwarzenegger for Appealing Violent Video Game Ruling, in which the PTC President suggests, by implication, that parents need not be involved in their children’s decisions to purchase video...

UMG v. Augusto: Who really owns the copy?

John T. Mitchell
August 10, 2007 21:42

Universal Music Group (UMG) has taken steps calculated to exercise control over copies (”phonorecords”) it may not own. In one case, Universal Republic is said to be threatening music retailers selling imported copies of the album it plans to release this fall. The basis for the threat...

Right to Rent Audiobooks

John T. Mitchell
January 29, 2007 19:55

It has long been established that the owner of a lawfully made copy of a copyrighted work has the absolute right, even over the strong objection of the copyright owner, to re-distribute that copy by any means, including sale, gift, lending or rental. This principle was developed by the courts in...

Misunderstood Movie Download Add-On

John T. Mitchell
December 01, 2006 03:27

When Warner Brothers backed Wal-Mart's plan to offer movie downloads along with a DVD, critics booed, but missed the point.When Warner Brothers backed Wal-Mart’s plan to offer movie downloads along with a DVD, the L.A. Times’ Jon Healy called it a not so super development. The gist of...

Terrorism by Copyright Infringement?

John T. Mitchell
September 29, 2006 22:27

In testimony before the House Committee on International Relations’ Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation, Frank C. Urbancic, Principal Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism U.S. Department of State, declared: “Hizballah supporters and sympathizers are also...