Contents

1. Introduction to Copyright Law

• An Overview of Copyright

• The Historical Development of Copyright Law
  • Monopoly and censorship as a response to the printing press
  • The First Copyright Act: The Statute of Anne
  • The First United States Copyright Act
    • Wheaton v. Peters, 33 U.S. 591 (1834)

• Copyright Formalities and Duration
  • Formalities
  • Duration
  • Publication, The Right of First Publication, and What’s Left of Common Law Copyright
    • Estate of Martin Luther King v. CBS, Inc., 194 F.3d 1211 (11th Cir. 1999)
  • Ongoing Confusion About “Common Law Copyright”

• The “Why” of Copyright Law
  • Utilitarian versus natural rights perspectives
  • Evidence for an author-centric, natural-rights account of copyright law
  • The continued relevance of non-utilitarian theories of copyright law
  • Is copyright property?

• Key Economic Concepts in Copyright Law
  • The standard model
  • Copyright and Creativity: Evidence from Italian Operas
  • Less money, more music?
  • Sequential innovation

• The Expansion of Copyright Rights and Subject Matter

• Jurisprudential Changes
  • Who controls the Copyright Office?

• The American Law Institute’s Copyright Restatement

• Copyright’s International Framework
  • The Berne Convention, the TRIPs Agreement, and more

• The Constitutional Basis of Copyright Law

• A Quick Look at the Rights of the Copyright Owner

2. Copyright Subject Matter and Questions of Creativity, Originality, and Intellectual Creation

• Introduction

• Creativity, Originality and Copyright Subject Matter
  • The Development of the concept of originality before Feist v. Rural Telephone
    • The Trade-Mark Cases, 100 U.S. 82 (1879)
  • The originality of photography
    • Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony, 111 U.S. 53 (1884)
  • Other Significant Pre-Feist Cases
    • Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographing Co., 188 U.S. 239 (1903)
    • Alfred Bell & Co., Ltd. v. Catalda Fine Arts, Inc., 191 F.2d 99 (2d Cir. 1951)
  • Authorship and Originality in Feist v. Rural Telephone
    • Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991)
  • The implications of thin copyright after Feist

• Locating the Threshold of Copyrightability
  • Words, Titles, and Short Phrases Usually Lack Sufficient Originality
  • Categories of work recognized by the Copyright Act.
  • Fixation in general
  • Fixation, Authority and Permanence
    • Kelley v. Chicago Park District, 635 F.3d 290, 303 (7th Cir. 2011)

• Originality and Derivative Works
  • L. Batlin & Son, Inc. v. Snyder, 536 F.2d 486 (2d Cir. 1976)

• Comparative: The Originality/Creativity Requirement in International Copyright Law

3. Copyright in AI-Generated and AI-Assisted Works

• The Human Authorship Requirement
  • The monkey selfie
  • AI has no claim of authorship
    • Thaler v. Perlmutter, 130 F. 4th 1039 (D.C. Cir. 2025)
  • The U.S. Copyright Office Position: Prompts Alone Are Not Enough
    • U.S. Copyright Office Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability (2025)
    • Registration Case Study: Zarya of the Dawn
    • Registration Case Study: Théâtre D’opéra Spatial
    • Registration Case Study: Suryast
    • Registration Case Study: Rose Enigma
    • Case Study: A Single Piece of American Cheese

• Where does the creativity in generative AI come from?

• The Impact of AI Creativity
  • Software: Vibe Coding
  • Competition from AI music

4. Idea-Expression, Functionality and Other Exclusions—Part I

• Introduction

• The Idea-Expression Distinction and Levels of Generality
  • Nichols v. Universal Pictures, 45 F.2d 119 (2d Cir. 1930)

• Illustrations of the Idea-Expression Distinction at Work
  • Prompts as unprotectible ideas
  • The legend of John Cage’s silence

• The Exclusion of Facts, Ideas, Functions, and Processes
  • Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 99 (1879)
  • Rationales for the idea-expression distinction
  • Rationales for the Exclusion of Functionality from Copyright Protection
  • Should the law allow overlapping protection?
  • Section 102(b) of the Copyright Act
    • Bikram’s Yoga College of India, L.P. v. Evolation Yoga, LLC, 803 F.3d 1032 (9th Cir. 2015)

• Comparative: The Exclusion of Ideas, Facts, Functions, or Processes from Copyright Protection in Other Jurisdictions

5. Idea-Expression, Functionality and Other Exclusions—Part II

• Merger and Scènes à Faire
  • The Merger Doctrine
  • Scènes à Faire
    • Lexmark International, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc., 387 F.3d 522 (6th Cir. 2004)

• The Law Itself is Not Copyrightable
  • Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc. 140 S.Ct. 1498 (2020)
  • Fair use as an alternative to copyrightability for codes that become law?
    • American Society for Testing & Materials v. Pub.Resource.Org, 896 F.3d 437 (D.C. Cir. 2018)

• Other Exclusions from Copyright Protection
  • Taxonomies

6. How the Meaning of Reproduction has Changed Over Time

• The Scope of Copyright in the Premodern Era
  • Gyles v. Wilcox (1740) 26 ER 489
  • Folsom v. Marsh, 9 F. Cas. 342, 349 (C.C.D. Mass. 1841) (No. 4901)

• Must a Copy be Human-Readable?
  • White-Smith Music Publishing Co. v. Apollo Co., 209 U.S. 1 (1908)

• Subconscious Copying
  • Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music, 420 F.Supp. 177 (S.D.N.Y. 1976)

• Is a Temporary Reproduction a Copy Under the Copyright Act?
  • The RAM Copy Doctrine
    • MAI Systems Corporation v. Peak Computer, Inc., 991 F.2d 511 (9th Cir. 1993)
  • RAM copy doctrine revised
    • Cartoon Network v. CSC Holdings, 536 F.3d 121 (2d Cir. 2008)

7. The Reproduction Right—Part I

• Introduction

• The Era of Judicial Analysis
  • Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp. 81 F.2d 49 (2d Cir. 1936)
  • Peter Pan Fabrics, Inc. v. Martin Weiner Corp. 274 F.2d 487 (2d Cir. 1960)

• The Recognition Test
  • Arnstein v. Porter, 154 F.2d 464 (2d Cir. 1946)
  • Bradbury v. Columbia Broad Sys., Inc., 287 F.2d 478 (9th Cir. 1961)
  • Roth Greeting Cards v. United Card Co. 429 F.2d 1106 (9th Cir. 1970)

• Beyond Recognition, the Unfortunate case of Sid & Marty Krofft
  • Sid & Marty Krofft Television v. McDonald’s Corp 562 F.2d 1157 (1977)
  • Reyher v. Children’s Television Workshop. 533 F.2d 87 (2d Cir. 1976)

• The Era of Jury Empowerment
  • Three Boys Music Corp. v. Bolton 212 F.3d 477 (9th Cir. 2000)
  • Swirsky v. Carey, 376 F.3d 841 (9th Cir. 2004)

• A Resurgence of Judicial Analysis
  • Peter F. Gaito Architecture, LLC v. Simone Development Corp. 602 F.3d 57 (2d Cir. 2010)
  • Rentmeester v. Nike, Inc., 883 F.3d 1111 (9th Cir. 2018)
  • Yonay v. Paramount Pictures Corp., 163 F.4th 685 (9th Cir. 2026)

• The Inevitable Tension Between Dissection and Gestalt

8. The Reproduction Right—Part II

• Copying in Fact
  • Access is not an element of the plaintiff’s prima facie case
  • Probative similarity is different to substantial similarity
  • There is no fixed relationship between probative similarity and substantial similarity
  • Independent creation
  • The death (and likely rebirth) of the inverse ratio rule
    • Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin, 952 F.3d 1051 (9th Cir. 2020) (En Banc)
  • How much access is enough
    • Art Attacks Ink, LLC v. MGA Entertainment Inc., 581 F.3d 1138 (9th Cir. 2009)
  • Striking similarity

• Wrongful Copying (a.k.a Improper Appropriation)
  • The role of experts in wrongful copying
  • The Abstraction, Filtration, and Comparison Test

• Special Considerations Relating to Music
  • Dual protection for musical works and sound recordings
  • Differences between the rights that accrue to musical works and to sound recordings
  • The scope of rights in musical works
  • Copyright in Musical Style?
  • Registration and the scope of copyright in musical works
    • Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin, 952 F.3d 1051 (9th Cir. 2020) (En Banc)

• De Minimis Copying
  • Solid Oak Sketches, LLC v. 2K Games, Inc., 449 F. Supp. 3d 333 (SDNY 2020)
  • Richardson v. Townsquare Media, Inc., 174 F.4th 299 (2d 2026)

• Statutory Limits on the Reproduction Right

9. Making Derivative Works

• Legislative History
  • Earlier Copyright Acts
  • The Copyright Act of 1976

• When is the Right to Make a Derivative Work Based Upon the Copyrighted Work Infringed?
  • The role of originality
    • Lee v. A.R.T. Co., 125 F.3d 580, 582 (7th Cir. 1997)
  • Is the derivative work right entirely duplicative of the reproduction right?
    • Litchfield v. Spielberg, 736 F.2d 1352 (9th Cir. 1984)
  • Limiting principles

• Illustrative Cases
  • The Nintendo Game Genie
    • Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of Am., Inc., 964 F.2d 965 (9th Cir. 1992)
  • Interoperability is not enough
    • Oracle International Corp. v. Rimini Street, Inc., 123 F.4th 986 (9th Cir. 2024)
  • The Harry Potter Lexicon Case
    • Warner Brothers Entertainment, Inc. v. RDR Books, 575 F. Supp. 2d 513 (S.D.N.Y. 2008)
    • Castle Rock Entertainment v. Carol Publishing Group, Inc., 150 F.3d 132 (2d Cir. 1998)
    • Penguin Random House LLC v. Colting, 270 F. Supp. 3d 736 (S.D.N.Y. 2017)

• The Scope of Copyright in Derivative Works
  • Keeling v. Hars, 809 F.3d 43 (2d Cir. 2015)

10. Introduction to Fair Use

• Fair use compared to other copyright limitations and exceptions
  • Different approaches to limitations and exceptions

• Statutory licenses

• Codified inherent limitations other than fair use

• True copyright exceptions
  • Section 110
    • Disney Enterprises, Inc. v. VidAngel Inc. 869 F.3d 848 (9th Cir. 2017)
  • Section 108
  • Section 117
  • Section 121
  • Section 1008

• The Codification of Fair Use in the Copyright Act of 1976

• The Origins of Transformative Use
  • Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 510 US 569 (1994)
  • The enduring significance of Campbell v. Acuff-Rose

• A Note on the Death of the Market Failure Theory of Fair Use

• The Role of the Judge and the Jury in Fair Use Cases

11. Transformative Use Since Campbell

• Transformative Use in Google v. Oracle and in Andy Warhol Foundation
  • Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., 141 S. Ct. 1183 (2021)
  • Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Lynn Goldsmith, 598 U.S. 508 (2023)

12. Transformative Use and Justification after Warhol

• Transformative Use and Justification post-Warhol
  • Romanova v. Amilus Inc., 138 F.4th 104 (2d Cir. 2025)
  • Whyte Monkee Productions, LLC v. Netflix, Inc., 174 F.4th 761 (10th Cir. 2026)
  • How the courts are reading Warhol

13. Fair Use in Particular Contexts—Part I

• Parody
  • Classic parody cases
    • Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp., 137 F.3d 109 (2d Cir. 1998)
    • Suntrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co., 268 F.3d 1257 (11th Cir. 2001)
    • Mattel Inc. v. Walking Mountain Products, 353 F.3d 792 (9th Cir. 2003)
  • Parody versus Satire
    • Dr. Seuss Enterprises, LP v. Penguin Books, USA, Inc., 109 F.3d 1394 (9th Cir. 1997)

• Commentary
  • Kienitz v. Sconnie Nation LLC, 766 F.3d 756 (7th Cir. 2014)
  • Estate of Smith v. Graham, 799 F. App’x 36 (2d Cir. 2020)
  • Boesen v. United Sports Publications, Ltd., 2020 WL 6393010 (E.D.N.Y. Nov. 2, 2020)

• Reporting the news
  • Los Angeles News Service v. KCAL-TV Channel 9, 108 F.3d 1119 (9th Cir. 1997)
  • Núñez v. Caribbean International News Corporation, 235 F.3d 18 (1st Cir. 2000)
  • Monge v. Maya Magazines, Inc., 688 F.3d 1164 (9th Cir. 2012)
  • Swatch Group v. Bloomberg, 756 F.3d 73 (2d Cir. 2014)
  • Richardson v. Townsquare Media, Inc., 174 F.4th 299 (2d 2026)
  • Lynk Media, LLC v. Independent Digital News & Media, LLC, 2025 WL 2771625 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 29, 2025)

• Appropriation Art & Mashups
  • Rogers v. Koons 960 F.2d 301 (2d Cir. 1992)
  • Blanch v. Koons, 467 F.3d 244 (2d Cir. 2006)
  • Cariou v. Prince, 714 F.3d 694 (2d Cir. 2013)
  • Mashups
    • Dr. Seuss Enterprises, LP v. ComicMix LLC, 983 F.3d 443 (9th Cir. 2020)

14. Fair Use in Particular Contexts—Part II

• Orthogonal uses
  • Evidence
    • Bond v. Blum 317 F.3d 385 (4th Cir. 2003)
  • Right of Reply
    • Hustler Magazine Inc. v. Moral Majority Inc., 796 F.2d 1148 (9th Cir. 1986)

• Illustrative and informational uses
  • The image search cases: Kelly and Perfect 10
  • Bill Graham Archives v. Dorling Kindersley Ltd., 448 F.3d 605 (2d Cir 2006)
  • Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. v. Passport Video, 349 F.3d 622 (9th Cir. 2003)
  • Sofa Entertainment, Inc. v. Dodger Productions, Inc., 709 F.3d 1273 (9th Cir. 2013)

• Fair use in new markets
  • The Sony Betamax Case
    • Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984)
  • More typical new markets cases
    • Infinity Broadcast Corp. v. Kirkwood, 150 F.3d 104 (2d Cir. 1998)
    • A & M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc., 239 F.3d 1004 (9th Cir. 2001)
    • American Geophysical Union v. Texaco, Inc., 60 F.3d 913 (2d Cir. 1994)

• Non-transformative uses in the public interest
  • Providing Access to the Print-Disabled
    • Authors Guild v. HathiTrust, 755 F.3d 87 (2d Cir.2014)
  • Educational Fair Uses
  • Access Alone Is Not Enough
    • Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive, 115 F.4th 163 (2d Cir. 2024)

15. Nonexpressive Use As Fair Use

• Introduction to Nonexpressive Use
  • Matthew Sag, Fairness and Fair Use in Generative AI, 92 Fordham Law Review 1887 (2024)

• The Nonexpressive Use Cases
  • Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Accolade, Inc., 977 F.2d 1510 (9th Cir. 1992)
  • Sony Computer Entertainment v. Connectix, 203 F.3d 596 (9th Cir. 2000)
  • Assessment Technologies of Wis., LLC v. WIREdata, 350 F.3d 640 (7th Cir. 2003)
  • Lexmark Intern. v. Static Control Components, 387 F.3d 522 (6th Cir. 2004)
  • A.V. ex rel. Vanderhye v. iParadigms, LLC, 562 F.3d 630 (4th Cir. 2009)
  • Authors Guild v. HathiTrust, 755 F.3d 87 (2d Cir. 2014)
  • Authors Guild v. Google, Inc., 804 F.3d 202 (2d Cir. 2015)

• The Generative AI Copyright Cases
  • Is AI-training fair use?
    • Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence 765 F.Supp.3d 382 (2025)
    • Bartz v. Anthropic PBC, 2025 WL 1741691 (N.D. Cal. June 23, 2025) (first extract)
    • Kadrey v. Meta Platforms, Inc., 2025 WL 1752484 (N.D. Cal. June 25, 2025)
  • Lawful access and shadow libraries
    • Bartz v. Anthropic PBC, 2025 WL 1741691 (N.D. Cal. June 23, 2025) (second extract)
  • A note on legislation
  • Selected overseas developments
    • Getty Images (US) Inc. v. Stability AI Ltd. [2025] EWHC 2863 (Ch) (4 Nov. 2025)
    • ANI Media v. Open AI (Delhi High Court, 24 July 2026)

• Further reading

16. Ownership, Authorship and Transfer

• Initial Ownership of Copyright Interests
  • Owning the object is not owning the copyright
    • Pope v. Curl, 2 Atk. 342 (1741) (Ch. U.K.)
  • Authorship and ownership are inextricably entwined

• Coauthors are Joint Owners of the Work
  • Who qualifies as a joint author?
    • Aalmuhammed v. Lee, 202 F.3d 1227 (9th Cir. 2000)
  • Other joint authorship cases
  • Joint works: questions of timing and derivative works
    • Weissmann v. Freeman, 868 F.2d 1313 (2d Cir. 1989)

• Ownership of Employee Works and Commissioned Works
  • Who is an employee?
    • Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730 (1989)
  • What is within the scope of employment?

• Non-Employee Works Made for Hire

• Transfer of Copyright Interests
  • Requirements for transfer
  • Failed transfers and implied licenses
    • Effects Assocs. v. Cohen, 908 F.2d 555 (9th Cir. 1990)

• Fractured Ownership – Copyright Divisibility

• Termination of Transfers Under the 1909 Act
  • Stewart v. Abend, 495 U.S. 207 (1990)

• Termination of Transfers under the 1976 Act
  • Post-1978 Grants
  • Pre-1978 Grants
    • Vetter v. Resnik, 163 F.4th 951 (5th Cir. 2026)
  • Terminated Derivatives

17. The Boundaries of the Work

• Boundary Problems with Copyrighted Works

• The Quantum Theory of Copyright and Disappearing Works
  • Garcia v. Google, Inc., 786 F.3d 733 (9th Cir. 2015) (en banc)

• Additional Thoughts on the Quantum Theory of Copyright
  • A thought experiment: serial fixation by a sole author
  • Thought experiments on the disappearance of subworks in joint works

• The Problem of Temporally Contingent Works

• Copyrightable Characters: Works Within Works or Intertextual Works?
  • Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. v. Columbia Broadcasting System, 216 F.2d 945 (9th Cir. 1954)
  • Klinger v. Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd., 755 F.3d 496 (7th Cir. 2014)
  • DC Comics v. Towle, 802 F.3d 1012 (9th Cir. 2015)
  • Carroll Shelby Licensing, Inc. v. Halicki, 138 F.4th 1178 (9th Cir. 2025)
  • Are characters subworks or hypertextual works?

• Can you Copyright a Universe?
  • Paramount Pictures Corp. v. Axanar Prods., Inc., 2017 WL 83506 (C.D. Cal. Jan. 3, 2017)

• Copyright in Style as a Response to Generative AI
  • U.S. Copyright Office Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 1: Digital Replicas
  • U.S. Copyright Office Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 3: Generative AI Training
  • Matthew Sag, Copyright Safety for Generative AI, 61 Houston Law Review 295 (2023)
  • Steinberg v. Columbia Pictures Indus., 663 F. Supp. 706 (S.D.N.Y. 1987)

18. Moral Rights

• What are Moral Rights?

• Moral Rights Outside the Copyright Act
  • The patchwork approach
  • The Dastar decision and its aftermath
    • Dastar v. Twentieth Century Fox 539 U.S. 23 (2003)

• Moral Rights Under VARA
  • The rights of attribution and integrity and their limits
  • The duration of rights under VARA
  • A case study of VARA in action
    • Cohen v. G&M Realty LP, 320 F.Supp.3d 421 (EDNY 2018) (February 12, 2018)

• Comparative: The International Legal Framework for Moral Rights Protection

19. Copyright and Industrial Design

• Different approaches to functional art
  • Design Patents in the United States

• Protecting industrial designs and other PGS works through copyright
  • PGS works
  • Useful Articles and Conceptual Severability
    • Mazer v. Stein, 347 U.S. 201 (1954)
  • Distinguishing Between Useful Articles and other PGS works

• What is “conceptual separability” after Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands?
  • Star Athletica LLC v. Varsity Brands Inc., 137 S.Ct. 1002 (2017)
  • Did Star Athletica change the law?

• Star Athletica at the Copyright Office
  • Colosseum Flatware Artwork
  • Kitchen Helper Children’s Stool
  • Yeezy Boost
  • What the Office has done since

• International: the concept of “industrial property”
  • The EU’s single standard

20. Copyright in Computer Software

• Overview of copyright protection for computer software

• Software copyright litigation in the 1980s and 1990s
  • Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp., 714 F.2d 1240 (3d Cir. 1983)
  • Whelan Assocs., Inc. v. Jaslow Dental Lab., Inc., 797 F.2d 1222 (3d Cir. 1986)
  • Plains Cotton Coop. Ass’n v. Goodpasture Computer Serv., Inc., 807 F.2d 1256 (5th Cir. 1987)
  • Computer Associates International Inc. v. Altai, Inc., 982 F.2d 693 (2d Cir. 1992)
  • Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Accolade, Inc., 977 F.2d 1510 (9th Cir. 1992)
  • Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., 35 F.3d 1435 (9th Cir. 1994)
  • Lotus Dev. Corp. v. Borland Int’l, Inc., 49 F.3d 807 (1st Cir. 1995)

• The Copyrightability and Infringement of APIs
  • Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., 141 S.Ct. 1183 (2021)
  • SAS Institute, Inc. v. World Programming Ltd., 64 F.4th 1319 (Fed. Cir. 2023)

• International: Copyright in computer programs under Berne and TRIPs

21. Distribution & First Sale

• The Distribution Right
  • Distribution by digital transmission?
  • Distribution versus “Making Available”

• The first sale doctrine
  • Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus, 210 U.S. 339 (1908)
  • Statutory recognition of distribution right and first sale doctrine
  • Copyright Exhaustion and Parallel Importation
    • Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 133 S. Ct. 1351 (2013)

• Limits to the First Sale Doctrine in a Digital World
  • Capitol Records, LLC v. ReDigi Inc., 910 F.3d 649 (2d Cir. 2018)
  • Contractual restraints on the first sale doctrine

• Rental Rights and Lending Rights
  • Rental Rights
  • Library Lending, Printed Books versus eBooks

• The “droit de suite” and resale royalties
  • Close v. Sotheby’s, 894 F.3d 1061 (9th Cir. 2018)

• Comparative: Copyright Exhaustion Under International Copyright Agreements

• Comparative: Digital Exhaustion in the European Union

22. The Intersection of Copyright and State Law Rights

• Copyright and Contract: Sale versus license
  • Sale versus License: The Second Circuit’s Economic Realities Approach
    • Krause v. Titleserv, Inc., 402 F.3d 119 (2d Cir. 2005)
  • Sale versus License: The Ninth Circuit’s Vernor-MDY framework
    • Vernor v. Autodesk, Inc., 621 F.3d 1102 (9th Cir. 2010)
    • MDY Industries v. Blizzard Entertainment, 629 F.3d 928 (9th Cir. 2010)

• Preemption of State Law Claims
  • Express preemption under Section 301(a)
  • The search for an “extra element”
    • ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenberg, 86 F.3d 1447 (7th Cir. 1996)
    • X Corp. v. Bright Data Ltd., 733 F. Supp. 3d 832 (N.D. Cal. 2024)
    • ML Genius Holdings LLC v. Google LLC, No. 20-3113 (2d Cir. 2022) (Non-precedential)
    • Reddit, Inc. v. Anthropic PBC, 826 F. Supp. 3d 1059 (N.D. Cal. 2026)
  • The “Hot News” Doctrine and Copyright Preemption: INS v. Associated Press and NBA v. Motorola
  • The Narrowing of “Hot News” Misappropriation in Barclays v. Theflyonthewall.com
  • The preemption of right of publicity claims

23. Public Performance, Display & Transmission

• Performance and Display

• The display right

• The performance right
  • Performance rights for sound recordings and musical works are different
  • Performance Rights Organizations (PROs)

• Transmission rights
  • Transmission and public performance under the 1909 Act
  • Cablevision
    • American Broadcasting Companies v. Aereo, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 2498 (2014)

• The “Homestyle” and other exceptions to the public performance right

• Cable & satellite licenses

• Comparative: The Performance, Display and Transmission Rights in International Copyright Agreements

24. Secondary Liability for Copyright Infringement

• The Gershwin Era
  • Gershwin Pub. Corp. v. Columbia Artists Management, Inc., 443 F.2d 1159 (2d Cir. 1971)

• Liability of device manufacturers and service providers
  • The Sony Safe Harbor
    • Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984)
    • A&M Records v. Napster, Inc., 239 F.3d 1004 (9th Cir. 2001)
    • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 545 U.S. 913 (2005)

• Summary of the pre-Cox landscape

• The post-Gershwin Era
  • Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment, 607 U.S. 583 (2026)

• Significant Secondary Liability Cases
  • Fonovisa, Inc. v. Cherry Auction, Inc., 76 F.3d 259 (9th Cir. 1996)
  • Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., 508 F.3d 1146 (9th Cir. 2007)
  • Perfect 10, Inc. v. Visa International Service Association, 494 F.3d 788 (9th Cir. 2007)
  • Perfect 10, Inc. v. Giganews, Inc., 847 F.3d 657 (9th Cir. 2017)
  • Cobbler Nevada, LLC v. Gonzales, 901 F.3d 1142 (9th Cir. 2018)
  • Sony Music Entertainment v. Cox Communications, Inc., 93 F.4th 222 (4th Cir. 2024), rev’d, 607 U.S. 583 (2026)

• Tertiary liability?
  • UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Shelter Capital Partners, 718 F.3d 1006 (9th Cir. 2013)

25. Internet Safe Harbors From Claims of Copyright Infringement

• The Origins of the Section 512 Safe Harbors
  • Matthew Sag, Internet Safe Harbors and the Transformation of Copyright Law

• The Section 512 Safe Harbors
  • Overview
  • Service Provider
  • Conditions for Eligibility–In General
  • Conditions for eligibility–repeat infringer policies
  • A case study in how not to implement a repeat infringer policy: BMG Rights Management (US) LLC v. Cox Communications, Inc., 881 F.3d 293 (4th Cir. 2018)
    • The end of the Cox litigation
  • Who is a repeat infringer?

• Section 512(c) “storage at the direction of a user”
  • The statute
  • What counts as knowledge of infringement under the DMCA safe harbors?
    • Viacom International, Inc. v. YouTube, Inc., 676 F.3d 19 (2d Cir. 2012)
  • The status of pre-1972 sound recordings under the DMCA

• Designating an agent to receive notifications of claimed infringement

• What activities are at the direction of the user for the purposes of Section 512(c)?
  • Mavrix Photographs, LLC v. LiveJournal, Inc., 873 F.3d 1045 (9th Cir. 2017)

• Liability for misrepresentation under 512(f)
  • The case of the dancing baby
    • Lenz v. Universal Music Corp., 815 F.3d 1145 (9th Cir. 2015)

• Comparative: European Union Internet safe harbors
  • When does a platform stop merely hosting?

26. Digital Rights Management, Copyright Management Information, and Web Scraping

• The Circumvention of technological protection measures
  • An overview of the DMCA
  • Understanding Access Control vs. Rights Control
  • DMCA exceptions and limitations
  • Administrative Exemptions
  • Judicial interpretation of the anti-circumvention provisions
    • MDY Industries, LLC v. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., 629 F.3d 928 (9th Cir. 2010)

• Copyright management information
  • Stevens v. Corelogic, Inc., 899 F.3d 666 (9th Cir. 2018)

• CMI Claims in Relation to Training Generative AI
  • Andersen v. Stability AI Ltd., 700 F. Supp. 3d 853 (N.D. Cal. 2023)
  • Tremblay v. OpenAI, Inc., 2024 WL 557720 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 12, 2024)

• Web Scraping
  • hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp., 31 F.4th 1180 (9th Cir. 2022)

• Comparative: Anti-circumvention Rules in International Agreements

27. Volitional Conduct

• New technologies expose latent ambiguities in copyright law

• The emergence of volitional conduct
  • Netcom
  • CoStar
  • Cablevision
    • Cartoon Network LP v. CSC Holdings, Inc., 536 F.3d 121 (2d Cir. 2008)
  • How did the Supreme Court decision in Aereo affect the Cablevision ruling?
  • Is there a textual basis in the Copyright Act for the volitional act requirement?
    • Fox Broadcasting Co., Inc. v. Dish Network L.L.C., 747 F.3d 1060 (9th Cir. 2014)
  • Volition as proximate cause?
    • Perfect 10, Inc. v. Giganews, Inc., 847 F.3d 657 (9th Cir. 2017)

• Linking, Embedding and the “Server Test”
  • Origins of the server test in Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc.
  • The server test and embedded content
    • Hunley v. Instagram, LLC, 73 F.4th 1060 (9th Cir. 2023)

28. Copyright Remedies and Procedure

• Copyright Remedies
  • Actual Damages and Accounting of Profits

• Injunctions
  • Statutory damages
  • Who should decide on the amount of statutory damages?
    • Feltner v. Columbia Pictures Television, Inc., 523 U.S. 340 (1998)
  • Other issues in calculating statutory damages

• Attorney’s fees
  • Factors vs. discretion
  • No dual standard for prevailing plaintiffs and defendants
  • Special considerations for prevailing defendants
  • Costs
  • Copyright misuse as a defense to infringement

• The significance of copyright formalities in copyright litigation
  • Remedies and attorney’s fees depend on timely registration

• Procedural Issues in Copyright Litigation
  • Standing
    • John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. DRK Photo, 882 F.3d 394 (2d Cir. 2018)

• Registration and Jurisdiction
  • Registration vs. filing of a registration application
    • Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, 139 S. Ct. 881 (2019)
  • Different rules for some foreign works
  • Copyright Notice
  • Registration & deposit

• Choice of law

• Class actions
  • Class actions in the generative AI litigation

• Statute of limitations
  • Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., 134 S. Ct. 1962 (2014)
  • Warner Chappell Music, Inc. v. Nealy, 601 U.S. 366 (2024)

• Sovereign immunity
  • The theory behind state sovereign immunity
    • Allen v. Cooper, 589 U.S. 248 (2020)
  • Injunctive relief against state officials