In May 2024, the Supreme Court determined that the US Copyright Act entitles a copyright owner to obtain money damages for any timely filed infringement claim, no matter when the infringement occurred. The three-year statute of limitations begins when the claim accrues. But there is...
I am asked this question all the time. My answer is registration at the Copyright Office is much better, and significantly more valuable. With apologies to my friends and colleagues who work at the WGA, I wouldn’t bother registering at the WGA East or West,...
Establishes Group Registration for Works on an Album of Music (“GRAM”) By Marc Jacobson, Esq. Under a new rule, the US Copyright Office will allow an applicant to register between two and twenty musical works or sound recordings, found in an album, with one application. To do...
Proposed SEC Exemptive Order makes Finders who follow new proposed rules Eligible for success-based fees. by Marc Jacobson How Filmmakers Currently Raise Capital. Often, when a filmmaker starts raising money for a film, she enters into one or more finder’s fee agreements. These agreements typically provide that...
By Marc Jacobson, Esq. and Jerome M. Hesch, Esq. In the past, recording artists frequently entered into agreements with record labels through a loan out corporation which two recent cases confirm had the effect of eliminating their ability to exercise the statutory termination right, as codified...
Help your clients make money from their works This is a big year for copyright in the United States. For the first time in 20 years, on Jan. 1, 2019, works first published in the United States in the early 20th century fell into the public...
A prominent photographer was engaged by the defendants to create images to use in a certain specified manner. At the conclusion of the term of the license agreement, the defendants continued to use the images beyond the scope of the license, and for purposes not...
The grand scheme regarding the term of copyright protection in the U.S., for the first time in 20 years, is in full bloom. On January 1, 2019, works first published in or before 1923 fell into the public domain – making them free to copy...
By Adam Ragusea, a journalist in residence and visiting assistant professor at Mercer University’s Center for Collaborative Journalism, and also a classically-trained composer. Music experts may think the ruling was outrageous, but a precedent set by the tech industry may mean it sticks. Count me among those...