Intellectual Property Rights and The People Who Violate Them

Intellectual Property Rights and The People Who Violate Them.
By: Gigi Dowell

This month’s class is in Advance Entertainment Law and our area of focus for this week is on Intellectual Property rights. In my first article, “Intellectual Property Issues in Music” by Scott Palmer, touched on several IP cases from John Fogerty of the former band CCR being accused of IP infringement against him self to other well-know cases as Vanilla Ice vs. Queen and David Bowie and the biggest case of them all Metallica vs. Napster. Napster was the new musical revolution that spawned the file-share downloading industry and provided thousand of fans long-lost music of their favorite artists. In this case Napster was issued a lawsuit due to a discovered leak of the Metallica song “I Disappear”, which was soundtrack of the due to release Mission Impossible II movie. Metallica sued Napster for copyright infringement, unlawful use of digital audio interface device and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) (Palmer, 2010). Some would argue that this case was the end of music industry. I say, this IP case started a movement and sent a message to the record labels and artists that there is a huge need for new ways to access music.

My second article on the topic of Intellectual Property is a case study on Apple TV and iTunes. In 2007, Apple was hit with two lawsuits over the copyright infringement that included the artistic rights of a photographer and a song resembling a previous recording in 1979(AfterDawn, 2007). Within the first lawsuit, Apple TV was in negotiation with photographer, Louis Psihoyos, on his idea of a “video wall”. The negotiation deal was never settled, however, Apple TV was using this concept for advertisement of their Apple TV unit. In my opinion, this is a classic case of an idea being swiped by a large corporation. When presenting an idea to anybody, especially those who you are attempting to do business with, it is important to have the meeting party sign agreements of confidentiality in order to prevent a violation of rights.

The second civil lawsuit complaint against iTunes involved Avril Lavigne’s smash hit single “Girlfriend”. It was stated to be a copy of a song written by James Gangwer and Tommy Dunbar in 1979, entitled “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”. This case has the potential to be an issue with the actual artist rather than on iTunes. If Avril Lavigne were listed as the songwriter of the new song, you would think that she was at fault or at least the record company. ITunes was slated as being “an acting catalyst for music infringement” (AfterDawn, 2007). This claim I don’t agree with, because being a music seller through iTunes, it is up to the Artist, Artist Management or the record companies to make sure they acquire permissions and waivers in order to sample and or use other artist’s music.

The last article I chose for this discussion of Intellectual Property is an article acquired from Legal Zoom.com entitled “Top 5 Intellectual Property Disputes”. Legal Zoom.com was founded in 2001 and is an Internet source for easy to use legal forms as well as instant access to information on common legal matters. In this article, they highlighted the top 5 intellectual property issues listed in and out of the cyber world. This list included another lawsuit involving Napster with the RIAA, the case of Amazon’s 1-click patent and Google Trademark Keywords. Amazon patent the one step buying process and issued an infringement lawsuit against Barnes and Nobles, only after one month of receiving their patent. Barnes and Nobles also had an “Express Lane” technology, however, Amazon was the first to get the patent. This situation was truly first come, first serve. Since Amazon was the first to get the patent, they had the intellectual rights to demand that another company within the same market of competition release their technology.

With the rise of the Internet and it being the vital source for information on just about any and everything, we can expect infringements of Intellectual Property being an issue of concern. Intellectual Property is very important in order to preserve the legacy of the artistic craft, with the person or persons responsible for creating it. Knowing our creative rights and the rules and regulations on using the rights of others, we can start to figure a way to evolve into a new and improve way of satisfying the needs of content providers and content consumers.

AfterDawn. (2007). Apple is sued over artistic copyright infringement. Retrieved May 8, 2011, from http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2007/07/08/apple_is_sued_over_artistic_copyright_infringement

Digital Enterprise. (2007) Case Study: ITunes Store. Retrieved May 7, 2010, from http://digitalenterprise.org/cases/itunes.html

Legal Zoom. (2009). Top 5 Intellectual Property Disputes. Retrieved May 8, 2011, from http://www.legalzoom.com/intellectual-property-rights/intellectual-property-basics/top-5-intellectual-property-disputes

Palmer,S. (2010). Intellectual Property Issues in Music. Retrieved May 8, 2011, from
http://class.georgiasouthern.edu/writling/professional/TechWrite/7-1/palmer/index.html