When the Canadian Conservative Party released a raft of attack ads last month against Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff, it was the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (“CBC”) that led the counterattack. Why? In constructing their ads, the Conservative Party used without permission CBC’s copyrighted file footage of Ignatieff. The CBC claimed that the use of its footage [...]
Monthly Archives: February 2011
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Concludes Plaintiffs Can’t Use State Law Claims to Circumvent Copyright Law
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently reaffirmed the rule that state law claims based on copyright are preempted by the preemption provisions of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 301. In Curtis v. Herb Chambers I-95, Inc., 458 Mass. 674 (2011), Curtis, an individual who had produced advertising materials for car dealerships, filed a complaint [...]