The history of celebrity endorsements is over 100 years old, dating back to at least the late 19th century when acclaimed stage actress Lillie Langtry began appearing on packages of Pear’s Soap. Marketers have long known that, whether in connection with beauty products, breakfast cereal, soft drinks or yogurt, a celebrity spokesperson can lend “star quality” to a commercial brand. Of course, in today’s marketplace,… More
Monthly Archives: November 2012
Republican Standing Committee’s Disappearing Copyright Brief Too “Awesome” for Publication
Last Friday, the Republican Standing Committee (“RSC”) published a report by twenty-four year old staffer Derek Khanna, a former Mitt Romney aide and graduate of Georgetown Law School, entitled: “Three Myths about Copyright Law and Where to Start to Fix it.” In less than twenty four hours, the report disappeared from the internet.
The RSC claims that the report was removed because it had been published without adequate review.… More
SORT OF THE RINGS: Will Trademark Fair Use Protect Age of the Hobbits?
In August of this year, Warner Brothers finally announced the release of Age of the Hobbits, Peter Jackson’s long-awaited follow-up to his Lord of the Rings trilogy, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous fantasy novels. Age of the Hobbits tells the tale of a clever group of diminutive Indonesian tribesmen who convince Chinese actress Bai Ling to save them from a hoard of cannibals mounted on flying Komodo dragons.… More
The Year of Downloading Dangerously: Federal court gives adult film copyright “trolls” the Third Degree
About this time last year, we reported on a case which bore perhaps the least catchy name in the history of the Massachusetts Federal District Court: Liberty Media Holdings, LLC v. Swarm Sharing Hash File AE340D0560129AFEE8D78CE07F2394C7B5BC9C05,821 F.Supp.2d 444 (D. Mass. 2011). In that case, 38 John Doe defendants were accused of illegally downloading the adult film, “Amateur College Men Down on the Farm,” via BitTorrent. … More