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Cases & Commentaries in Copyright Law |
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Introduction In this section we will reproduce the major court decisions regarding sampling and interpolation in music and offer commentary and discussion points for lawyers and non-lawyers alike. (Needless to say, this section of the site is under construction.) |
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Case Law Directory
Marlon Williams v. Calvin Broadus (2001) |
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Some basics for non-lawyers. The Courts. There are 94 federal trial courts in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands. These are called District Courts and are designated by initials of geographic juridiction: S.D.N.Y. is the federal district court in the Southern District of New York, located in Manhattan. N.D. Cal. is the Northern District of California in San Francisco. District Court proceedings are presided over by one judge. Where you see initials in parentheses following a case or file number, these are the judge's initials. "(MBM)," for instance, in Marlon Williams v. Calvin Broadus, is Judge Michael B. Mukasey. There are 13 Courts of Appeals, 12 of which are designated by Circuit number, plus the Federal Circuit in Washington D.C. The 2d Circuit covers federal appeals in New York, Connecticut and Vermont; the 6th Circuit covers federal appeals in the Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan. A complete geographic map of the federal District Courts and Circuit Courts of Appeal can be found here. Courts of Appeals are generally presided over by 3-judge panels. An en banc hearing is a hearing in which all the judges of the relevant Circuit hear the issue in question. Citations. Federal cases are reported in federal reporters published by WestLaw. F.Supp. is the reporter for District Court cases, while F.(including F.2d and F.3d) is the reporter for the Courts of Appeals. Supreme Court cases may be cited in the reporters designated U.S., S.Ct. or L.Ed. (law edition). "WL" designates cases which have not (or haven't yet) been published officially but are nonetheless made available by WestLaw. (Not all federal court decisions are designated for publication.) WestLaw holds a virtual monopoly on case law reporting for reasons that cannot easily be justified given that court decisions are public domain. To keep their hold on the material, WestLaw publishes decisions interspersed with WestLaw's trademarks, "key" numbers and words, descriptions and brief summaries. This ensures that simply reproducing a case from one of their reporters or their online pay site technically constitutes copyright infringement. None of WestLaw's intellectual property is displayed on this site. Motions for Summary Judgment. Many of the cases that will be reviewed here involve a motion for summary judgment. This is a procedure in which one party asks the court to decide the case on the basis of law only, without making any factual determinations. (Factual determinations are generally reserved for juries or judges acting as finders of fact if the parties waive their respective rights to a jury trial.) The judge must therefore base his decision either on facts that neither party disputes or, if there is a dispute, on the facts as viewed by the other party. In other words, when a defendant moves for summary judgment, the judge must assume (only for the purposes of the motion) that the plaintiff's view of the facts is the right one. When a plaintiff moves for summary judgment, it is the defendant's view of the facts which is the prevailing one. Lawyers and judges like summary judgment proceedings because they save the expense of going to trial and narrow the issues that will arise in the event that a trial is necessary. |
Songs In Dispute Otis Redding "Hard to Handle"Marley Marl "The Symphony" Snoop Dogg "Ghetto Symphony" Honey Drippers "Impeach The President" Dana Dane "Dana Dane With Fame" Run D.M.C. "Back From Hell" Mahavishnu Orchestra "Planetary Citizen" Massive Attack "Unfinished Sympathy" |
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Case decisions are not under copyright and may be freely reproduced. All commentary on this site (c) 2009 Clearance 13'-8", Inc. Reproduction is authorized only accompanied by this site's url |
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