Going Gaga for Music Samples

A Chicago musician called Rebecca Francescatti says that Lady Gaga stole part of her song “Juda” for the hit song “Judas”. More specifically, the complaint alleges that a particular portion of “Judas” violates Francescatti’s exclusive rights of reproduction, distribution, performance, and preparation of a derivative work. But before we get to that, we’ll need to wade through a bit of a semantics morass. This suit is being couched in terms of plagiarism.

Target, Walmart Win Copyright Litigation Over Zebra PatternMeridian Textiles filed a copyright claim against Topson Downs, Target and Wal-Mart (collectively called Defendant in court documents), claimed the used fabric designs that are solely theirs. The claim was related to 4 separate fabric designs: a zebra stripe pattern, a burnout pattern, an animal print pattern and a lace design. United States District Court of the Central District of California Judge Gary Klausner said that the zebra print pattern in question is not entitled to protection under copyright because the pattern reflects animal stripes that are found in nature and not a man-made pattern, and therefore ordered the U.S....
Prince and the Copyright Compulsory License SchemeImagine a world where the dulcet tones of “Inagaddadavida” never graced the airwaves. Gasp you should! According to the artist currently known as, but formerly known as “The Artist Formerly Known as, Prince,” once a song is covered the original artist’s version doesn’t exist anymore. Soooo…Iron Butterfly’s iconic song no longer exists because Slayer remade it in the late 1980s. Yeah, I don’t think so, but let’s explore, because Prince does make an interesting point and he’s kind of right to be miffed, even if it’s for the wrong reasons. He was talking about the compulsory licensing requirements in copyright...
Trademark Double Dog Dare: Do Your Rendition Of Tarzan YellDid you know that the Tarzan yell is a registered trademark? So is the Looney Tunes theme song. And Homer Simpson’s “D’oh!” Trademarking a sound or series of sounds is really not that hard to do. The Trademark Manual of Exanimation Procedure (“TMEP”) §1202.15 tells us “A sound mark identifies and distinguishes a product or service through audio rather than visual means.” OK. That’s fairly straightforward. We all know that in order to be eligible for trademark protection, a mark has to be unique, arbitrary, or distinctive and it has to function as a source identifier. This means the consuming...

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