Technology Liberation Front - Latest Comments in Jones Day Lawyers Apparently Don’t Know the Law

Re: Jones Day Lawyers Apparently Don’t Know the Law

Terry — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:55:35 -0000

It is unfortunate that people feel the need to seek out a lawsuit for little to no reason, but it happens all the time. A lot of these companies are looking for any possible way to start a problem and I have heard of a number of large companies that actually employ people to search the web and find any potential copyright infringers.

Terry
real estate license

Re: Jones Day Lawyers Apparently Don’t Know the Law

lisaandersen — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:50:43 -0000

I removed my comment...info was not correct.

Re: Jones Day Lawyers Apparently Don’t Know the Law

DUI Lawyers Online — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 03:35:14 -0000

Re: Jones Day Lawyers Apparently Don’t Know the Law

Law Student — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:39:30 -0000

Jones Day has no case. This seems to be a clear-cut case of descriptive fair-use.

Re: Jones Day Lawyers Apparently Don’t Know the Law

jimharper — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:24:46 -0000

Documents from the case are on the Citizen Media Law page.

Re: Jones Day Lawyers Apparently Don’t Know the Law

Carme — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:00:42 -0000

I haven't seen the actual lawsuit so I'll take your word for it. The letters speak vaguely of "proprietary material" which I assumed includes the photographs.
It's possible that the copyright in the images belongs to the photographer but it's much more likely they were works for hire and belong to the firm.
As for fair use, the purpose of the reproduction is just one of four criteria for fair use; another one is how extensive the reproduction is, in this case the whole work. I find it hard to believe that this is acceptable fair use of a copyrighted photograph; as I said before, that would mean that any publication - a newspaper, a website, a blog - that "reports" on anything can use any copyrighted picture that relates to the text. That sounds implausible to me. Again, IANAL.
If the firm does hold the copyright to the photographs they should be scorned, not commended, for failing to use the one claim where they had a chance.

Re: Jones Day Lawyers Apparently Don’t Know the Law

James — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:31:41 -0000

Sadly, that is a wonderfully written post.

Some day I'd love to have my country back.

Re: Jones Day Lawyers Apparently Don’t Know the Law

jimharper — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:23:14 -0000

The Jones Day suit didn't allege any copyright violations - perhaps because the owner of the copyrights in the images they have on their Web sites is the photographer who took them. And news reporting is listed in the Copyright Act as purpose of using copyrighted material that is fair use. Perhaps Jones Day lawyers DO understand copyright law! [n.b., Criticism and comment are also listed fair uses of copyrighted material.]

Re: Jones Day Lawyers Apparently Don’t Know the Law

Carme — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:12:15 -0000

The trademark and linking claims are bogus, but I think posting the images actually is copyright infringement. If it weren't, any publication could put copyrighted images next to any related text, which is probably not the case. Do you think differently?
IANAL.

Re: Jones Day Lawyers Apparently Don’t Know the Law

Marlee Taankos — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:23:05 -0000

Meredith Wilkes deserves more respect than you have shown her...on the racquetball court that is.

Maybe she is doing one of those "How To Lose All My Clients In 10 Days" magazine pieces.