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Copyright Office’s Ruling on Exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Allowing Consumers, Repairers, and Hackers to Fix their Own Devices

By Andrew Distell - Edited by Jess Hui
Posted on November 14, 2018
Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies, 83 Fed. Reg. 54010 (Oct. 26, 2018) (to be codified at 37 C.F.R. pt. 201). Summary of Ruling: https://www.copyright.gov/1201... In reviewing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), the United States Copyright Office, a subsidiary of the Library of Congress, ruled on changes to section 1201. The ruling went into effect on Sunday, October 28, 2018, and will, among other changes, grant electronic repairers the legal ability to hack electronic devices, such as smartphones. Section 1201 of the DMCA, 17 U.S.C. §1201, makes it a violation to "circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access” to copyrighted works. It does however, include a "fail-safe." Every three years, the...
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Copyright Cybersecurity Reports
Led Zeppelin’s “Stair”-ing Contest Heads Back to Court

By Aaron Dunn - Edited by Dinis Cheian
Posted on November 12, 2018 Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin, No. 16-56057 (9th Cir. Sep. 28, 2018). In what must surely be uplifting news for Michael Skidmore—trustee of late psych-rocker and Spirit band member Randy Wolfe—the Ninth Circuit has partially vacated the Central District of California’s ruling in a much-discussed 2016 copyright lawsuit contesting the originality of Led Zeppelin’s rock classic “Stairway to Heaven.” The 2016 case...
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Copyright Reports
United States v. Glover: Lynda Hacking Indictments Hit Pair Behind Massive Uber Breach

By Kurt Walters - Edited by Brian Murff
Posted on November 07, 2018 Indictment, United States v. Brandon Charles Glover and Vasile Mereacre, No. 5:18-cr-00348-LHK (N.D. Cal. Aug. 2, 2018) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5021170-Lynda-indictment.html The two hackers behind Uber’s large 2016 data breach face felony charges for a separate hack compromising the data of 90,000 Lynda.com users, according to a recently unsealed indictment. Brandon Glover and Vasile Mereacre were indicted in the Northern District of California...
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Cybersecurity Reports
Forward v. Biogen: Biogen Prevails in MS Drug Patent Appeal in Federal Circuit

By Nima Shamtoub - Edited by Phebe Hong
Posted on November 05, 2018 FWP IP ApS v. Biogen MA, Inc., 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 29943 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 24, 2018), opinion hosted by Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. On October 24, 2018, the Federal Circuit Court affirmed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board ("PTAB") decision that determined FWP IP ApS ("Forward") was not entitled to a patent on a multiple sclerosis...
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Reports Patent
Richard Lloyd v. Google LLC: No Liability for Acquisition and Sale of Users’ Personal Information

By Jordan Kennedy - Edited by Madeleine DeMeules
Posted on October 31, 2018 Lloyd v. Google LLC [2018] EWHC (QB) 2599 (Eng.). Opinion In The High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, Media and Communications List, Case No: HQ17M01913 Richard Lloyd, filed suit in a representative capacity, seeking damages under the Data Protection Act for Google’s improper use of iPhone users’ personal information during the “Relevant Period” of June 1, 2011 to February 15...
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Reports Privacy
Music Modernization Act Signed Into Law

By Benjamin Sobel - Edited by Neva Little
Posted on October 29, 2018 Orrin G. Hatch–Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act (“Music Modernization Act”), Pub. L. No. 115-264 (2018), public law hosted by congress.gov. On October 11th, 2018, President Trump signed into law the Music Modernization Act, sponsored by Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT) and Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). The Act comprises three titles, each of which updates a distinct aspect of the protection, licensing...
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Copyright Reports
Ohio Data Protection Act: Exchanging Legal Protection for Cybersecurity

By Dominic Booth - Edited by Amy Zeng
Posted on October 24, 2018 Ohio Substitute Senate Bill 220, 132nd Gen. Assemb. (Ohio 2018) bill hosted by The Ohio Legislature. On August 3, 2018, Governor John Kasich signed the Ohio Data Protection Act (“Act”) into law. The Act will go into effect on November 2, 2018. A product of Ohio Attorney General, Mike DeWine’s, CyberOhio Initiative, the Act introduces an incentive-based compliance mechanism to encourage “covered...
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Cybersecurity Reports
23andMe v. Ancestry: Court Finds ‘Finding Relatives in a Database’ Patent to Be Patent-Ineligible Subject Matter

By Meera Midha - Edited by Alan Kim
Posted on October 22, 2018 23andMe, Inc. v. Ancestry.com DNA, LLC, Ancestry.com Operations Inc., Ancestry.com LLC, No. 18-cv-02791-EMC (N.D. Cal. Sept. 23, 2018), motion to dismiss hosted by PacerMonitor.  With the rapid rise in popularity and availability of direct-to-consumer personal DNA testing, the landscape of service providers has swiftly expanded as the underlying technology has become increasingly accessible. As a result of this industry’s growth...
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Reports Patent
Nobel Biocare Services AG v. Instradent USA, Inc: Federal Circuit Holds Dental Implant Patent Invalid

By Natalie Morrissey - Edited by Taylor Hodhod
Posted on October 17, 2018 Opinion hosted by Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. On September 13, 2018, the Federal Circuit held that six of Nobel’s claims within U.S. Patent 8,714,977 ("the ‘977 patent") were invalid as anticipated under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b). The decision affirmed that of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board after an inter partes review (IPR). The ‘977 patent was...
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Reports Patent
Echavarria v. Facebook: Class Action Complaint Seeks Damages for the Massive Facebook Data Breach

By Elizabeth MeLampy - Edited by Anita Liu
Posted on October 15, 2018 Class Action Complaint, Carla Echavarria and Derrick Walker v. Facebook, Inc., No. 5:18-cv-05982 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 28, 2018), complaint hosted by SCRIBD. On September 28, Facebook announced it had discovered a security breach three days earlier that had affected 50 million users. According to Facebook’s press release, the hackers capitalized on three different bugs in the “View As” feature to steal...
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Cybersecurity Reports Privacy
University of California v. Broad Institute: Court Affirms Broad’s Patent on Complex Cell Gene-Editing Tool

By Charlotte Lepic - Edited by Samuel Vallejo
Posted on October 10, 2018 Regents of the Univ. of Cal. v. Broad Inst., No. 2017-1907 (Fed. Cir. Sep. 10. 2018), opinion hosted by Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In 2012, researchers from the University of California, University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively, “UC”) published their use of CRISPR-Cas9 to precisely cut the DNA of prokaryotes (single-celled organisms without distinct nuclei). Shortly...
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Reports Patent
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