Judge Allows Aereo to Continue Providing Broadcast Television over the Internet By Brittany Horth – Edited by Charlie Stiernberg American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc., 12 Civ. 1540 (AJN) (S.D.N.Y. July 11, 2012) Slip opinion Judge Alison J. Nathan of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a request for a preliminary injunction made by a group of broadcast television companies against Barry Diller’s Aereo, a system exclusively available in New York City ... Read More...

By Erin Pritchard Facebook and Yahoo Settle & Share Facebook and Yahoo announced last Friday, June 6, that they have settled all patent disputes between the two companies and are entering into an advertising partnership, according to CNN. The companies came to a no-cash exchange settlement agreement by entering into a cross-license deal which allows access to one another’s patent portfolios as well as a new advertising partnership. Yahoo filed a complaint against Facebook in March 2012 in the U.S. ... Read More...

By Susanna Lichter Fair Use Defense Bolstered by 7th Circuit Decision in South Park Viral Video Lawsuit In a victory for fair use proponents, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a District Court’s grant of a motion to dismiss based on fair use before any discovery took place in a lawsuit between the makers of the South Park television show and plaintiff Brownmark Films, LLC. Judge Cudahy found South Park’s substantial recreation of Brownmark Films’ viral video “What What ... Read More...

Government Says Megaupload Users Must Pay to Retrieve Their Data By Jacob L. Rogers – Edited by Heather Whitney United States v. Kim Dotcom, No. 1:12CR3 (E.D. Va. June 8, 2012) Kyle Goodwin’s motion for return of property (hosted by EFF) Government reply brief (hosted by Wired) In United States v. Kim Dotcom (“the Megaupload case”), the government has filed a reply brief regarding their responsibility (or lack thereof) to provide third parties their data in a situation where the ... Read More...

California District Court Dismisses Oracle’s Copyright Infringement Claims Against Google, Finds APIs not Copyrightable By Susanna Lichter – Edited by Jennifer Wong Oracle America, Inc., v. Google Inc., No. C 10-0361 WHA (N.D. Cal. May 31, 2012) (hosted by Groklaw) The U.S. District Court of Northern California in San Francisco dismissed Oracle’s claims that Google had infringed Oracle’s copyright in 37 application programming interfaces (“APIs”), holding that the particular elements duplicated in Google’s Android operating system were free for all ... Read More...