During her nearly twenty-five years with the Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was involved in many copyright law cases and wrote the majority opinion for one of the most important decisions, Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., Inc. She was also a copyright owner, writing and registering memoirs and children’s books with the Copyright Office. Learn more about her legal and creative legacy in this blog post.
When Justice Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020, she left a lasting and wide-ranging legacy, most notably in her lifelong fight for women's rights and gender equality. Perhaps a lesser-known aspect of her influence is her impact on copyright law.
As the Copyright Office celebrates its 150th birthday, we can look back more than 240 years through the history of copyright protections in the United States to see how the law has changed in response to changing technologies and economics. The authors of the U.S. Constitution believed that copyright was important enough to explicitly grant …
The following is a guest post by Regan A. Smith, General Counsel and Associate Register of Copyrights. Last week, the Supreme Court issued an important opinion regarding copyright registration. This blog discusses the decision, and some of the current (and future) options available for rights owners looking to register their copyright claims. What is the …
The following is a guest post by Brad Greenberg, counsel for policy and international affairs. This month marks the hundredth anniversary of oral arguments in the seminal U.S. Supreme Court case of International News Service v. Associated Press (1918), which established the federal common law doctrine of “hot news” misappropriation. This anniversary comes at a …
The following is a guest post by Samantha Kosarzycki, legal intern, Office of Public Information and Education. It just wouldn’t feel like the holidays in our house without the annual showing of It’s a Wonderful Life, Holiday Inn, Scrooged, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Out of all the heartwarming holiday classics, I always considered It’s …
The following is a guest post by Rachel E. Fertig, a 2015–2017 Barbara A. Ringer Copyright Honors Fellow, serving as an attorney-advisor in the Office of General Counsel and Office of Policy & International Affairs. The Supreme Court’s March 22 opinion in Star Athletica, LLC v. Varsity Brands, Inc. answered a question that has perplexed …
