Mass Law Blog
Intellectual property and business litigation, Massachusetts and nationallyWritten by humans
Lee Gesmer’s Mass Law Blog began in 2005, and contains almost 600 posts. The site initially focused on Massachusetts law, but today it follows business and intellectual property law nation-wide. The site is hosted by Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm represents startup and established companies in the areas of litigation, transactions (including financings, mergers and acquisitions), IP rights, taxation, employment law, standards consortia, business counseling and open source development projects and foundations. You can find a summary of the firm’s services here. To learn how Gesmer Updegrove can help you, contact: Lee Gesmer
Aereo, Antenna Farms and Copyright Law: Creative Destruction Comes to Broadcast TV (Part 1)
Whenever a copyright law is to be made or altered, then the idiots assemble. - Mark Twain's Notebook, 1902-1903 ______________________ Aereo is coming to Boston, and to 20 other cities before the end of the year. Aereo is a company that has developed a system that captures over-the-air television (broadcast TV) and retransmits it to subscribers over the Internet. Subscribers are able to watch broadcast TV on their computers, tablets and smart phones. Even better, Aereo acts as a remote digital...
Does Second Circuit Decision Determine Copyright Legality of Aereo “Antenna-Farm” System Nationwide?
Aereo captures over-the-air television broadcasts and streams them to Aereo subscribers over the Internet. While the broadcasters claim this is copyright infringement (unauthorized public performance), Aereo has created an "antenna-farm" system designed to avoid allegations that its rebroadcast is a public performance under U.S. copyright law. CBS Broadcasting and other broadcasters brought suit for copyright infringement in federal court in New York. However, Aereo convinced both the federal...
“Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle” Is Unable to Create an Enforceable Online Agreement
"Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle" is Yahoo!, of course. And, its lawyers should be embarrassed by Yahoo!'s inability to create enforceable online Terms of Service (TOS). The issue arose in Ajemian v. Yahoo!, decided by the Massachusetts Appeals Court on May 7, 2013. In this case the plaintiffs were the administrators of a decedent's estate. They wanted access to the decedent's email account to let his friends know of his death and memorial service, and later to locate assets of his...
For Lawyers Turned Video-Porn Mass Copyright Plaintiffs, Litigation May Not Pay
I didn't think I'd have a chance to write another "what were they thinking" post only two weeks after the last one. But, here goes .... I've written about Bittorrent swarm mass copyright suits in the past, but Monday's decision by California federal district court judge Otis D. Wright tops everything that has come before. A lot of people have followed this case and similar cases filed by so-called "Prenda Law"—Ingenuity 13 v. John Doe. In other words, the plaintiffs in this case have made a...
This site is hosted by Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a technology law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. You can find a summary of our services here. To learn how GU can help you, contact:
Lee Gesmer