Copyright Infringment Archives

Can Photographs infringe Dance Choreography Copyright?

Can you take photographs of a dance performance and publish them in an article or a book? This question came up before a US Court in the 1980s, a few years after choreography was added as a copyrightable work under the US Copyright Law. The case related to a popular choreographic work of George Balanchine, a renowned ballet master. Balanchine choreographed his own version of the ballet The Nutcracker, set to music by Tchaikovsky. The Nutcracker was a very popular…

December 11, 2019 Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala Copyrights, Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law, Trademarks 0Comment 1643Views 0Like

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The featured image show Supreme Court of India. The post is about Gramophone Company of India Ltd.

Gramophone Company of India Ltd. vs. Birendra Bahadur Pandey and Ors., 1984 AIR 667

First Publication Date: 24th July 2008 CASE FACTS: Gramophone Company of India Limited is the owner of copyright in the recordings of performing artists to whom it pays royalties. The company learnt of the arrival of a consignment of pirated copies of these recordings at Calcutta. The same were being transported from Singapore to Nepal through India. Action was initiated against the consignee for violation of Gramophone India’s copyright. CASE HISTORY: Gramophone India sought action from the Registrar of Copyrights to curb the circulation/import…

October 18, 2018 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law 0Comment 3657Views 0Like

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Machinima – Copyright and Related Issues – Part II

In our post last week, we discussed about the art of machinima, i.e. the use of visuals from a video game to create a cinematographic film. As machinima is a derivative work, using the characters and the environment from the game without the authorization of the game developers would usually constitute an act of infringement. However, many of the creators of machinima, or machinimators, rely on the fair use provisions in the event that a copyright infringement claim is brought…

November 23, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 917Views 0Like

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Machinima – Copyright and Related Issues – Part I

In this post we shall be discussing about ‘machinima’, a form of new age cinema. For those of you who are not aware of what machinima is, it is derived from two words, ‘machine’ and ‘cinema’, and as the combination suggests, it refers to the practice of using video games to create original cinematographic films. Machinima films use the virtual environments and the characters within a game to tell stories. Though a machinima appears to be just like any other…

November 16, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 775Views 0Like

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The Featured Image is of a film strip. The post is about a John Doe order obtained by Phantom films, to prevent any online piracy and copyright infringement of their film Masaan. To read the post click here.

John Doe Order for Masaan!

The Bombay High Court passed a John Doe order favoring Phantom Films to prevent the piracy of the movie “Masaan”. Masaan is a movie produced by Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane under the Phantom Films banner. The order was not only issued against unknown persons, who are potential infringers but Sonali Cable Vision, SpectraNet (an ISP), Manish Realties, Macassar Productions, and Sikhya Entertainment were also named as defendants. This was a step taken towards curbing the nefarious act of piracy. Phatom…

July 29, 2015 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 880Views 0Like

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Thou shall not re-tweet!

Dennis Flaherty, an American photographer is suing the beverage manufacturer Big Red Inc. for using his copyrighted photograph of Fort Alamo at night, in a social media marketing campaign. Well, this doesn’t seem out place, right? Companies making unauthorized use of a copyrighted work should be held responsible, and in many cases they are. But what if I were to say that Mr. Flaherty is not just suing Big Red, its employees and affiliates but also every other person who…