On September 28, 2018, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the jury verdict in favor of Led Zeppelin on the controversy of whether the iconic song “Stairway to Heaven” was copied from the song “Taurus” by the band Spirit, and composed by Randy Wolfe. According to the Court, the District Court made a significant error in its jury instructions that “could have led the jury to believe that even if a series of three notes or a descending chromatic scale were used in combination with other elements in an original manner, it would not warrant copyright protection.” Nova Southeastern University's Copyright Officer, Stephen Carlisle, J.D., examines the ruling and it’s probable impact on future cases, which probably will only serve to make “blurred lines” blurrier.

On August 20, 2018, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that basic digital remastering of pre-1972 sound recordings created a new sound recording copyright. The lower court ruling presented two problematic consequences, namely that by continually remastering a sound recording, the owner could in effect create a perpetual copyright and frustrate an artist’s right to terminate the work under the Copyright Act. Nova Southeastern University's Copyright Officer, Stephen Carlisle, J.D., examines the new ruling, and discusses what creative aspects must be present in the updated sound recording, now that the “old wine in new bottles” approach has been rejected.

Streaming is the future of the music business. Everybody knows this. Except, it appears, the record companies. On Tuesday, August 7, 2018, in an earnings call with stock analysts, Warner Music Groups revealed that it had now sold all of its holdings of stock in Spotify, realizing $504 million. This is the culmination of a trend. Within one month after Spotify’s shares first traded publically in the United States, the labels immediately started dumping their shares. In fact, almost immediately after public trading, Independent Record Label Global Digital Rights Agency sold 100% of its shares in Spotify. What’s going on? Nova Southeastern University's Copyright Officer, Stephen Carlisle, J.D., examines Spotify’s revenue and expenses, as well as its business model, and shows that it’s not all unicorns and rainbows at the streaming giant.

In a recent case from Oregon, a District Court refused to award attorney’s fees to a successful Bit Torrent Plaintiff. The Court justified the denial partly because the same attorney had filed over 300 copyright infringement cases, thus indicating an “overaggressive assertion of copyright claims.” The Ninth Circuit, in reversing, pointedly noted that the large amount of copyright cases was due in part to the District Court’s own case management order which limited Bit Torrent plaintiffs to suing one defendant at a time. Nova Southeastern University's Copyright Officer, Stephen Carlisle, J.D., examines how Court rulings have made the mass filings of Bit Torrent lawsuits inevitable, and that the old adage of “be careful what you wish for” should guide future rulings in this area.

Bill Graham was certainly one of the most well-known concert promoters of the 1960’s and 1970’s rock music scene. He also made audio and video recordings of the bands that played his venues, without getting any approvals or permissions from the performing artists. This massive treasure trove of recordings which “reads like a veritable who’s who of rock, soul, and alternative music, containing the performances of The Rolling Stones, The Who, the Grateful Dead, Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Carlos Santana, to name a few” is known as “Wolfgang’s Vault,” after Bill Graham’s childhood nickname. After Graham’s death, these videos and recordings were sold to a company that put them up on the internet for live streaming and downloads. Licenses? None. Nova Southeastern University's Copyright Officer, Stephen Carlisle, J.D., examines the April 9, 2018 decision by a Federal Judge, ruling that these recordings should have been left “in the vault.”