Bad Faith

Assuming that the opposite of good faith is bad faith, the latter is this author's theme this time.  This week's news in the legal blogosphere has been thin for copyright-related matters, but the lack of good faith seems to be a common thread.

For a cautionary tale about crowdfunding, legal bloggers Kathleen K. Sheridan   and Melissa Landau Steinman  writing for the law firm Venable LLP point out three rules to live by, including that it is vital to keep promises made to investors.

All About Advertising Law source:
https://www.allaboutadvertisinglaw.com/2019/06/ftc-reminds-crowdfunders-deliver-on-your-promises-or-refund.html#page=1

Lexology source:
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=57a69027-f21d-4761-b1bf-03d4d542ec7d&utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&utm_medium=HTML+email+-+Body+-+General+section&utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2019-06-06&utm_term=

For advice for authors from Zach Obront about using Kickstarter to crowdfund your book launch, find tips here:
https://scribewriting.com/8-lessons-for-launching-your-book-with-a-kickstarter-and-raising-25000/

The balance of the good and the bad relate to the use of other people's photographs. In one case, the photographer prevailed against a commercial publisher, in the other case, the photographer appears to have gone after a safe-harbor-protected big fish, instead of the possibly culpable little fish.

Legal bloggers Mariah Volk and David Grossman writing for Loeb & Loeb LLP examine the case of Downs v Oath, and explain why Oath --which owns HuffPost-- is not legally responsible under the DMCA for publishing contributor-uploaded copies of copyrighted works that are uploaded in defiance of HuffPost's TOS..

See here:
https://www.loeb.com/en/insights/publications/2019/05/downs-v-oath

or here:
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=48e2eee2-90ce-4a7c-ae7b-0872e5a84788

It took an appeal to the Fourth Circuit for the photographer to prevail against an alleged infringer, as legal blogger Jodi Benassi discussed for the law firm McDermott Will & Emery.

Here:
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=730ef86e-69be-439f-b7f8-ded544a777cd

How someone can crop out the copyright wording from a photograph and then claim that they had a good faith belief that the photograph was not copyrighted is... beyond belief.

Jodi Benassi's breakdown of the four factors of  fair use and the "heart of the work" is especially worth reading.

All the best,
Rowena Cherry
SPACE SNARK™ http://www.spacesnark.com/