In 1997, David Bowie sold bonds backed by future copyright royalties on some of his songs. These royalties are income from licensing of his songs, such as royalties from public performance of his works. These royalties can be a consistent source of income for certain artists, and they also led to something of a revolution […]

It is not unusual for collectors to commission artwork from an artist they like. In these cases, the artist will typically reach an agreement with the customer about what they’d generally like, but the artist still contributes most of the creative effort. After all, that’s why the customer is commissioning the work. In these cases, […]

My favorite unenforced instance of copyright infringement stems from David Bowie’s song Space Oddity. (Before we continue, yes, some lawyers have favorite instances of unenforced copyright infringement.) Space Oddity debuted in 1969, just nine days before Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon, while Michael Collins orbited above them. While the actual astronauts were safely […]

I’ve been listening to the Original Broadway Cast Recording of Hamilton a lot over the last few weeks. I guess you could say I’ve been listening non stop. The musical is filled with references to rap, hip-hop, and rock songs. Some explicit, some subtle. One of the most literal pulls is the song Ten Duel […]

November is National Novel Writing Month. A month when tens thousands of writers across the world commit to writing 50,000 words of a book. Let this be a gentle reminder to register your copyright before you start shopping your novel around, and particularly before you publish it. While instances of brazen copyright infringement like this […]

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently reaffirmed that base recipes are not copyrightable – but yet there is a booming cookbook industry. What gives? Recipes do not fall into the statutory copyright protection because they are combinations of facts, amounts and ingredients that are non-copyrightable, and instructions – that are functional and also not […]

The Copyright Act allows for copyright on the following types of works: literary works; musical works, including any accompanying words; dramatic works, including any accompanying music; pantomimes and choreographic works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; motion pictures and other audiovisual works; sound recordings; and architectural works. In addition, you can register other works such as […]