Extra. Extra. Popular art posting website steals an artist’s works and sells it to Hot Topic. Actually that didn’t happen. %CUT% DeviantArt (“DA”) operates a website that features the works of visual artists. The artist submits a picture or photograph and DA posts it for the entire world to see. Under DA’s terms and conditions, the artist agrees to give DA a world-wide, non-exclusive license to publish, resize, make collages and use the work for DA marketing and promotion. The terms and conditions specifically state that the artist retains the copyright in the work and no one can use it without the artist’s permission. What could go wrong? A DA user discovered that his Adventure Time fan art (see the picture) appeared on a t-shirt sold by Hot Topic. A flurry of anguished and angry social media postings accused DA of selling the art to Hot Topic. DA denied selling the art to Hot Topic. DA pointed to its terms and conditions where it said that no one can download and use the art for commercial purposes without permission from the copyright owner. So the artist will have to follow up directly with Hot Topic.

Criminal copyright infringement can get you kicked out the U.S. %CUT% Raul Zaragoza-Vaquero has been in the U.S. for less than 5 years. Raul sold bootleg CDs. Raul’s business model got him convicted of criminal copyright infringement. But his troubles didn’t end there. The Immigration and Nationality Act allows the deportation of someone who engages in crimes involving moral turpitude. So immigration authorities started proceedings to deport Raul. Raul appealed to the U.S. Dept. of Justice’s Board of Immigration Appeals to allow him to stay in the U.S. He lost. Although there was little precedent for it to rely on, the Board ruled that copyright infringement is a crime involving moral turpitude. The Board relied heavily on precedent in criminal trademark infringement cases and other theft type cases. The Board also looked to the legislative intent that copyright infringement enforcement was an important priority.

A link to another website might get you in trouble. %CUT%Many websites include links to other websites. It’s a useful way to build browser traffic to the website and to benefit the linked website. But what happens if clicking on the link sends your user to a website that’s infringing on someone’s copyright? In the U.S., most courts have held that linking isn’t contributory copyright infringement because there’s usually no way to control or stop the infringement on the linked website. Due to a recent case in Europe, the same may not be true in the E.U. The Court of Justice of the E.U. ruled in GS Media BV v. Sanoma, that linking to a website that contained infringing material was infringement. The E.U. court held that the defendant was liable because it knew or had reason to know that the link sent a user to a website with infringing material.

Carpenters have a saying: "measure twice, cut once”. This opening line from a recent 7th Circuit Opinion says it all. %CUT% Final Call sold over a hundred copies of Jesus Ali’s portrait of Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, without Ali’s permission. Ali sued Final Call for copyright infringement. The trial court relied on authority from the 7th Circuit that, through a typo, incorrectly shifted the burden of proof of an affirmative defense from the defendant to the plaintiff. While taking some responsibility for the error, the 7th Circuit reversed and remanded for assessment of damages.