Robert J Bernstein

August 27, 2015 | New York Law Journal

In their Copyright Law column, Robert W. Clarida and Robert J. Bernstein write that after the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a devastating blow to Aereo, the streaming service unsuccessfully attempted to stave off the entry of a preliminary injunction by arguing that it should qualify as a "cable system." Last month, however, a copycat technology in California succeeded with the same argument that the Southern District had soundly and somewhat sarcastically rejected in the Aereo remand.

By Robert W. Clarida and Robert J. Bernstein

9 minute read

June 17, 2015 | New York Law Journal

In their Copyright Law column, Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida discuss Cindy Lee Garcia's attempt to have "The Innocence of Muslims," which contains blasphemous statements dubbed over her actual words, removed from YouTube, and the Ninth Circuit's en banc holding that an actor's performance in a motion picture is not separately copyrightable, but instead is merged into the copyright for a film.

By Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida

11 minute read

June 16, 2015 | New York Law Journal

In their Copyright Law column, Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida discuss Cindy Lee Garcia's attempt to have "The Innocence of Muslims," which contains blasphemous statements dubbed over her actual words, removed from YouTube, and the Ninth Circuit's en banc holding that an actor's performance in a motion picture is not separately copyrightable, but instead is merged into the copyright for a film.

By Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida

11 minute read

February 23, 2015 | New York Law Journal

In their Copyright Law column, Robert W. Clarida and Robert J. Bernstein discuss a case, potentially momentous for the music industry, over whether the holders of common-law copyrights in pre-1972 sound recordings have, as part of the bundle of rights attendant to their copyright, the right to exclusive public performance of those sound recordings.

By Robert W. Clarida and Robert J. Bernstein

11 minute read

February 22, 2015 | New York Law Journal

In their Copyright Law column, Robert W. Clarida and Robert J. Bernstein discuss a case, potentially momentous for the music industry, over whether the holders of common-law copyrights in pre-1972 sound recordings have, as part of the bundle of rights attendant to their copyright, the right to exclusive public performance of those sound recordings.

By Robert W. Clarida and Robert J. Bernstein

11 minute read

October 20, 2014 | New York Law Journal

In their Copyright Law column, Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida analyze a recent decision in which Southern District Judge Thomas P. Griesa, weighing the alleged re-creation of three scenes from the infamous pornographic film "Deep Throat" as part of a 2013 film, "Lovelace," produced by The Weinstein Company, upheld the defense of fair use and granted Weinstein's motion for judgment on the pleadings.

By Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida

13 minute read

August 21, 2014 | New York Law Journal

In their Copyright Law column, Robert W. Clarida and Robert J. Bernstein write: What do cheerleading uniforms and laminated faux-maple flooring have in common? Both have recently been the subject of dubious rulings about the copyrightability of useful articles that could, if not reversed, further muddy the already murky doctrinal waters the courts have created around this issue.

By Robert W. Clarida and Robert J. Bernstein

11 minute read

June 20, 2014 | New York Law Journal

In his Copyright Law column, Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida analyze 'Authors Guild v. HathiTrust,' in which the Second Circuit joined the Ninth and Fourth Circuits in finding, in appropriate circumstances, that mass digitization to facilitate search may qualify as transformative use even if the original work itself is not changed or placed in a new context that could be considered commentary or scholarship.

By Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida

13 minute read

February 19, 2014 | New York Law Journal

In their Copyright Law column, Robert W. Clarida of Reitler, Kailas & Rosenblatt, and Robert J. Bernstein of The Law Office of Robert J. Bernstein write: On Dec. 23, 2013, the Northern District of Illinois delivered a Christmas present for the Sherlock Holmes lovers of the world: Klinger v. Conan Doyle Estate Ltd., a suitably labyrinthine decision that should resolve any lingering mystery about the public domain status of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

By Robert W. Clarida and Robert J. Bernstein

10 minute read

December 20, 2013 | New York Law Journal

In their Copyright Law column, Robert J. Bernstein of The Law Office of Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida of Reitler, Kailas & Rosenblatt, review the recent decision 'The Authors Guild v. Google,' which upheld Google's fair use defense in relation to the company's Google Books library project.

By Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida

11 minute read