Robert W. Clarida

September 18, 2009 | New York Law Journal

Robert J. Bernstein, founder of The Law Office of Robert J. Bernstein, and Robert W. Clarida, a partner at Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, discuss two recent jury verdicts in Minnesota and Massachusetts that have generated considerable heat at the intersection of copyright and the Internet. Unfortunately for the peer-to-peer file-sharing defendants, different "peers" sat on the federal district court juries that awarded the record company plaintiffs statutory damages of $1.92 million and $675,000 for willful infringement of multiple sound recording copyrights. Among the objections raised to the verdicts, both in the press and a new trial motion in the Minnesota action, is a Due Process Clause constitutional challenge to the statutory damages provision of the Copyright Act.

By Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida

13 minute read

January 19, 2007 | New York Law Journal

Robert J. Bernstein, an attorney, and Robert W. Clarida, a partner at Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, write that practitioners in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rarely encounter either mountain lions or hula dancers, but two recent decisions from the U.S. District Court for the districts of Montana and Hawaii present just such an opportunity.

By Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida

13 minute read

March 16, 2007 | New York Law Journal

Robert J. Bernstein, a practitioner in The Law Office of Robert J. Bernstein, and Robert W. Clarida, a partner at Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, write that in the spring of 1967, as London blossomed with flower power, a new group called Procol Harum released their first single, "A Whiter Shade of Pale." Forty years later, the organist claimed and was awarded joint authorship of the song in Britain's High Court of Justice, a result that would likely be impossible under U.S. law.

By Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida

11 minute read

July 21, 2006 | New York Law Journal

Robert J. Bernstein, a New York City practitioner, and Robert W. Clarida, a partner at Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, write: Wouldn't it be nice to customize every Hollywood movie to your taste, to eliminate whatever you consider objectionable? Sure. And wouldn't there be a nice business opportunity in selling custom-edited films? Of course. And isn't it fair use under the Copyright Act to make and sell such "transformative" versions of hit films without the permission of the filmmakers? Not so fast.

By Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida

13 minute read

September 23, 2005 | Law.com

The question of what is, and is not, protectable in photographs has long vexed the courts. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the Southern District of New York recently issued a thoughtful analysis of the nature of creativity in, and the resulting level of protection for, different genres of photography and their constituent elements. This led Kaplan to a more widely applicable discussion of whether the "idea/expression dichotomy" is useful when considering the copyrightability of works of visual art.

By Robert Jay Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida

12 minute read

March 18, 2011 | New York Law Journal

In their Copyright Law column, Robert W. Clarida, a partner with Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, and Robert J. Bernstein of The Law Office of Robert J. Bernstein discuss the unusually aggressive copyright positions three disparate entities have taken against people (like photographers, festival attendees and patients) who dare to feature or refer to them in works of authorship.

By Robert W. Clarida and Robert J. Bernstein

12 minute read

July 15, 2011 | New York Law Journal

In their Copyright Law column, Robert W. Clarida of Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman and solo practitioner Robert J. Bernstein write that the 1976 Copyright Act aimed to eliminate state law protection "equivalent" to federal copyright, but, to put it mildly, the goal of national uniformity has not been perfectly realized, and preemption cases are notoriously inconsistent.

By Robert W. Clarida and Robert J. Bernstein

11 minute read

September 16, 2011 | New York Law Journal

In their Copyright Law column, Robert J. Bernstein, who practices in The Law Office of Robert J. Bernstein, and Robert W. Clarida, a partner at Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, write that the Copyright Act, in making unauthorized importation under �602(a) actionable as an infringement of the �106(3) distribution right, also arguably makes such importation subject to �109(a)'s "first sale" limitation on that right. This ambiguity, they say, has led to a series of decisions seeking to reconcile the three statutory provisions.

By Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida

12 minute read

September 15, 2006 | New York Law Journal

Robert J. Bernstein, who practices law in New York City, and Robert W. Clarida, a partner in Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, write that there is a whole body of state law (beyond the scope of this article) that might protect a screenwriter's ideas if they are communicated, for example, in the context of a contractual or fiduciary relationship involving rights not preempted by the Copyright Act.

By Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida

12 minute read

January 27, 2006 | Law.com

The bounty from Alan Alexander Milne's beloved, and enormously profitable, Winnie-the-Pooh books were the subject of a mammoth tug of war between Milne's granddaughter, along with her licensee, the Walt Disney Co., and Stephen Slesinger Inc., the successor to the author's original grant of U.S. merchandising rights. This tale of attempted termination, greed and statutory construction provides an instructive tour of the Copyright Act's often Byzantine provisions governing termination of grants.

By Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida

13 minute read