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Why “Work Made for Hire” Is Not Enough

Calling commissioned work "work made for hire" doesn't make it one. For logos, websites, and software, a present assignment of copyright is often what actually secures ownership and its absence surfaces at the worst moment.

August 17, 2026

A stack of books

Google Books is Legal and It Only Took a Decade To Find Out

Google scored a major victory earlier this month when the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled that the company’s massive undertaking in creating a digital library doesn’t infringe on the rights of authors because it’s fair use.

October 28, 2015

A group of employees talking to each other at work

“Let’s get crazy” with DMCA takedown notices

On February 7, 2007, a young Pennsylvania woman named Stephanie Lenz uploaded to YouTube a video of her two adorable children dancing to the Prince song “Let’s Go Crazy.” She titled the 29-second long video “Let’s Get Crazy #1,” and then (probably) went about the rest of her day.

September 22, 2015

A modern office building (empty)

European Artists’ Rights Org Goes After SoundCloud for Copyright Abuse

Previously on this blog, we wrote about the current battles between the copyright holders of recorded works (you know these works as “music”) and certain scofflaw streaming services that seem to operate based on a policy of denying artists any share in the profit created from streaming their music.

September 08, 2015

Two people sign a contract

Pixels Movie DMCA Takedown Leaves Trail of Innocent Videos in Its Wake

Pixels is a new Adam Sandler “movie” that you almost certainly should not see. (Sample review snippet: “Pixels, it is clear even from afar, is the sort of vanity project that represents everything that is wrong with Hollywood.”)

August 25, 2015

People working, laptops visible

Google It With A Capital G

Google’s recent move to break off the parts of the company that are a bit more experimental in nature (like the ones trying to make sure that people never die) and house those parts under a new corporate umbrella called Alphabet has drawn quite a bit of commentary, much of it focusing on Google’s corporate strategy, brand value, or vision for its own future.

August 18, 2015

The Fried Firm Logo

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