Michael Barclay 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (58)

• On the post: Utah Theme Park Sues Taylor Swift Over Album Title After Exploiting It

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2021 @ 08:47pm

  This is why we can't have nice things

• On the post: Taylor Swift Changes Artwork For New Album, Merch After Online Retailer Complains Of Similarities

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 05 Aug, 2020 @ 09:12am

  "folkore" is a very common term in the USPTO databases

  If you go to the USPTO trademark search database (TESS) and search for "folklore," you get 73 hits.
  http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=4802%3Ak3nd54.1.1&p_search=searchss&p_L=50&BackReference=&p_plural=yes&p_s_PARA1=&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA1%24LD&expr=PARA1+AND+PARA2&p_s_PARA2=folklore&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA2%24COMB&p_op_ALL=AND&a_default=search&a_search=Submit+Query&a_search=Submit+Query
  So "folklore" is a very common term, and a descriptive one at that.
  I wouldn't criticize Taylor Swift for naming an album "folklore" when the album is an indie folk album whose subject matter is, well . . . folklore.

• On the post: 9th Circuit Revives Ridiculous 'Shake It Off' Copyright Lawsuit, Because The 9th Circuit Loves To Mess Up Copyright Law

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 01 Nov, 2019 @ 12:57pm

  Split in the Circuits?

  In the Seventh Circuit, fair use can be decided as a matter of law at the pleading stage. Brownmark Films, LLC v. Comedy Partners, 682 F.3d 687 (7th Cir. 2012). So why can't copyrightability of short phrases be decided as a matter of law?
  Seems like there's a circuit split here.

• On the post: Facebook's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Privacy Week

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 19 Apr, 2019 @ 05:46pm

  Sign spotted somewhere or the other

  You don't even need a whiteboard for this sign, permanent ink is fine:
  "It has been zero days since Facebook's most recent privacy violation"

• On the post: Big Fair Use Win For Mashups: 'Oh, The Places You'll Boldly Go!' Deemed To Be Fair Use

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2019 @ 08:14pm

  Oracle v. Google causing mischief again

  This case is another example of how dangerous and harmful the Oracle v. Google opinions are. The district court in this case is in the Ninth Circuit, and there are plenty of Ninth Circuit fair use decisions to guide its district courts. Since those cases apparently weren't working for the plaintiff, it instead cited the Federal Circuit's Oracle opinions and argued that they should control the case.
  What's worse here is that the district court didn't reject the plaintiff's argument out of hand. The district court should have said, "Oracle isn't binding, rather Ninth Circuit law is binding." Instead, the district court treated Oracle as controlling law, but was able to distinguish it on the facts.
  If the Supreme Court doesn't review the Oracle decisions, we can expect them to be cited in many future cases, instead of Ninth Circuit law, and in cases where Oracle can't be meaningfully distinguished on its facts.
  (Disclosure: I'm counsel of record on an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to review Oracle v. Google.)

• On the post: US Trade Rep Appears To Misreport Its Own Trade Agreement To Include Copyright Extension

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 27 Aug, 2018 @ 05:54pm

  I smell a rat. No, make that a mouse.

  Just in time, Mickey's copyright stays alive 5 more years.

• On the post: Yes, Privacy Is Important, But California's New Privacy Bill Is An Unmitigated Disaster In The Making

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 09 Jul, 2018 @ 12:24pm

  The Internet: It wasn't broken, but they fixed it anyway

  This old saying immediately came to mind: "It wasn't broken, but they fixed it anyway"

• On the post: How Trump's Lawyer's Silly Lawsuit Against Buzzfeed May Free Stormy Daniels From Her Non Disclosure Agreement

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2018 @ 11:02pm

  Need update to the "Streisand Effect"

  Since the "Streisand Effect" isn't adequate to describe this degree of shooting oneself in the foot, Mr. Masnick needs to come up with another moniker that will make him even more famous

• On the post: When Godwin's Law Met The Streisand Effect

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 15 Sep, 2017 @ 08:38pm

  For some odd reason, this reminds me of the Erdős–Bacon number

  There is a thing called the "Erdős–Bacon number."
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erd%C5%91s%E2%80%93Bacon_number
  For some odd reason, this post reminds me of that number.

• On the post: The Snopes Fight Is Even Way More Complicated Than We Originally Explained

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 15 Aug, 2017 @ 11:09am

  TL;DR?

  This is so complicated, even the TL;DR would be too complicated.

• On the post: Techdirt's First Amendment Fight For Its Life

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 11 Jan, 2017 @ 12:09pm

  Do you have a specific donation page to fund your defense?

  Mike, do you have a donation page specifically to fund your defense? As opposed to the general membership pages (Friends of Techdirt, etc.)

• On the post: Media Bias And The Death Of Intellectual Honesty, Doubling Down

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2016 @ 01:41pm

  Thanks for confirming I wasn't missing something

  Thanks for confirming I wasn't missing something. I read Eichenwald's article three times and couldn't figure out where his conclusion came from. Turns out it wasn't there.

• On the post: Copyright Question: Does David Bowie Get The Copyright On Computer Generated Lyrics?

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2016 @ 02:20pm

  Compared to monkey selfies, sure

  Bowie's randomized lyrics are at least as copyrightable as a monkey selife. So sure!

• On the post: And Of Course: Authors Guild Asks Supreme Court To Overturn Fair Use Ruling On Google Books

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2016 @ 07:07pm

  Two glaring omissions in the cert petition

  There are two glaring and interesting omissions in the cert petition:
  (1) The petition doesn't discuss the fact that the Authors Guild failed to petition for cert. after it lost the related HathiTrust case. There, the Second Circuit held that (a) the libraries' use of the digitized books was a fair use, and (b) the Authors Guild didn't have standing to bring an copyright claim as an association. The Authors Guild should be precluded from rearguing these points any further. This should dispose of the 3rd and 4th questions presented.
  (2) In 1990, Judge Pierre Leval wrote what is widely accepted as the leading article on fair use. The Supreme Court cited the article about 16 times in the Campbell case. The article is highly instructive on the 1st question presented . . . yet the petition doesn't mention or cite it at all. Perhaps that's because Judge Leval wrote the Second Circuit opinion under review here.

• On the post: The Selfie Monkey Strikes Back: Lawyers Claim Of Course Monkeys Can Sue For Copyright

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2015 @ 10:36am

  Retainer Agreement?

  I want to see the retainer agreement between Irell & Manella and the monkey.

• On the post: Next Shoe Drops For Prenda's Paul Hansmeier: Minnesota Law Board Seeks To Disbar Him

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2015 @ 06:59pm

  There are times when Techdirt needs a "like" button

  Would click "like" if I could.

• On the post: Yes, The Appeals Court Got Basically Everything Wrong In Deciding API's Are Covered By Copyright

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 18 Aug, 2015 @ 06:10pm

  APIs aren't a "computer program"

  Another way of putting this is that APIs aren't a "computer program" under the definition in 17 U.S.C §101 -- and since APIs aren't a computer program, they don't qualify for copyright protection **at all**, even before you get to §102(b). You can use APIs when you write a computer program (the implementing code), and APIs have to be expressed in a form that the compiler/interpreter will understand them (the declaring code), but that doesn't make APIs eligible for copyright protection under either §102(a) or §102(b). This is true for the menu commands in Lotus v. Borland, and for the java APIs in Oracle v. Google.

• On the post: DailyDirt: Introduction To Semiconductors

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 20 Nov, 2014 @ 05:24pm

  You forgot Britney Spears

  You forgot the essential website, "Britney Spears' Guide to
  Semiconductor Physics".
  http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm

• On the post: Don't Miss The Powerful Trailer For The Aaron Swartz Documentary: The Internet's Own Boy

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2014 @ 05:13pm

  Re: Re: Video Down On Techdirt

  Works for me on Internet Explorer, but doesn't work on Firefox.

• On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

  

  Michael Barclay ( profile ), 06 Apr, 2014 @ 07:11pm

  NSA and cookbooks

  ""To serve America" is really just a cookbook" actually evokes a classic Twilight Zone episode.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serve_Man_%28The_Twilight_Zone%29

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