"Blurred Lines" is clear infringement

Am I the only one in the world who thinks the Blurred Lines judgment is right? From the Internet, it sure seems that way.

Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams broke into jail here. From a litigator's perspective I have no hesitation in saying they are reaping what they sowed. "Blurred Lines" ended up in court when Pharrell and Thicke sued the estate of Marvin Gaye for a declaratory judgment, which is where you ask a judge to say "this thing you claim isn't true". And from a copyright lawyer's perspective I say this is a judgment that shows you can create a derivative work of something without actually incorporating that work.

And that principle is nothing new.

The California Civil War - first glance at the random thoughts leading to my upcoming book

Up early on New Year's Day. Starting the "outline" (by which I mean random thoughts) for my book that I'll write this year.

The working title, which anyone who took my Entertainment Law class in 2012 or 2013 will recall, is The California Civil War. It's on the desire for entertainment content companies (Southern California) to ensure that the Internet content pipelines (Northern California) behave in the ways that Southern CA has found so mutually profitable in the past, why Northern CA is fighting back (foreshadowing: it's because of their business model), and why the way it's likely to end won't be in the best interests of consumers.

Put another way: it's a view from the inside of both the content creation and distribution industry on why the future of the entertainment content that you want to see won't likely be the one you want to see.

An early hint at what's to come...