monstermagnet - Slashdot User

Submission + - Digital Models not subject to copyright 1

Submitted by MonsterMagnet on Thursday June 19, 2008 @08:49AM

MonsterMagnet writes: The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has affirmed a ruling that a plain, unadorned wireframe model of a Toyota vehicle is not a creative expression protected under US copyright law. The court analogized the wire-frame models to photographs: the owner of an object does not have a copyright in all images of the object, but a photographer may have a limited copyright over a particular image based on artistic choices such as costumery, lighting, posing, etc. Thus, the modelers could only copyright any "incremental contribution" they made to Toyota's vehicles; in the case of plain models, there was nothing new to protect. This could be a two-edged sword — companies that produce goods may not be able to stop modelers from imaging those products, but modelers may not be able to prevent others from copying their work.

News article; IP360 article (subscription required); the Tenth Circuit's ruling is here

Comment Ethical violation (Score 5, Informative) 211

by monstermagnet on Saturday October 06, 2007 @07:45PM (#20883571) Attached to: RIAA Conceals Overturned Case

IAAL, and I've worked directly for judges. This won't win the RIAA lawyers any friends on the bench.

There is an ethical obligation to inform the court of legal authority (cases) in the controlling jurisdiction (same state, or federal circuit, for example) known to the lawyer to be directly adverse to the position of the client. See ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 3.3(a)(2).

Rule 3.3(a)(3) prohibits offering "false evidence." Not quite on point, because legal authority is not "evidence".

The commentary suggests that a "lawyer must not allow the tribunal to be misled by false statement of law or fact or evidence that the lawyer knows to be false." Rule 3.3, cmt. 2. That's pretty inclusive, and I'd feel comfortable arguing that failing to disclose the reversal of authority you've previous cited is an ethical violation. A referal to the state bar commission could be in order here, and let them sort it out.

Submission + - US copying laptop hard disks+password upon entry

Submitted by

Flo

on Monday March 05, 2007 @12:25PM

Flo writes: "According to Fefe, a German blogger, U.S. officials copy hard disks of laptops upon entry. They even insist on the disclosure of passwords so they can decrypt files. Allegedly they even take people into coercive detention to retrieve the passwords. Fefe's sources are one member of the (German) Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and one employee of SAP. He also claims to have received confirmation for this from "two other large companies"."

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