Advanced Copyright Issues on the Internet - Fenwick & West LLP

Funeral Depot liable for copyright infringement or contributory infringement, if infringement itis. The possibility of copyright infringement liability on these unusual facts showing suchextensive involvement in the allegedly infringing display should not pose any broad threat to theuse of hyperlinks on the internet.” 215211. Live Nation Sports v. DavisThe facts of Live Nation Motor Sports, Inc. v. Davis, 2153 are discussed in Section II.B.3above. The court granted a preliminary injunction enjoining the defendant from providingInternet links to the plaintiff’s webcasts of its motorcycle racing events or otherwise displayingor performing the plaintiff’s webcasts. 2154 With almost no analysis, the court ruled that theplaintiff had a likelihood of success on its copyright claim because “the unauthorized ‘link’ tothe live webcasts that [the defendant] provides on his website would likely qualify as a copieddisplay or performance of [the plaintiff’s] copyrightable material.” 2155 The court found a threatof irreparable harm to the plaintiff because the defendant’s links would cause the plaintiff to loseits ability to sell sponsorships or advertisements on the basis that its website was the exclusivesource of the webcasts. 2156 Although the unclear facts of this case make its reach uncertain, itcould potentially imply that any unauthorized link that causes material available on another siteto be streamed through an unauthorized site could constitute an infringing public display orperformance.12. Perfect 10 v. Google (aka Perfect 10 v. Amazon)The case of Perfect 10 v. Google involved some important rulings in the context offraming of content taken from third party sites. That case is discussed extensively in SectionII.C.4 above.E. Streaming and Downloading“Streaming” is the digital transmission of a work, usually a musical work, over a networkthat results in an immediate playing of the work at the recipient’s end, without storage of apermanent copy at the recipient’s end. If a permanent copy of a work is stored at the recipient’send as a result of a transmission, the act of transmission is usually referred to as “downloading”and the resultant copy is referred to as a “download.” A “limited download” refers to adownload that can be played only for a limited period of time or a limited number of plays.Streaming potentially implicates at least two rights of the copyright holder in both thesound recording being transmitted and the musical work embodied in the sound recording – the2152 Id.2153 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89552 (N.D. Tex. Dec. 11, 2006).2154 Id. at *18.2155 Id. at *12.2156 Id. at *15.- 470 -