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Those pesky Turtles |
Cisco Systems has said it will initiate a legal action against its fast growing rival, Arista Networks, accusing the company of patent and copyright infringement. Cisco has alleged that Arista has violated its patents and copyrights linked to its networking equipment. With copyright, Cisco's claims tha Arista has not only copied the Cisco product features, but has also apparently copied the language in Cisco's operating manuals - with typos and grammatical errors and all. More here.
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Sol-seom by Michael Kenna |
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The Korean Air image |
But it was not the same image - and the appellate court upheld the trial judge saying “Creative works using the same natural scenery like mountains, trees, and stones tend to be similar and thus the range of its creativeness is bound to be limited” and “Given the fact that the object in the photograph is a natural one, a creativeness claim about it is weak and minor adjustments like taking a picture from a different angle can’t be taken as creative elements”. They also commented that the two pictures (one taken by Michael Kenna and the other by an amateur) are different in terms of volume and direction of light and the way the picture was taken. As to the claim by the plaintiff that the pictures are similar in their first impression, the judges answered, “The plaintiff’s work gives an impression of an Oriental ink-and-wash painting while the amateur’s exudes dynamism at the time of sunrise, which are fundamentally different.”
It's an interesting approach, but post the CJEU's Inforpaq decison it seems contrary to the decision made by Sir Colin Birss in Temple Island Collections Ltd v New English Teas Ltd & another [2012] EWPCC 1 -although here the claimant had manipulated a photograph of the House of Parliament to created a disticntive predominalty black and white image with a red routemaster bus on Westminster Bridge, which was then recreated by the defendant. Judge Birss (as he was then) considered the scope of photographic copyright by reference to three aspects which could be considered 'original': (i) Residing in specialities of angle of shot, light and shade, exposure and effects achieved with filters, developing techniques and so on; (ii) Residing in the creation of the scene to be photographed; (iii) Deriving from being in the right place at the right time - and with a nod to Infopaq - found for the claimant.
In Australia Attorney General George Brandis and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull have written to major copyright holders to urge them to come up with ways to discourage people from infringing copyright online. It's a carrot and stick approach with ministers saying that if the code of practice is not agreed with 120 days, the government will impose its own rules to crack down on illegal downloading and streaming of material on the internet. The planned code of practice “will include a process to notify consumers when a copyright breach has occurred and provide information on how they can gain access to legitimate content,” Mr Turnbull said. The Australian government will also amend the Copyright Act so copyright owners can seek a court order to block a website operated from overseas that Australians use to access content unlawfully although some commentators say the planned scheme would be open to abuse by content owners - Dr Matthew Rimmer told TechWorld "There are a number of whistleblowing sites that have a large number of copyright materials on them" adding "A site like Wikileaks, for instance, could certainly be targeted under these laws." More here.
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