Copyright Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

US District Court: Users can't legally resell iTunes songs

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 2nd, 2013)

US District Judge Richard Sullivan ruled in favor of Universal Music Group in a case involving the resale of songs bought on iTunes, reports AllThingsD. UMG filed the suits against startup ReDigi, a service that lets users resell their music library. In a judgment filed over the weekend, ...

Russian Railways levies trademark infringement against Apple

by Mike Wehner (Jan 15th, 2013)

At this point, we practically expect to see a new legal charge brought against Apple every day of the week, and oftentimes that is indeed the case, but this one is particularly interesting: TechCrunch reports that Russian Railways is charging Apple with trademark infringement, seeking 2 million ...

Apple ordered to pay settlement in Chinese App Store copyright case

by Randy Nelson (Dec 27th, 2012)

Imagine you're an author and you find out that someone has been selling your books on the App Store without your consent -- and, worse, you don't see a dime of the profits. That's what happened to a group of eight writers in China, and a court there has decided that Apple owes them ...

Photographer Sabine Liewald sues Apple over copyright infringement

by Mike Wehner (Oct 16th, 2012)

No stranger to copyright litigation, Apple will play the defensive role in a suit by photographer Sabine Liewald who alleges the company used a piece of her work without permission. According to details obtained by Patently Apple, the company contacted Liewald's agency, Factory Downtown, and ...

EA sues Zynga for copyright infrigement, cites Tiny Tower

by Mike Schramm (Aug 3rd, 2012)

EA has dropped a lawsuit on Zynga's doorstep, claiming that one of Zynga's latest Facebook games, called The Ville, is essentially an infringing copy of EA's popular The Sims. You can read through the entire complaint at Scribd. What's most interesting about this whole case -- other than two ...

Schiller testifies, says Apple considered car and a camera, and Samsung's phone's a 'rip off'

by Mike Schramm (Aug 3rd, 2012)

Apple's Phil Schiller took the stand this afternoon, wearing a sharp suit, in Apple's ongoing case with Samsung in a California court. He revealed a few hints at Apple's iPhone development and took some solid shots at Samsung. In terms of Apple history, Schiller revealed that, before Apple ...

Canadian Supreme Court rules no separate copyright fee for iTunes previews, game downloads

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jul 13th, 2012)

The Canadian Supreme court ruled on two copyright cases that affect music previews in iTunes and video game downloads. According to a report in Paid Content, the Court upheld the Copyright Board's decision that the 30- to 90-second audio previews in iTunes do not constitute a public performance ...

Court refuses request to review Psystar case

by Kelly Hodgkins (May 15th, 2012)

You have to give Psystar credit for being tenacious. The Mac clone company spent four years fighting Apple and took its legal battle all the way to the Supreme Court. According to a CNET report, the Supreme Court on Monday refused Psystar's request to review a lower court decision that prevents ...

iPad is the only tablet brand many consumers know

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 9th, 2012)

In two years, the iPad has become a household name. Now it may be turning into a generic term for all tablet products, says a report by the AP's Mae Anderson. The "genericization" of brand names happens over and over again, but it only affects a small fraction of all brands (estimated at less ...

Classic Elite, Interplay titles coming to iOS

by Mike Schramm (Oct 31st, 2011)

Touch Arcade has some good and bad news for fans of classic PC RPGs out there. The bad news is that the expected Elite Collection (which was set to come out last week and round up some of old developer Elite Systems' best games on iOS, has been delayed due to some rights issues. One of the ...

No Comment: Washington State borrows Bodega's icon, with a tweak

by Mike Schramm (Jul 16th, 2011)

Eagle-eyed reader Jeff spotted this icon in use over on the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries website, and it looked a little familiar to him, as a user of a certain unofficial Mac App Store app that has been around even before Apple's software distribution solution. Minus the ...

CBS forces developer to pull DiagnosticPADD app

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 15th, 2011)

CBS is using trademark and copyright violations to force the removal of a Star Trek-themed diagnostic application from the App Store. DiagnosticPADD uses an interface similar to the fictional computer operating system showcased in select Star Trek series to display details such as IP address, ...

BBC: Soviet-era films being sold illegally on iTunes

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Jan 31st, 2011)

The BBC has reported that several Soviet-era films are being sold illegally through the App Store. The copyright holders of Russian-made films, including Gentlemen of Fortune, Assa, The Diamond Arm, Kin-dza-dza and Cheburashka, have said they have not given consent for their films to be sold on the ...

Grab your iOS version of VLC now... it may be gone soon

by Sam Abuelsamid (Oct 31st, 2010)

Based on the latest comments from VLC media player lead developer Rémi Denis-Courmont, it seems likely that the iOS version of the app probably won't be available much longer. Denis-Courmont claims that Apple is violating the GNU public license (GPL) under which VLC is released by applying ...

Extra! Extra! app may be scraping news museum's feed of front pages

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Oct 27th, 2010)

TUAW came across the US$3.99 app Extra! Extra! when developer Finbarr Brady solicited a review. Extra! Extra! bills itself as an app that will supply you with the daily front pages of more than 800 newspapers from around the globe. This sounded suspiciously similar to one of the features on the ...