At a time when #media creation & consumption is traveling across a growing number of devices, at increasing speeds, and without care for for borders whether physical, digital, or geographic, licensing, distribution and use of digital content can cause problems.
The case of Fastcase, Inc. v. Lawriter, LLC, Case No. 17-14110 (11th Cir. Oct. 29, 2018) (Tjoflat, J), involved a dispute between two legal publication service companies over the right to re-publish the Georgia Regulations.
The Declaratory Judgment defendant and presumptive rights owner had no enforceable copyright or contract rights in the Regulations. Defendant updated the terms so that unauthorized re-publication of the Regulations would result in liquidated damages of $20,000 per instance, which was relevant to the jurisdictional issues of whether § 411(a) is a jurisdictional bar.
From The National Law Review, source for this story: “Practice Note: A demand letter alleging infringement under the Copyright Act—or even alleging state law claims that would arguably be preempted by the Copyright Act—confers jurisdiction on a federal court to hear the recipient’s declaratory judgment action.”