Recent Developments in Copyright Law: Selected U.S. Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and District Court Opinions Between February 1, 2005 and May 1, 2006, 6 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 40 (2006)

This article highlights nine selected U.S. copyright law decisions handed down between February 1, 2005 and May 1, 2006. Two of the decisions concern peer-to-peer file sharing, including the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in MGM v. Grokster. One of the decisions questions the applicability of the idea/expression dichotomy to works of visual art. Two of the decisions discuss ownership of the renewal rights in a work under the 1909 Act when the author is deceased. One of the decisions interprets the requirement that an author register his or her work before filing an infringement action.

Two of the decisions analyze how general principles of copyright law apply to text and image search engines operated by Google; and the final decision concerns the application of the fair use doctrine to the use of visual images in a biography of the Grateful Dead.