DCTech – Media Tech Law

E-SIGN and Copyright: Uploading Photos to Website Equals Consent (and Copyright Assignment)

Posted February 13, 2013 by Britnie Morris 0

Does use of a website constitute implicit consent to the site’s Terms of Use (TOU)? And if the TOU provides for copyright assignment, does that use thus constitute a valid assignment of copyright under the federal Copyright Act? Those were the questions last August before the US District Court for the District of Maryland, which granted the real estate multiple-listing service known as “Metropolitan Regional Information Systems” (MRIS) a preliminary injunction against defendant American Home Reality Network (AHRN). The court’s opinion can be found here. The case was discussed in some detail by RIS Media, a real estate technology blog, particularly the role of electronic signatures under the federal E-SIGN Act for valid assignments under the Copyright Act.

The court enjoined AHRN from copying and uploading MRIS’ photographs to AHRN’s website Neighborcity.com. Pamela Chestek, in her blog “Property, intangible”, points out that although the preliminary injunction was granted solely on the claim of infringement of photos in the MRIS database, MRIS had alleged infringement on its entire database.

Update: DC’s Qualified High Tech Company (QHTC) Changes: Nice Benefits to LivingSocial

Posted November 9, 2012 by Andrew Mirsky 0

My colleague Kate Tummarello wrote last year about the District of Columbia’s “New E-Conomy Transformation Act of 2000”, a 2001 law which set up tax benefits encouraging technological innovation. The Act granted tax benefits to “Qualified High Technology Companies” (QHTCs), certain DC-based, for-profit businesses that make most of their revenue from the sale of products and services related to information technology.

Among other incentives, the Act granted to QHTCs tax credits for wages and costs of retraining qualified disadvantaged employees, credits for wages to qualified non-“disadvantaged” employees, exemptions from DC sales and use tax and reduction of DC’s corporate franchise tax rate, and exemption for 5 years from DC’s corporate franchise tax.

In April 2012, DC Mayor Gray proposed expansions of the QHTC program, in his “Social E-Commerce Job Creation Incentive Act of 2012.” The 2012 legislation, enacted in part and still pending in part, would accomplish 3 major things:

MediaTech Law

By MIRSKY & COMPANY, PLLC