Overnight Tech: ‘Holy copyright law, Batman!’

LEDE: A pair of copyright decisions in federal courts this week featuring the “Happy Birthday” song and the Batmobile got the copyright community talking.

Copyright reform advocates latched on to a federal judge’s decision Tuesday that invalidated the copyright on the more than 100-year-old “Happy Birthday” song as proof that many other guarded works could rely on similarly flimsy ownership. Judge George King said the authorship and ownership were murky, in his ruling to invalidate Warner/Chappell Music’s copyright. While the ruling likely puts the song in the public domain, that isn’t certain quite yet.

{mosads}”Let’s cheer a great win for our common culture–but not forget that we still need to fix our broken copyright system,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in a post, while Public Knowledge warned that this “decision also raises serious concerns as to how much of our culture remains under lock and key on the basis of flimsy or barely credible claims of ownership.”

In a separate appeals court decision, the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday ruled that DC Comics owns the copyright interests on the Batmobile, under prior case law that gives distinct comic book characters copyright protection and defines some comic book cars as characters.

The ruling means that a custom automobile maker Mark Towle, of Gotham Garage, who made high-priced replicas of cars featured in movies — like the Batmobile — willfully infringed the DC Comics trademarks. Judge Sandra Ikuta started the ruling by declaring, “Holy copyright law, Batman!” 

VC APOLOGIZES FOR MAKING FUN OF PARTNERS’ NAMES: John Doerr, the venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, has apologized for a remark that the firm had “two new partners who are so diverse that I have a challenge pronouncing their names.” He was referring to recent hires Muzzammil Zaveri and Swati Mylavarapu. “Friends, my apologies,” he wrote. “It was an unfortunate joke that was not funny. I have deep respect for my partners Swati and Muzzammil.” KPCB was the firm recently sued by former Reddit chief Ellen Pao for gender discrimination.

UBER MOVES IN ON OAKLAND: The San Francisco Business Journal reported Tuesday night that Uber is planning to lease space in a newly-refurbished office building in Oakland, Calif. The deal is significant because there are few large tech companies in Oakland, and none on the scale of Uber, which recently raised money at a roughly $51 billion valuation. It also seems likely to raise more questions about how tech companies affect property values — and what that means for the communities they call home.

FUTURE CANDIDATES WITH TECH BACKGROUND: Sam Altman, the CEO of the tech seed funding company Y Combinator, reiterated his point that people with technology backgrounds from Silicon Valley could make serious runs for president in the next 15 years if the federal government doesn’t become more responsive to the industry. GOP candidate Carly Fiorina, who is surging in the polls, is the former CEO of Hewlett Packard. But her educational background is centered in business rather than the STEM fields.

“I think that if the government continues to be sort of relatively incompetent towards supporting technology, and addressing the changes on the rest of society that technology causes, yeah, I think someone from the tech world will run,” Altman told a panel at TechCrunch Disrupt.

CONSERVATIVE TECH GROUP PRAISES BUSH REGS PROPOSAL: The conservative tech group Lincoln Labs praised GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s policy proposal on regulatory reform, which, among other things, called for scraping net neutrality rules. The group was silent on Bush’s plan to roll back major rules like net neutrality, but it applauded proposals from Bush that called for a “regulatory spring cleaning,” limiting court deference to agencies, getting Congress’s approval on major rules, and more work with the states.

FORMER FCC BUREAU CHIEF JOINS LAW FIRM: Julie Veach, who left her position as head of the agency’s Wireline Competition Bureau in May, has joined Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis as a partner. “Following her long and respected tenure at the FCC, Julie will be an invaluable asset to our clients,” said Scott Blake Harris, the firm’s chairman, in a statement. “With her remarkable reputation for sound judgment and wise counsel, her addition to the firm will further enhance the status of our communications practice as one of the best in the country.”

ON TAP:

At 12:15 p.m., New America is holding an event on the sharing economy and the “future of work in America.”

At 1 p.m., the National Telecommunications and Information Association will be holding a meeting on commercial drone process.

At 1 p.m., Edward Snowden will make video remarks at a New York event featuring Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and others who are slated to discuss mass surveillance protections.

At 5:30 p.m., Public Knowledge holds its IP3 Awards, where FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will speak.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Pandora announced Wednesday it has paid out almost $500 million to musicians in the last year, days after a win in a Washington battle over royalties.

Volkswagen appears to have scrubbed many references to clean diesel from its webpage and social media accounts amid a growing scandal over its attempts to trick regulators’ air pollution tests.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved the NFL’s film division to use drone flights for “aerial videography and closed-set motion picture and television filming.”

A federal judge in California on Tuesday invalidated the copyright on the “Happy Birthday to You” song, meaning producers would no longer have to pay licensing fees to feature the popular song in films and television shows.

An association of web companies has hired an aide to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) to serve as a top government affairs employee.

Please send tips and comments to David McCabe, dmccabe@digital-staging.thehill.com and Mario Trujillo, mtrujillo@digital-staging.thehill.com

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This post was updated at 12:28 a.m.