RE: music playlists

From: Neil A. Smith <neilsmith[_at_]howardrice.com>
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 16:05:00 -0500

There is a current article in the NY Times about this subject http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/28/technology/28ecom.html <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/28/technology/28ecom.html>  

Leading case is likely the Ebay v Bidder's Edge case, linked here courtesy of BNA,
http://pub.bna.com/lw/21200.htm
Court applies the "old law" of trespass to prevent such repeated use of bots, with links to bring business to Ebay..Go figure.  

I know a lot about this area of law, so call me if you have further questions.  

Neil  

Neil Smith

Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin

A Professional Corporation

Three Embarcadero Center, Seventh Floor

San Francisco, CA 94111-4024

Main: 415.434.1600

Fax: 415.217.5910

neilsmith[_at_]hrice.com

www.howardrice.com <outbind://174/www.howardrice.com>

	-----Original Message----- 
	 From: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property
[mailto:CNI-COPYRIGHT[_at_]cni.org] On Behalf Of Webb, Jere
	Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 2:56 PM
	To: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property
	Subject: [CNI-(C)] music playlists
	
	

	*	Client operates an online music site where you can

browse songs, add tracks to your play list, and get suggestions for songs you might be interested in. Copyright permissions are obtained. Client proposes to have a bot "scrape" play lists from other music websites (these are all over the web). They would not be published or distributed in any way, but would merely go into a database that would be used to analyze affinities or likely interests of listeners. Then when you go to the site you will get suggestions on music that might be of interest to you, much like amazon does with books. The question is, does anybody think these play lists enjoy any copyright protection. I conclude that they do not. No matter how creative the selection process may be, the expression is just an an alphabetical list and therefore covered by Feist v. Rural Communications (holding the white pages of telephone book not subject to copyright protection and rejecting the "sweat of the brow" theory of protection).          

        Any thoughts, cases etc, relevant to this issue.?          

         I am aware that my client may need to be concerned about website terms and conditions, which sometimes impose restrictions beyond what is protected by copyrights.                            

Neil A. Smith
Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin A Professional Corporation
Three Embarcadero Center, Seventh Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111-4024
Tel: 415.434.1600
Fax: 415.217.5910
neilsmith[_at_]howardrice.com
www.howardrice.com

---

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