Are Uniforms Copyrightable?

Recently, The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals resolved a case about infringement of uniform designs for employees of Harrah's casinos. When trying to determine if the uniforms were copyrightable, the 5th Circuit imported the "marketability" test from the 9th circuit in relation to garments only. The test is "conceptual separability exists where there is substantial likelihood that even if the article had no utilitarian use it would still be marketable to some significant segment of the community simply because of its aesthetic qualities." Since the uniforms served no commercial purpose outside of being uniforms, the court affirmed summary judgment for the defendants.

However, one can think of examples where the opposite result would occur. There is a whole niche for "mechanic" T-shirts. They are apparently quite popular with people who are far cooler and more trendy than me. Mechanic T-shirts would be an example of uniforms that are marketable outside of their utilitarian function, and hence could be copyrightable.

Official name and cite of the case-
Galiano v. Harrah's Operating Co., 416 F.3d 411 (5th Cir. 2006)

Judge Posner in Second Life

Recently, Judge Richard Posner put in an appearance in Second Life, the virtual world that now has 1 million inhabitants. He discussed some cases that he had decided, and survived a couple terrorist attacks. He also repeatedly commented on how much he liked the tail of a racoon avatar. Interesting, and surprisingly amusing.

My Paper on YouTube

After much blood, sweat and tears, here is my final paper on "The Copyright Implications of YouTube"
Brief overview:
1. I first discuss how YouTube has blown up.
2. Then I give a brief overview of the DMCA section that YouTube is using as a defense in the lawsuit against it by Robert Tur, and problems in YouTube's DMCA defense
3. I talk about the ambiguous inducement theory set up in MGM v Grokster by the Supreme Court
4. How the inducement theory and Safe Harbor provisions interact.
5. I discuss how the market is shifting to deal with the problem, and propose legislation to help protect the little guys like Robert Tur from copyright infringement.

I hope that it is more enjoyable and informative than droll and soporific.