you should update this story with news of his resignation from Berkeley...don’t let Buzzfeed have all the glory.

FYI, I believe the Trump Hotel in Vegas is non-gaming...so not a casino. You are thinking of Atlantic City.

and yet the court agrees with me, so who needs to go back to night school? Courteous my ass. You are a pompous guy waxing about topics not germane to avoid the issues at hand. This had nothing to do with fair use because the poses weren’t eligible for copyright. I know you get a lot of money from the Bikram people,…

yet there is really nothing to support a claim of choreography. The Horgan case is basically it as far as case law, but nothing in it suggests this set of poses would qualify as choreography any more than a set of fitness positions.

You seem to work in this field but you don’t seem to understand the difference between…

I had not reached page 20...I’m still trying to bill hours. However, that is not surprising, calling it choreography would be embarrassing

I’m not sure what is so hard about it. His copyright is to his book, which is a particular expression of poses. He didn’t claim it was choreography and would probably have a tough time making that argument (though it has rarely been litigated). It is idea vs. expression. The copyright to the expression established by…

I think the analysis is based on the poor arguments that he made in case. The court’s reasoning is sound.

PS and don’t get me started on the Balanchine Trust

Reading the opinion, his argument was that the practice by others of the techniques (idea) violated the copyright of his book (the expression of the idea). The court said he could not extend his copyright to the idea.

perhaps the analogy is bad, but that is because choreographed works are explicitly protected under the copyright statute. I’m not sure he claimed the yoga poses were choreography.

not exactly. He claimed the ownership of the sequence of the actual performed poses, not a particular representation of them. The later can be copyrighted, the former cannot.

The new arrangement represented in a tangible medium can be subject to copyright, not the poses themselves. Similarly, you can copyright the written ballet choreography but you can’t copyright the action of a pirouette.

probably, since there probably wouldn’t be people on the ball trying to prevent it. Technically, an international flight would need to provide a passenger manifest but with enough money I’m sure he could avoid using his real name. It would also need to fly directly to the middle east and I’m not sure that private…

Government doing anything now that he left? No. But will the Beverly Hills police bust him if he comes back? You bet. They know who pays their bills.

Actually, Al Thani doesn’t have immunity and fled the country (with his Ferrari)

I think that would be highly unlikely. The Saudi’s need us as much as we need their oil.

Yes we need it, but it likely wouldn’t apply here (well they say he doesn’t have immunity anyway) but most other diplomats have limited immunity that only extends to official duties

the timeline is confused. The LA Times article isn’t much clearer, but suggests she was seen trying to climb the wall during the afternoon and the police came that same afternoon

Normal people would have to surrender their passport...not sure whether he did or not

Diplomatic immunity isn’t a blank check to commit any crime you want. If they wanted to prosecute them they probably could.