Split Chords: Addressing the Federal Circuit Split in Music Sampling Copyright Infringement Cases

This Note offers a comprehensive analysis of the current circuit split regarding how the de minimis doctrine applies to music sampling in copyright infringement cases. Since the Sixth Circuit\u27s 2005 landmark decision in Bridgeport Music Inc. v. Dimension Films, critics, scholars and even judges have dissected the opinion and its bright line rule of “get a license or do not sample.” In May 2016, the Ninth Circuit issued its opinion in VMG Salsoul v. Ciccione. The Ninth Circuit explicitly declined to follow Bridgeport, holding that analyzing a music sampling copyright infringement case requires a substantial similarity analysis, including applying a de minimis analysis. The Ninth Circuit’s decision created a circuit split and an unsettled area of intellectual property law. This Note seeks to promote critical analysis of this contested area of law by exploring the underpinnings of the substantial similarity and de minimis doctrines, as well as the holdings of each case and their arguments. The Note offers three proposals regarding how courts should handle the circuit split, and in doing so creates a distinctive way of looking at the music sampling issue to help the federal judiciary frame the problem in a more expansive way

Monotonicity-preserving finite element schemes based on differentiable nonlinear stabilization

In this work, we propose a nonlinear stabilization technique for scalar conservation laws with implicit time stepping. The method relies on an artificial diffusion method, based on a graph-Laplacian operator. It is nonlinear, since it depends on a shock detector. Further, the resulting method is linearity preserving. The same shock detector is used to gradually lump the mass matrix. The resulting method is LED, positivity preserving, and also satisfies a global DMP. Lipschitz continuity has also been proved. However, the resulting scheme is highly nonlinear, leading to very poor nonlinear convergence rates. We propose a smooth version of the scheme, which leads to twice differentiable nonlinear stabilization schemes. It allows one to straightforwardly use Newton’s method and obtain quadratic convergence. In the numerical experiments, steady and transient linear transport, and transient Burgers’ equation have been considered in 2D. Using the Newton method with a smooth version of the scheme we can reduce 10 to 20 times the number of iterations of Anderson acceleration with the original non-smooth scheme. In any case, these properties are only true for the converged solution, but not for iterates. In this sense, we have also proposed the concept of projected nonlinear solvers, where a projection step is performed at the end of every nonlinear iterations onto a FE space of admissible solutions. The space of admissible solutions is the one that satisfies the desired monotonic properties (maximum principle or positivity)

Actinomyces Infection Leading to Pseudoepitheliomatous Hyperplasia Within a Tattoo

A Caucasian woman in her 40s presented with a one-year history of raised, dry, pruritic papules on the tattoo on the left medial lower leg she received six months prior. Examination revealed multiple open comedones and pustules coalescing into an edematous plaque, limited to the red portions of the tattoo. Histological examination revealed pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia, tattoo ink, and brisk lymphohistiocytic inflammation, suggestive of an infectious process. A wound culture grew Actinomyces neuii, and she was subsequently started on amoxicillin 500 mg TID for six months. Topically, she applied mupirocin ointment daily. Subsequent clinic visits demonstrated flattening and resolution of the papules and comedones on this regimen. Tattoos have risen in popularity since the 1970s, and some estimates have found that 10-20% of people of Western cultures have at least one tattoo. Tattoo complications may occur with a broad spectrum of clinical findings. Allergies, pigment foreign body granulomatous reactions, and infections are the most common complications in tattoo. Tattoo infections are commonly due to endogenous bacteria such as Streptococci and Staphylococci species or exogenous agents, leading to viral hepatitis or HIV. This report describes a case of an Actinomyces infection involving the red pigment of a tattoo. Red pigment within tattoos is the most common cause of cutaneous reactions to tattoos. The most common reaction patterns include allergic dermatitis, photosensitivity, granulomatous, lichenoid, and pseudolymphomatous reactions. We describe a case of PEH secondary to Actinomyces neuii infection limited to the red portions of a tattoo. To our knowledge, this is the first case in which Actinomyces species has been implicated in a tattoo infection. Actinomyces species are naturally found in mucous membranes of the mouth, gastrointestinal, and genitourinary tract. Potential niduses for infection in this case could include the use of dirtied instruments, contaminated pigments, or lack of sterility during the procedure. While Actinomyces rarely cause infections in humans, cutaneous infections typically manifest as a soft tissue infection often located on the head or neck, requiring treatment with antibiotics and incision and drainage. Primary cutaneous Actinomycosis is rare; they are typically chronic, recur after short courses of antibiotic treatment and lead to the formation of granules. Actinomyces neuii infection has only been reported in approximately one hundred cases, most commonly associated with abscesses, infected atheromas and diabetic ulcers. One case of A. neuii has been reported as a superinfection of hidradenitis suppurativa. Bacterial infections of tattoos are most commonly associated with Staphylococci or Streptococci infections. Mycobacteria infections of tattoos have also been reported; M. haemophilum is thought to have a predilection for tattoos and extremities as it requires low incubation temperature and iron supplementation for growth. While reactions within red tattoos and bacterial infections of tattoos may be relatively common, infection of the red component of a tattoo with Actinomyces has not yet been described. Biopsy and evaluation for bacterial infections such as Actinomyces should be considered within the differential of a red tattoo reaction.https://scholarlycommons.henryford.com/merf2020caserpt/1059/thumbnail.jp

Northwest Africa 5790. Top Sequence of the Nakhlite Pile

NWA 5790 is a recently discovered nakhlite. Its mineralogy, petrology and geochemistry suggest that it is the topmost sequence of the nakhlite lava pile

Differentiable monotonicity-preserving schemes for discontinuous Galerkin methods on arbitrary meshes

This work is devoted to the design of interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin (dG) schemes that preserve maximum principles at the discrete level for the steady transport and convection–diffusion problems and the respective transient problems with implicit time integration. Monotonic schemes that combine explicit time stepping with dG space discretization are very common, but the design of such schemes for implicit time stepping is rare, and it had only been attained so far for 1D problems. The proposed scheme is based on a piecewise linear dG discretization supplemented with an artificial diffusion that linearly depends on a shock detector that identifies the troublesome areas. In order to define the new shock detector, we have introduced the concept of discrete local extrema. The diffusion operator is a graph-Laplacian, instead of the more common finite element discretization of the Laplacian operator, which is essential to keep monotonicity on general meshes and in multi-dimension. The resulting nonlinear stabilization is non-smooth and nonlinear solvers can fail to converge. As a result, we propose a smoothed (twice differentiable) version of the nonlinear stabilization, which allows us to use Newton with line search nonlinear solvers and dramatically improve nonlinear convergence. A theoretical numerical analysis of the proposed schemes shows that they satisfy the desired monotonicity properties. Further, the resulting operator is Lipschitz continuous and there exists at least one solution of the discrete problem, even in the non-smooth version. We provide a set of numerical results to support our findings