Sampled! Revisiting Fair Use and De Minimus Copying In Music Sampling

Could your favorite mash-up be an infringement under Copyright law? At one time, sound recordings featured a simplified copyright infringement analysis under the 2005 Bridgeport Music decision, which held that the Copyright Act provided copyright holders an exclusive right to sample their own work and any other sampling constituted infringement, unless it was a fair use. This decision remained intact until the VMG decision in 2016, which renewed the availability of the de minimis infringement defense in music sampling cases and held that sampling without a license did not constitute infringement so long as the sample was not recognizable by the general public. Since the revival of the de minimis defense, other questions have been raised concerning sampling—including whether the de minimis defense is an affirmative defense and whether a work, even if not transformative, is not an infringement based on the intent behind the work. The VMG decision, as well as other decisions backing away from Bridgeport Music’s bright-line rule, has resulted in mass confusion regarding whether mash-up songs are infringements of copyright holders’ rights or transformative works—a term of art that is not specifically defined. Courts and Congress should define what constitutes a transformative work, disregard the de minimis defense and intent argument, and return to the Bridgeport Music rule in order to align the law with the Constitution’s intent of the Copyright Act

Initial Interest Confusion Internet Troika Abandoned? A Critical Look At Initial Interest Confusion As Applied Online

The Ninth Circuit\u27s opinion in Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corp. seemingly created a standard to be applied in trademark infringement cases on the Internet. Despite the cautions contained within the Ninth Circuit\u27s holding, Brookfield ushered in an era in which many courts placed emphasis on three factors of the likelihood of confusion test finding initial interest confusion in many online infringement cases based solely on these three factors. For over a decade, inconsistent application within the Ninth Circuit and other jurisdictions created a disjointed body of case law on initial interest confusion online. The Ninth Circuit\u27s opinion in Network Automation, Inc. v. Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. provides some clarity but necessitates a review of the applicable standard when determining infringement online. This Article evaluates and reviews the Ninth Circuit\u27s opinions in Brookfield and Network Automation and a sampling of circuit cases that have considered initial interest confusion in an online context. This Article suggests that the Ninth Circuit in Network Automation sought to clarify its holding in Brookfield and to reject subsequent holdings that misapplied the likelihood of confusion test in order to eliminate divergent holdings, most evident within the Ninth Circuit itself, regarding the appropriate analysis of trademark infringement online. The Article concludes by arguing that the likelihood of confusion factors are flexible enough to address emerging technology without the cookie-cutter approach created by the misapplication or interpretation of Brookfield that was the Internet Troika

Tennessee Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Tennessee Wine

With a large and growing market, grape production and wineries are emerging in areas of the United States that have not been previously recognized as wine producing states. Tennessee is an example of such a state that has a history of limited wine grape production, but has recently seen a growing interest in state produced wines by consumers. However, there is no information regarding whether a Tennessee produced and labeled wine would impact consumers’ purchases and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for wine. The objective of this research is to determine the factors influencing consumers’ purchases of Tennessee labeled wine and to estimate consumers’ WTP for Tennessee produced and labeled wine. Data were collected through an online consumer survey conducted in September 2015. The survey presented respondents with a choice between a ‘base’ wine and a Tennessee labeled wine. Three separate probit models were used to estimate the likelihood that the Tennessee consumers would purchase a Tennessee labeled red, white or muscadine wine. Estimated coefficients from the models were used to calculate WTP for each of the Tennessee wines. Factors such as gender, income, frequency of purchases, importance of buying local, and importance of low price all influence consumers’ WTP. The overall average price consumers were willing to pay for Tennessee labeled white wine was $19.48/bottle, ($7.48/bottle premium above the base wine), $16.62/bottle for the Tennessee labeled red wine, ($4.62/bottle premium above the base wine), and $16.03/bottle for the Tennessee labeled muscadine wine ($6.03/bottle premium above the base wine). The results of this study may help guide marketing and promotion decisions for Tennessee wine producers

Graduate Recital: Connie Tumminelli, Lyric Soprano; Beverly Nichols, Piano; July 17, 1977

Centennial East Recital HallSunday AfternoonJuly 17, 19773:00 p.m

Connections Network: Harnessing the Collective Influence of Grassroots Leaders to Address Health-Related Problems in Hawkins and Hancock County, TN

In March 2021, grassroots leaders in two counties in northeast Tennessee formed a new network called Connections. Leaders are working to strengthen the capacity of the network and member organizations by promoting partnerships as vital to address effectively rural social determinants of health. Connections provides network members with capacity-building tools and resources, including two funding opportunities, to achieve their missions and sustain impact. Network members are also aligning around common goals to address the socioeconomic conditions affecting health outcomes. Connections will utilize findings from network activities and collaborations to identify synergies that can accelerate improvements in community health and well-being

Interaction of Cryptococcus neoformans Rim101 and Protein Kinase A Regulates Capsule

Cryptococcus neoformans is a prevalent human fungal pathogen that must survive within various tissues in order to establish a human infection. We have identified the C. neoformans Rim101 transcription factor, a highly conserved pH-response regulator in many fungal species. The rim101Δ mutant strain displays growth defects similar to other fungal species in the presence of alkaline pH, increased salt concentrations, and iron limitation. However, the rim101Δ strain is also characterized by a striking defect in capsule, an important virulence-associated phenotype. This capsular defect is likely due to alterations in polysaccharide attachment to the cell surface, not in polysaccharide biosynthesis. In contrast to many other C. neoformans capsule-defective strains, the rim101Δ mutant is hypervirulent in animal models of cryptococcosis. Whereas Rim101 activation in other fungal species occurs through the conserved Rim pathway, we demonstrate that C. neoformans Rim101 is also activated by the cAMP/PKA pathway. We report here that C. neoformans uses PKA and the Rim pathway to regulate the localization, activation, and processing of the Rim101 transcription factor. We also demonstrate specific host-relevant activating conditions for Rim101 cleavage, showing that C. neoformans has co-opted conserved signaling pathways to respond to the specific niche within the infected host. These results establish a novel mechanism for Rim101 activation and the integration of two conserved signaling cascades in response to host environmental conditions

Defects in intracellular trafficking of fungal cell wall synthases lead to aberrant host immune recognition

Acknowledgments We acknowledge Jeanette Wagener and Louise Walker for performing the HPAEC-PAD analysis and Neil Gow for providing access to the Dionex HPAEC-PAD instrumentation. We thank Mike Cook and the Duke University Cancer Center Flow Cytometry Shared Resource for assistance with the flow cytometry. We also acknowledge Michelle Plue and the Duke University Shared Materials Institute Facility for performing the transmission electron microscopy. We thank Marcel Wu¨thrich for providing the MyD88-/-and TLR2/4-/- mice, and Mari Shinohara and Elizabeth Deerhake for providing the Dectin-1-/- mice. Funding: These experiments were supported by a National Institutes of Health grant awarded to JAA and FLW, Jr. (R01 AI074677, https://grants.nih.gov/grants/oer.html). CM and colleagues Jeanette Wagener, Louise Walker, Neil Gow were supported by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award in Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology (097377, https://wellcome.ac.uk), Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award (101873) and the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (MR/N006364/1, https://www.abdn.ac.uk/cmm/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Listeria monocytogenes Exploits Host Caveolin for Cell-to-Cell Spreading

Listeria monocytogenes moves from one cell to another using actin-rich membrane protrusions that propel the bacterium toward neighboring cells. Despite cholesterol being required for this transfer process, the precise host internalization mechanism remains elusive. Here, we show that caveolin endocytosis is key to this event as bacterial cell-to-cell transfer is severely impaired when cells are depleted of caveolin-1. Only a subset of additional caveolar components (cavin-2 and EHD2) are present at sites of bacterial transfer, and although clathrin and the clathrin-associated proteins Eps15 and AP2 are absent from the bacterial invaginations, efficient L. monocytogenes spreading requires the clathrin-interacting protein epsin-1. We also directly demonstrated that isolated L. monocytogenes membrane protrusions can trigger the recruitment of caveolar proteins in a neighboring cell. The engulfment of these bacterial and cytoskeletal structures through a caveolin-based mechanism demonstrates that the classical nanometer-scale theoretical size limit for this internalization pathway is exceeded by these bacterial pathogens

A fungal lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase is required for cell wall integrity, thermotolerance, and virulence of the fungal human pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans

Fungi often adapt to environmental stress by altering their size, shape, or rate of cell division. These morphological changes require reorganization of the cell wall, a structural feature external to the cell membrane composed of highly interconnected polysaccharides and glycoproteins. Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) are copper-dependent enzymes that are typically secreted into the extracellular space to catalyze initial oxidative steps in the degradation of complex biopolymers such as chitin and cellulose. However, their roles in modifying endogenous microbial carbohydrates are poorly characterized. The CEL1 gene in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans (Cn) is predicted by sequence homology to encode an LPMO of the AA9 enzyme family. The CEL1 gene is induced by host physiological pH and temperature, and it is primarily localized to the fungal cell wall. Targeted mutation of the CEL1 gene revealed that it is required for the expression of stress response phenotypes, including thermotolerance, cell wall integrity, and efficient cell cycle progression. Accordingly, a cel1Δ deletion mutant was avirulent in two models of C. neoformans infection. Therefore, in contrast to LPMO activity in other microorganisms that primarily targets exogenous polysaccharides, these data suggest that CnCel1 promotes intrinsic fungal cell wall remodeling events required for efficient adaptation to the host environment

Engineered fluorescent strains of cryptococcus neoformans : a versatile toolbox for studies of host-pathogen interactions and fungal biology, including the viable but nonculturable state

Cryptococcus neoformans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen known for its remarkable ability to infect and subvert phagocytes. This ability provides survival and persistence within the host and relies on phenotypic plasticity. The viable but nonculturable (VBNC) phenotype was recently described in C. neoformans, whose study is promising in understanding the pathophysiology of cryptococcosis. The use of fluorescent strains is improving host interaction research, but it is still underexploited. Here, we fused histone H3 or the poly(A) binding protein (Pab) to enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) or mCherry, obtaining a set of C. neoformans transformants with different colors, patterns of fluorescence, and selective markers (hygromycin B resistance [Hygr ] or neomycin resistance [Neor]). We validated their similarity to the parental strain in the stress response, the expression of virulence-related phenotypes, mating, virulence in Galleria mellonella, and survival within murine macrophages. PAB-GFP, the brightest transformant, was successfully applied for the analysis of phagocytosis by flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy. Moreover, we demonstrated that an engineered fluorescent strain of C. neoformans was able to generate VBNC cells. GFP-tagged Pab1, a key regulator of the stress response, evidenced nuclear retention of Pab1 and the assembly of cytoplasmic stress granules, unveiling posttranscriptional mechanisms associated with dormant C. neoformans cells. Our results support that the PAB-GFP strain is a useful tool for research on C. neoformans