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

Josephson critical currents in annular superconductors with Pearl vortices

We investigate the influence of Pearl vortices in the vicinity of an edge-type Josephson junction for a superconducting thin-film loop in the form of an annulus, under uniform magnetic field. Specifically, we obtain the exact analytic formulation that allows to describe the circulating current density and the gauge invariant phase increment $\Delta\phi$ across the junction. The main properties of $\Delta\phi$ and their influence on the critical current pattern $I_c(B)$ are described quantitatively in terms of the loop's width to radius ratio $W/R$ and of the vortex position within the loop ${\bf r}_v$. It is shown that narrow loops ($W/R < 0.3$) may be well described by the straight geometry limit. However, such approximation fails to predict a number of distinctive features captured by our formulation, as the node lifting effect of the $I_c(B)$ pattern in wide loops or the actual influence of a vortex pinned at different positions.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

Maximum-principle preserving space-time isogeometric analysis

In this work we propose a nonlinear stabilization technique for convection-diffusion-reaction and pure transport problems discretized with space-time isogeometric analysis. The stabilization is based on a graph-theoretic artificial diffusion operator and a novel shock detector for isogeometric analysis. Stabilization in time and space directions are performed similarly, which allow us to use high-order discretizations in time without any CFL-like condition. The method is proven to yield solutions that satisfy the discrete maximum principle (DMP) unconditionally for arbitrary order. In addition, the stabilization is linearity preserving in a space-time sense. Moreover, the scheme is proven to be Lipschitz continuous ensuring that the nonlinear problem is well-posed. Solving large problems using a space-time discretization can become highly costly. Therefore, we also propose a partitioned space-time scheme that allows us to select the length of every time slab, and solve sequentially for every subdomain. As a result, the computational cost is reduced while the stability and convergence properties of the scheme remain unaltered. In addition, we propose a twice differentiable version of the stabilization scheme, which enjoys the same stability properties while the nonlinear convergence is significantly improved. Finally, the proposed schemes are assessed with numerical experiments. In particular, we considered steady and transient pure convection and convection-diffusion problems in one and two dimensions

A case of rhinoscleroma treated with ciprofloxacin

Respiratory scleroma (often termed \'rhinoscleroma\') is a chronic inflammatory condition in which deforming masses of tissue distend the nasal cavity. Klebsiella rhinoscleromatis is the causative agent of this infection and the Mikulicz cell is specific to the lesion being a large macrophage with clear cytoplasm containing the bacilli. Antibiotic therapy has traditionally consisted of streptomycin and tetracycline long-term but this presents problems with adverse side-effects and poor patient compliance. We report on a young patient with nasal rhinoscleroma who achieved resolution after treatment with oral ciprofloxacin. As mentioned in a review of patients with rhinoscleroma at the Mayo clinic in 1993, the fluoroquinolones deserve further study as potentially highly effective agents for this condition. Ciprofloxacin is convenient for oral administration and has few adverse effects. It achieves good tissue penetration, is concentrated in macrophages and may prove to be useful in the therapy of rhinoscleroma