Communications Law
News of the Week; February 10, 2021
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Federal Court trusts technology to prove infringement Is This Beverly Hills Cop Playing Sublime’s ‘Santeria’ to Avoid Being Live-streamed?: Police in Beverly Hills have been playing music while being filmed, seemingly in an effort to trigger Instagram’s copyright filters. Latest Anti-Accountability Move By Cops Involves Playing Music While Being Recorded In Hopes Of […]
Week 6: Video & Slides – February 12, 2021
Slides & video below… Jon
Distinction Between Methods in AI-Created Art
Hi everyone, This article on AI-generated art reminded me of the class discussion on AIs holding copyright. The article differentiates between two forms of AI art. In the first, the artist feeds specific images to the AI and then choses the best images out of the many that the AI creates. This process involves the […]
A very Canadian lawsuit: The Tragically Hip sue Mill Street Brewery in Toronto over their 100th Meridian Beer
I was scrolling through today’s news and came across something that is an interesting (and perhaps more compelling) Canadian complement to last week’s discussion on Taylor Swift’s Evermore trademark lawsuit. According to this CBC article and the Statement of Claim (found online), The Tragically Hip are suing a Toronto-based brewery (Mill Street Brewery) for trademark […]
California Cop Weaponizes Copyright Law to Avoid Accountability
Anyone who spends a reasonable amount of time online is probably familiar with copystrikes, the term given to a removal of (allegedly) copyrighted material from an individual’s website for an ostensible violation of copyright. “This media has been removed in response to a request from the copyright holder” isn’t an uncommon to thing while browsing […]
Brands – what are they? – chewing gums and their invented names
I was sitting at my desk zoning out when it struck me that the pack of Wrigley’s Excel gum I had in my line of vision shared the same name with Microsoft’s Excel. I wondered if there were any IP issues so I did a search on Canada’s IP database, which revealed that there were […]
“Want to Reverse Inequality? Change Intellectual Property Rules.”
I came across this interesting article about the effect of IP policies on inequality (in a US context). The author, Dean Baker, argues that terms of IP monopolies are perpetuating inequalities and causes “upward redistribution of wealth” in our society, and that there are other better ways to incentivize innovation and creativity. Baker also goes […]
Copyright issue on Instagram
So I was scrolling through Instagram, and I came across this interesting Copyright issue in this link:https://www.instagram.com/reel/CK9NP7hDNXQ/?igshid=de3r6nvunzru here is the YouTube link for it:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4c9xHqQHKs It shows how one of Winnie the Pooh’s episodes copied The Jungle Book – they have the exact same scene and it looks like it has been copied. It made me […]
News of the Week; February 3, 2021
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY For the Want of a Nail – Copyright Claims Fail When Plaintiffs Can’t Show Ownership Thomson Reuters v. ROSS case will test limits on protections for subscription-based database: ROSS Intelligence alleges monopolistic, anticompetitive control over legal research market Bernie and his Marvelous Mittens. It’s all Good Fun Until a Copyright Lawyer Gets Involved […]