Communications Law
Reflecting on Grand Theft Auto 3 Reverse Engineering Lawsuits While The Practice Still Happens
It should come as no surprise that rights holders of video games often go after those who modify their games or release fangames. However, I rarely see these lawsuits go beyond a DMCA notice and the other party following said notice. Most of the time, the potentially infringing party complies with the DMCA, and you […]
Orphan Works Protection Isn’t Enough to Save 20,000 Anime Film/TV Masters from Destruction (They’re fine for now)
I felt like posting this saga once enough time passed when an anime restoration and archiving company closed down and had to figure out what to do with thousands of anime film masters or destroy them. Few companies are capable of storing film masters, and Tokyo Lab was one such company. Film Masters are […]
Cats, Knives, and Tentacles: Practical IP Protection through Personal IP Stories
Hi all, Here’s another PechaKucha presentation! This one’s on some practical ways to protect IP through personal IP stories, including my own. (I did another PechaKucha on NILs in the context of US college sports so if you’re curious about that, its a few posts back.) To access the presentation via Google Slides, click the […]
Apple pauses iWatch Sales in a Heartbeat
In a plot twist more dramatic than an iPhone launch, Apple is hitting the pause button on sales for its Series 9 and Ultra 2 Apple Watches in the U.S. Why? Glad you asked. Well, it turns out the cool blood oxygen sensor, the heartbeat of Apple’s smartwatches, has caused a not-so-healthy legal commotion. […]
AO3 vs AI: Are copyright claims the solution to unauthorized data scraping of fanfiction sites?
Fanfiction refers to creative fiction produced by fans of a particular original work that derives from its characters, plot, settings, or themes. Fanworks are characterized by their transformative nature as creative reinterpretations and expansions upon the original source material. They are non-commercial in nature, crafted out of a genuine love for the source content and […]
Fanfiction writer sues author – loses lawsuit and loses his work
You have heard about authors suing fanfiction writers, you have heard about authors suing ChatGPT, but have you ever heard of fanfiction writers suing authors? In a rather bizarre case, Demetrious Polychron, an avid fan of the Lord of the Rings franchise, decided to sue the Tolkien Estate and Amazon for alleged copyright infringement […]
Trademark Nightmares
Posting this for any fans of Kitchen Nightmares who want to see an example of how trademarking can go wrong. Apparently in Baltimore the endearing term ‘Hon’ (short for honey) is very popular. This led one local café owner to trademark the name of her café, “Café Hon”. She also threatened to sue other people […]
Source Recourse? Intellectual Property and Fanfiction
When we’ve fallen in love with a story, a character, or a fantasy land, there is a tendency to want to dive deeper into this fictional universe. The original creative minds may spur out sequels and spinoffs in response to fan demand – or they may not. Either way, it is almost guaranteed that the […]
How Intellectual Property Has Prevented North America from Getting a Sequel to Earthbound
As the exam season draws to a close, I, like many of you, will be spending my time away from school playing video games. One of my favourite video games is Earthbound. This is a Japanese role-playing game, or JRPG, which has the protagonist Ness attempt to save the world from aliens. The game was […]
What happens when fanart gets too good?
As a lifelong musical theatre fan, my current obsession is Mozart, the Rock Opera (the “Musical”).[1] I recently came across some incredible Fanart that got me pondering all the copyright issues between fanart and the original Musical. The Musical is French, with no official adaptions to other languages. Yet, some very talented Chinese fans have […]