Copyright & Social Media
Communications Law
Meg’s IP Law Knitting Circle: Protecting Crochet Creators
For my final LAW422 project, I wanted to explore the copyright protection and culture of copying among the crochet creators of YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. It is thanks to this online community that I was able to learn how to crochet many of my favourite fashion pieces and design some of my own. Therefore, rather […]
Causing MSCHF in IP Law
MSCHF is a Brooklyn based art collective that has gained Internet stardom through controversial “drops” that remix pop culture and brands. (I had a lot of fun browsing through their latest drops, one of which includes the option to purchase paper shopping bags from luxury brands, aptly named “OnlyBags” so that purchasers can “flex”). Last […]
A service enabling DJs to provide recognition and funds to producers
Hi everyone! Today I learned about a really interesting community-led initiative that allows DJs to recognize the producers whose songs they play and share their fees with them. Its called Aslice and its a software that has features that allow DJs to report the artists and songs they play and compensate them. Although many […]
Copyright, Likeness and CCTV
This law suit reminded me of the interesting article a few weeks back on the copyright issues surrounding taking a photo of a someone with their phone. It also highlights another potential barrier to publishing images of someone else; despite your copyright, the subject may still have rights to privacy and publicity over their likeness […]
Trade Secret Law
Trade Secrets Hi everyone! Brandon and I were talking about things IP law might not cover. While chatting we started thinking about things like secret recipes or processes, and stumbled upon trade secrets as a branch of IP law. Looking further into it, we realized that this is both an important type of Intellectual Property […]
False Copyright Claims on YouTube
A number of novel uses of copyright were mentioned last lecture. This reminds me of the huge amount of false copyright claims that one of my favourite YouTubers, named ‘TwoSetViolin’ is facing. As a classical music comedy duo, they usually play classical music in the videos and they have already gotten more than 100 copyright […]
AI-created Audio
I was reading an article on an audio copyright festival in Beijing (how fun!!). There was a section about AI-created audio content. While “AI can easily imitate and copy the creative style of others without involving the imitating of specific works, which challenges essential systems and principles of the Copyright Law”, the article presents a […]
Sour Patch Kids vs Stoney Patch: Trademark Issues in Parody Brands
Last week’s lecture discussion on passing off reminded me of the issue on cannabis products resembling candies. I was reminded of its seriousness, especially during Halloween season when children collected trick-or-treat candies, and found this article. The article introduces the trademark lawsuit by the maker of Sour Patch Kids, Mondelëz Canada Inc. (“MCI”), against Stoney […]
Stardust: copyright in biographical films
Ancient Roman philosopher Seneca writing to his friend on the shortness of life once said: “It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it”. Never before had I appreciated this slice of ancient wisdom more than on a cold summer night in 2021 when I decided […]
Pirate Joe’s
I was reminded today of a very interesting (and hilarious) bit of local history and a great example of IP law in action. As some of you know, unfortunately, we don’t have Trader Joe’s up here in Canada. A local man saw this unfilled niche and opened up a store reselling TJ’s merchandise. A hilarious […]