Copyright & Social Media
Communications Law
Let’s Taco ‘Bout It: The Trademarking of Voices
Back in 2020, years before we knew one another, a video that surfaced on the internet, captured both of our attention. This strange audio clip of Jay-Z reciting Hamlet’s famous “To Be, Or Not To Be” soliloquy not only triggered our curiosity, but that of many people on the internet [1]. Had Jay-Z discovered a […]
Unf(Air) Canada
Hi all, I just came across a commercial that reminded me of a controversial Canadian IP case. The commercial was aimed at bringing attention to issues faced by Air Canada flight attendants, and it directed me to go to a website called “unfaircanada.com.” As you may recall from Kaja’s excellent post in November, the Federal […]
The Wicked World of Intellectual Property: Defying the Gravity of Copyright and Trademark Law
Introduction For my project, I chose to hold space for the new Wicked movie (if you get it, you get it), and investigate how intellectual property protections manifest in the creative decisions made in the filming of the movie. There is a tension in intellectual property law between creative adaption and the protection of existing […]
A Short Trip to Switzerland
Since I spent most of my legal education in Switzerland and was now able to learn about some Canadian law approaches during my exchange term, I would like to turn the tables and, as my final project, familiarize you with a topic of Swiss IP law based on some of the cases we have just […]
Live-Streaming (Taylor’s Version)
As December begins and I start to accept my fate that I won’t be attending the Taylor Swift concert in Vancouver this weekend, I’ve resigned myself to the inevitable: watching the concerts on a grainy TikTok livestream. But as I sit here planning my weekend and finding the best streamers, I wonder — this can’t […]
Multiple Canadian News Media Sues OpenAI over Copyright Infringement
Several Canadian news media holdings are suing American company OpenAI, alleging that OpenAI scraped large quantities of information from Canadian sources and used that data to train, among other things, ChatGPT. This, according to the plaintiffs, was done without authorization. The plaintiffs seek both an injunction against further data scraping, as well as an unspecified […]
Copyright Protection in the “Vibe” of Social Media Content?
A Texas court will soon have to decide whether the “vibes” of a social media creator – in this case, the “clean girl” or “beige home” aesthetic – are copyrightable. Can the use of a similar aesthetic (and not the copying of a single photo or video) even constitute copyright infringement? As we have seen, […]
Supreme Court Seeks US Views in $1 Billion Music Copyright Case
I came across some interesting articles about a large upcoming music copyright case and how it relates to the issue of ISPs and internet providers being liable for their infringing customers. The Supreme Court of the United States has asked the federal government their thoughts about large music companies (Sony, Warner and Universal) suing an […]
“Webtoons” and Generative A.I. in South Korea – Is Artistic Style Copyrightable?
I came across an interesting situation unfolding in South Korea regarding the development of image generating A.I. for web comics (commonly known as “webtoons” in Korea). As a preface, I would like to highlight that I do not know much about webtoons nor about industry all that well. I tried my best translating Korean to […]
Sweden™?
Hi everyone, I recently came across an interesting Forbes article about Sweden’s efforts to trademark its name, making it the first country in the world to apply to do so. As the article notes, it’s unclear whether this application is a marketing move or an initiative by Visit Sweden (the country’s tourism board) “to protect […]