When people ask me questions like “who owns the copyright on a monkey selfie,” I feel so full of…what’s the opposite of shame? Pride? No, not that far from shame. Less shame? Yeah. Let’s examine this serious, important, and hilarious issue. Photographer David Slater was in the Indonesian wilderness in 2011 when a crested black macaque used one of his cameras and took a bunch of pictures with it. One of those pictures was the amazing selfie seen above. Eventually the photo was uploaded to Wikipedia’s Wikimedia Commons. Slater filed a takedown request on the grounds that he owns the…
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Archives: First Amendment Law
Using Copyright to Suppress Criticism?
August 11, 2014
Most artists don’t like to be criticized. Is it going too far to use the tools of copyright to suppress criticism of one’s art? That’s the discussion going around about comics artist Randy Queen and his use of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices against Escher Girls, a blog that challenged Queen’s depictions of female anatomy.
A Scandalous Trademark?
August 5, 2014
What’s scandalous these days? Donald Sterling’s comments? Or does anyone even remember him anymore? I can’t keep up with the number of scandals that shock the world (at least online) and then quickly fade away. Fortunately, we can look to the hardworking folks at the US Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. They are charged with the solemn duty of refusing to register scandalous trademarks. Truly, they are America’s last line of defense against, um, attaching an ® symbol to a product or service name that involves a slightly rude word, I guess. So, gather your wits…
Copyright: What is Fair Use?
April 29, 2014
This is the fourth in an ongoing series of presentations that I’m preparing on the fundamentals of intellectual property, entertainment, business, and social media law. This presentation will provide an overview of copyright Fair Use in the United States. The previous three presentations in this series were “What Is a Trademark?”, “How Do I Choose a Strong Trademark?”, and “What Is a Copyright?”
