I have just listened to the latest episode of the excellent podcast “This American Life”, which dealt with the story of a monkey that took a selfie in the jungles of Indonesia, and David Slater, the photographer who made the portrait famous around the world. The podcast recounts the story Read more…
So, the long-running legal saga starring a photographer, a monkey and an animal rights organisation has finally come to an end when both parties (not the monkey) have reached a settlement. While it is not common to learn the particulars of such an agreement, lawyers for PETA have said that Read more…
Shutterstock Andres Guadamuz, University of Sussex When a group of museums and researchers in the Netherlands unveiled a portrait entitled The Next Rembrandt, it was something of a tease to the art world. It wasn’t a long lost painting but a new artwork generated by a computer that had analysed Read more…
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has made a very important decision in the case of Stichting Brein v Ziggo (C‑610/15), which involves blocking access to The Pirate Bay (TPB) and the legal nature of torrent files. This case follows a CJEU decision on multimedia players containing Read more…
The Court of Justice of the European Union has made a troubling ruling regarding open wifi spots in the case of McFadden v Sony Music (C-484/14). This just following the also problematic case of GS Media makes it a rather bad week for balance in copyright. The case involves Tobias Read more…
There is an interesting copyright case brewing online. Cyriak Harris is a British freelance video animator, famous for creating surreal videos involving cute animals that are then transformed in often nightmarish ways (my favourite is Kitty City). In 2010 he produced a video of dancing cows that went viral (as Read more…
The BBC has announced that it will drop its online website for recipes in an effort to generate savings. This has raised quite a few eyebrows, with the hashtag #bbcrecipes currently the top UK trending topic on Twitter. This has prompted a very interesting legal discussion, can recipes be subject Read more…
A very interesting case has been developing this week to highlight several issues surrounding the DMCA take-down procedure, and the protection of copyright story elements such as plot, story and dialogue. The case involves the YouTube channel of Spanish geek vlogger Frikidoctor, which seems to specialise in Game of Thrones Read more…
There has been a disturbance in the Force, have you felt it? Wait, wrong franchise. To Boldly Go Where No Copyright Suit Has Gone Before! Yes, Qapla’ ! Occasionally there are cases that seem to be tailor-made for legal geeks: Naruto v Slater; Lucasfilm v Ainsworth; DC Comics v Towle. Read more…
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has once more helped to answer one of the most puzzling aspects of Internet regulation, where do things happen online? In particular, they have answered where can a copyright collective management agency sue to try to recover missing royalties. The case Read more…