We tackle the big issues here in Technollama. Do monkeys and cats own copyright? Will the UK government ban Whatsapp? Can you copyright a tweet? Can you knit a Dalek? The latest copyright controversy has arisen in the UK as a result of a written question posed to the Culture Read more…
I admit that I am currently obsessed with non-human copyright. First monkey selfies, then I am writing an article on artificial intelligence and copyright. Now enter Manny, a cat that loves taking selfies with a GoPro camera. According to one site: “The gray kitty is fascinated by his human’s GoPro cameras. Read more…
At 7 seconds, this happy llama is thankfully not infringing.* How much do you need to reproduce a video or broadcast in order to infringe copyright? In the age of Vine, Periscope and animated gifs, this question has become more important than ever. We now may have a partial answer Read more…
A judge in California has dismissed a copyright case brought by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), where the animal rights organisation claimed that it represented the monkey that took the famous selfie depicted above. The case is that of Naruto v Slater, where PETA sued British photographer Read more…
I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the EU is not about to make linking illegal. The bad news is that the latest proposal from the EU Commission leaves open the door for the creation of an ancillary copyright that would affect the way in Read more…
A few months ago we reported on a couple of decisions by the England and Wales Hight Court declaring private copying illegal (here and here). Incredibly, before 2014 making a private copy of a legally-purchased work was illegal in the UK, which didn’t stop anyone ripping CDs or making digital Read more…
Just when you thought that the monkey selfie story had ran its course, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have sued the photographer David Slater and his company Wildlife Photography to try to get the copyright of the image given to Naruto, the macaque monkey at the heart Read more…
Last month, a 22-year old Norwegian called Kevin Synnes took a trip with his girlfriend to get a new engine for his car. They stopped at a hardware store and Kevin found a large box filled with toy rubber geese. Wanting to play a prank on his girlfriend, and while Read more…
Back in July the infamous website Ashley Madison, which facilitates marital infidelity, was hacked by a group calling itself Impact Team, and the personal details of millions of subscribers around the world were compromised. The hackers demanded that the self-described “most famous name in infidelity and married dating” should be Read more…
The Open Rights Group (ORG) has sent us a communication regarding a new proposal in the UK to criminalise copyright infringement beyond the current limits to up to 10 years. I reproduce their statement about the proposals. “The IPO has recently started consultation on proposals to increase the maximum prison Read more…