Fair Use
Art from Fragments: A Legal Framework for the Growth of Canadian Hip-Hop and Digital Sampling
Digital audio sampling—a music production technique whereby sound-clips are extracted from songs and incorporated into new tracks via computer software—is a staple of hip-hop music. With the increased accessibility of Canadian music via apps like Spotify, coupled with the growing Canadian hip-hop music scene, there is great potential for the usage of Canadian musical samples […]
Looks Are Not Everything; Professor Amy Adler’s Future of Art
Earlier this month, Osgoode Hall Law School welcomed Amy Adler, New York University’s Emily Kempin Professor of Law, to present on copyright and the future of art. Professor Adler is a leading scholar of art law and specializes in the legal regulation of artistic expression, sexuality and free speech. Visual artists today, as she describes, […]
Don’t Shoot The Messenger – Authors Guild v. Google, Inc.
Jim Bouton, one of the designated hitters represented by the Authors Guild took another swing at Google Books services program in the United States Court of Appeal (2nd Circuit) (“the Court”). The Court rejected the copyright challenge brought forward by the Authors Guild and concluded that Google’s activities were transformative in nature and thus fell […]
New Portraits: May Richard Prince Fair(ly) Use Your Picture?
The prince of appropriation strikes again! Visual artist Richard Prince caused a major uproar in the art world with his latest exhibition, New Portraits. The series of photographs, which features enlarged screenshots of Instagram posts made by different users, has been the object of controversy after it was reportedly found that Prince never asked for […]
Privacy rights out of focus as Colorado court zooms in on First Amendment
In Kristina Hill, Brian Edwards and Thomas Privitere v Public Advocate of the United States, a homosexual couple who had posted an engagement photo on their blog were devastated to discover that the image had been used in two political advertisements that opposed same-sex marriage. After realizing the advertisements had been sent to several thousand […]
The Academy Awards Selfie Rights Debate
Copyright ownership in Ellen Degeneres’ famous Oscar Twitter Selfie, which holds the record for most retweets, might be unclear, but for the average citizen sharing the picture, it doesn’t matter much. Canada’s fair dealing and the United States’ fair use exemptions cover the most common types of sharing and dissemination of the image.
Google’s Big Score: District Court Says Book Digitization Project is Fair Use
In the latest installment of the legal saga surrounding Google’s book digitization project, Judge Denny Chin of the Southern District NY court has granted summary judgement in favour of Google, Inc. following eight years of litigation.
US Tax Funded Research: Sick of Pay-Per-View?
Free online access to tax-funded scientific research is the most recent movement by American open-access advocate group Access2Research. The group calls for a policy similar to the one currently implemented by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). New scientific papers, which were funded by the NIH, are deposited in the online databank PubMED within a […]
Oracle Fails to Predict Copyright Case Outcome Against Google
The copyright and patent dispute between Oracle and Google continues, however a partial verdict on the copyright side of the debate has been handed down.