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. So when Manny spots one, …read in detail
Court rules copyright is infringed by 8 second video clips
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 in the case of England …read in detail
IP and IT implications of a Brexit vote
Last week I attended an event at the University of Sussex (organised by Charles Meredith and other students) discussing the potential legal implications of Brexit, and I was tasked with looking at some of the aspects that may affect Intellectual Property and Information Technology. Here are a few of my notes regarding the potential implications …read in detail
EU Commission adopts Privacy Shield
The European Commission has finally published the text of the programme called Privacy Shield, the name of the agreement reached with the United States to safeguard the export of personal data from European citizens across the Atlantic. This is in response to the CJEU case of Maximiliam Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner, which declared invalid …read in detail
Could European cookie law be a threat to cybersecurity?
The history of Internet Law is littered with bad legislation and legislative proposals. From the infamous SOPA and PIPA, to the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill, there is no shortage of badly-conceived legislation dealing with the Internet. Sometimes the bad law is the result of powerful lobbying, sometimes it is caused by ignorance of the technology, …read in detail
20 years of the Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace
John Perry Barlow’s A Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace was published 20 years ago. While it is something that tends to concern mostly Internet regulation theorists, it is surprising just how relevant it continues to be. The text usually deserves a mention in some of the most cited works on Internet regulation, even if it …read in detail
European Court of Human Rights revisits intermediary liability
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has revisited the issue of liability for Internet intermediaries in the case of Magyar Tartalomszolgáltatók Egyesülete and Index.Hu v Hungary. This is the second time in less than a year that the ECHR deals with this issue, as it had already produced a controversial decision in the case …read in detail
California judge reaches decision in PETA’s monkey selfie case
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 David Slater for copyright infringement, …read in detail
The Century of the Self(ie)
In his great documentary The Century of the Self, Adam Curtis explores topics such as consumerism and social control of the masses, but at its heart it is an exploration of collectivism and individualism. It describes the second half of the 20th century as struggle between collective ideals, and the consumer as the ultimate expression …read in detail
New Year’s resolution: Fix Facebook
Over the years I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Facebook: I love to hate it. As an early adopter, I always have felt that my interaction with the social network was very different to what other people were using it for, and the change in the platform has only made my interaction with FB much …read in detail