Check out the UBC VideoGame Course
Pitblado Lectures talk
On Friday November 6, 2015 I was honoured to be invited to be on a panel and give a talk at the Pitblado Lectures in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This 55th edition of the Pitblado Lectures was put on by the Law Society of Manitoba, The Manitoba Bar Association, and The University of Manitoba Faculty of Law […]
Remixing Culture And Why The Art Of The Mash-Up Matters | TechCrunch
The title tells all about the relevance to the course. A thoughtful piece worth the read: Remixing Culture And Why The Art Of The Mash-Up Matters | TechCrunch. jon
Power Rangers & Fair Use
Some of you may have seen the “grimdark” Power Rangers fan film that has been circulating around the internet lately. It was produced by Adi Shankar, who has produced similar fan films involving copyrighted characters like Venom or The Punisher in the past. The underlying legal justification for doing so is fair use, but as […]
“Press Start: Culture, Industry, and Innovation in Japanese Gaming” conference @ UBC – February 27 & 28, 2015
Video games are within the purview of this course but because of the “other” course we have generally stayed away from the subject. That said the conference at UBC t his coming Friday and Saturday, February 27 & 28, 2015 may be of some interest. Scholars, players, and designers will come together in a wide […]
Copyright term extensions might be coming to Canada
This jumps off our discussions from last week. According to this post by Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa and one of the foremost Canadian experts in this area, it looks as though Canada may be considering extending its copyright terms as part of its negotiations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty (TPP): “If […]
The Super Bowl, and What is Legal
This article by Sherwin Siy is an amusing piece looking at the NFL’s copyright warnings, in light of “The Big Game” today. You may not make comments on this post I’ve written without my explicit consent. …which you can only get by giving me a cookie. And it better be oatmeal raisin (the best cookie), not that […]
When does similarity become plagiarism?
Tom Petty receives writing credit on Sam Smith hit Stay With Me This recent article in the Globe and Mail reminded me of our class discussion on stand-up comedians and the lack of protection for their jokes, and the problems that may arise from trying to create legal protections. I see somewhat of a parallel […]
Open-Access Publication: Creativity, Constraints, and Ethics
A very interesting short piece about the recent surge in open-access journals. As a bit of background about the “traditional” and “open” manners of publishing scientific papers: In the traditional form, authors have their work reviewed; if accepted, it is published for free (or some relatively nominal charge to the author). There are often ads in journals […]
The Entire Concept Of Intellectual Property Is Proof That Free Markets Aren’t Perfect
Though essentially tautological in it’s structure and delivery, this piece from Forbes is nevertheless of some use to provoke thought, though ironically not necessarily in the direction the author intended. Read it here: The Entire Concept Of Intellectual Property Is Proof That Free Markets Aren’t Perfect. Now ask yourself if the better answer is to: A. […]
How Martin Luther King film Selma was made without quoting civil rights leader | Daily Mail Online
How Martin Luther King film Selma was made without quoting civil rights leader | Daily Mail Online. This article will be among the topics for our first class. Issues of note: 1. Why didn’t Paramount sue for a declaratory judgment? 2. Does Hollywood have a vested interest in not strengthening the fair use exception to […]