Illegal downloading of copyright materials by end-users had its heyday in the early 2000s, with music, television, and film studios desperately searching for a way to curb the tide of sharing. This chapter uses the example of Capitol Records v Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the first file-sharing case to...

The role of copyright law in furthering social justice is blurred. On the one hand, copyright law aims to guarantee a more or less exclusive protection. On the other hand, copyright law also intends to strike a fair balance between the interests of rightholders and the society. Such balancing...

This paper consists in the “Lens of London” documentary which is created by Queen Mary students of Intellectual Property Law under the US jurisdiction. The focus of this paper are the issues such as: what is a performer, who owns the copyright of the work, credit and pre-existing work...

In the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) and others v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills case, the High Court of Justice in matter of private copy exception provides the twofold prime opportunity to shed light on the state of the art of copyright...

This article briefly describes the legal position in Australia prior to the Ice decision. It then explains the nature of the changes to that position as a consequence of the Ice decision. After dealing with the Ice decision, the recent first-instance decision in Phone Directories will be considered

Back in 2012, I was talking with an acquaintance, who happens to be a copyright scholar, about a cease and desist letter that an artist had received from a publisher. The publisher objected to the artist’s display and sale of works that collaged cutouts from a comic book with new material...

This chapter explores IP protectability of what may be broadly termed “folk music,” though, that is a term fraught with ambiguity, from an intellectual property social justice (IP-SJ) framework. Our IP-SJ approach helps illuminate how IP law and administration affect opportunities for...

In June and October 2009, the French parliament passed controversial copyright laws aimed at deterring internet piracy. The laws establish a new anti-piracy scheme known, in France, as the graduated response and, in the US and other English-speaking countries, as “three strikes and you’re...

Dozens of people worked together to produce Casablanca. But a single person working alone wrote The Sound and the Fury. While almost all films are produced by large collaborations, no great novel ever resulted from the work of a team. Why does the frequency and success of collaborative creative...

Musical copyright has been the subject of collective rights management in Singapore for decades, conducted by what are known as collective management organisations (“CMOs”). Whereas CMOs serve the public interest by facilitating protection of copyright, they unfortunately exist in a legal...