Good morning everyone,
Sharvani and myself are going to be presenting this Friday on “Data as copyright”. This post will provide a brief rundown on what we will be talking about.
Code as Law– Borrowing from Lawrence Lessig’s argument that “code is law in the cyberspace”, this segment will present the importance of “code” and its impact as a regulator in the cyberspace.
User-generated Content (UGC) – This section will define user-generated content (UGC), its different types, and how data is collected from it.
Copyrightability of UGC – We will be focusing on whether UGC on social media can enjoy copyright protection in terms of originality and fixation requirements.
ToU and Clickwrap Agreements – Social-media (Facebook, Instagram and X, in particular) terms of use (TOU) also known as Clickwrap Agreements will be assessed as to whether or not they are enforceable and what impact they have from on UGC from a copyright perspective.
Copyright and Metadata – In this section, we will discuss metadata and personal data generated by a consumer, and whether there can be copyright protection over this data.
The Conundrum of Adtech Data– To conclude, we will discuss the unique case of adtech data or online advertising data, a recently discovered tool of non-invasive and cost-efficient surveillance mechanism buried deep within our digital devices and the two of the most widely used ecosystems (Android and iOS).
The following two articles have been very useful in our research and understanding of this topic. We hope that it will be the same for everyone else as well.
- WIRED article on adtech data: https://www.wired.com/story/how-pentagon-learned-targeted-ads-to-find-targets-and-vladimir-putin/?utm_source=pocket_saves
- Research of UAlberta PhD Candidate on the intersection of privacy law with individual rights over human biomaterials: https://www.ualberta.ca/law/about/news/2024/3/toews.html
Sincerely,
Sharvani Mittal & Ahmed Ragib Chowdhury.
