Law 423 Topics in Intellectual Property: Copyright Law and Social Media

Acknowledgement

UBC’s Point Grey Campus is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) people. The land it is situated on has always been a place of learning for the Musqueam people, who for millennia have passed on their culture, history, and traditions from one generation to the next on this site.


Course Information

Course TitleCourse Code NumberCredit Value
Topics in Intellectual Property: Copyright Law and Social Media423C.0023

Prerequisites/COREQUISITIES

None.


Contacts

Course Instructor(s)Contact DetailsOffice LocationOffice Hours
Rowan Meredithrowanasm@mail.ubc.ca  N/ABefore or after class or by appointment.  Email questions are welcome.
Jon Festinger, KCjon.festinger@ubc.ca jfestinger@telus.net C: (604) 837-6426Allard 449Before or after class or by appointment.  Email questions are welcome.

Course website: https://socialmedialaw.allard.ubc.ca/

Course Instructor Biographical Statements

Rowan Meredith (she/her) is an SJD Candidate at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, writing her doctoral thesis on barriers to accessibility for disabled persons under Canadian copyright law. She is called to the bar in British Columbia and California. She has a JD in Entertainment, Media and Intellectual Property Law from UCLA (2018) and an LLM in Media Law from Queen Mary, University of London (2019). In her legal practice, she has regularly advised clients on copyright issues involving social media platforms. Rowan also serves on the Board of QMUNITY, BC’s Queer, Trans, and Two-Spirit Resource Centre.

Jon Festinger, K.C. (B.C.L., LL.B. – McGill, 1980) is a Vancouver based counsel and educator and is Of Counsel at Chandler Fogden Lyman. He has been an Adjunct Professor for over three decades at the Allard School of Law, as well as teaching at various times at the UBC Graduate School of Journalism, the TRU Faculty of Law, UVic Law and the Centre for Digital Media as an SFU Professor of Professional Practice. He is also Honorary Industry Professor in the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course examines legal and normative issues spawned by the interactions between traditional copyright law and emergent forms of social media, both domestically and internationally. We interpret “social media” broadly as encompassing digital entertainment in the forms of social networking platforms, streaming services, and interactive entertainment, with a particular emphasis on new technologies such as generative AI. This course will be a deep dive into how these media are changed by copyright law and are in turn redefining the legal parameters and character of copyright law. This course requires students to engage in critical reflection and analysis of law, making arguments for potential legislative amendment or court consideration based on the changing digital landscape and normative principles.

Issues explored will include:

  • The history of copyright law and its purposes. How has social media affected our understanding of copyright over time?
  • The impacts of generative Artificial Intelligence tools. Is content created by AI copyrighted? Does generative AI infringe copyright by using original works as training material?
  • The “Law of YouTube” (and other digital platforms). How are copyright disputes dealt with by social media platforms that rely on user generated content? How does the Copyright Act (Canada), Digital Millennium Copyright Act (U.S.), and their international equivalents affect how copyright is administered in the real world?
  • Music and copyright in the digital age, including issues of sampling and remixing.
  • How copyright interacts with other types of rights in an AI world, including privacy, data, and personality rights.
  • The inclusion of non-circumvention rules in copyright laws and whether they are effective, appropriate, and fair.
  • Ongoing collisions between copyright laws and freedom of expression in a social media context.
  • How the balance between “users rights” and “creators rights” in Canada is addressed in the context of changing technologies.

Course Structure

The basic components of this course will be group discussion, student presentations, and where appropriate, lectures and guest discussants.

Schedule of Topics

Please note that this is a “live” syllabus. There will be rolling changes, especially with respect to scheduling student presentations, etc., but also occasionally in other ways. Updates will be made available on the course website. All “Materials” listed below are optional and designed to give you access to more information and learning should you wish it, as well as inspiration for your term papers. In the event that there are any mandatory readings for this class, we will add them to the syllabus as “required readings”, we will bold them on the syllabus, and we will inform you of them in class.

Week 1: January 10, 2025 – Introduction

  • Objectives of the course
  • Evaluation
    • Student presentations and term papers

Materials: N/A

Guest: N/A

Week 2: January 17, 2025 – Understanding the Basics of Copyright Law

  • Copyright law primer
  • Introduction to related areas of law (personality rights, privacy rights, etc.)

Materials:

Guest: N/A

Week 3: January 24, 2025 – AI and Copyright Law

Materials:

Guest: TBD

Week 4: January 31, 2025 – AI and Copyright Law (continued)

Materials: Same as last week

Guest: TBD

Week 5: February 7, 2025 – History of (Social) Media and the Law

  • Not limited to copyright law
  • Was the Roman Coliseum social media?
  • History of copyright law (the printing press, Italian opera, romantic authorship, Napster, etc.)
  • Disinformation, misinformation, propaganda, and echo chambers (Brexit, elections, Cambridge Analytica)

Materials:

Guest: TBD

Week 6: February 14, 2025 – Fair Dealing and Fair Use Expansions in Modern Social Media

Materials:

Guest: TBD

READING WEEK FEBRUARY 17-21

Week 7: February 28, 2025 – Special Problems of Music

  • Generative AI music
    • Multiplicity of music copyrights – bug or feature?
    • Co-authorship and the Sarah McLachlin case
    • Choreography and dance
    • Substantial similarity and the four-chord problem
    • Public performance problem (restaurants, arenas, etc.)
    • Personal library transferability/right of first sale

Materials:

Guest: TBD

Week 8: March 7, 2025 – YouTube Law

  • Contract law displacing copyright law
    • Dispute resolution mechanisms
    • Antitrust and anti-competition problems
    • Unavailability of Charter protections
    • Influencers

Materials:

Guest: TBD

Week 9: March 14, 2025 – Copyright Law, Social Media and Human Rights

  • Accessibility
  • Impacts of copyright on marginalized groups
  • Copyright and children
  • Privacy through copyright enforcement
  • Cultural appropriation

Materials:

Guest: TBD

Week 10: March 21, 2025 – Special Concepts

  • DMCA and Non-circumvention of TPMs
  • Technological Neutrality
  • Internet Regulation
  • Data as Copyright

Materials:

Guest: TBD

Week 11: March 28, 2025 – Future of (Social) Media, AI, and the Law

Materials:

Guest: TBD

Week 12: April 4, 2025 – Conclusion: Reconciling Copyright in the Metaverse

  • Digital contact lenses
  • Private use exceptions
  • Freedom of expression and freedom of thought

Materials:

Guest: TBD

Learning Materials

All materials for this course will be made available online free of charge. If you are unable to access any course materials as provided, please contact the instructor(s) for assistance.

Assessments of Learning

  • Participation = 15%. This includes any or all of attendance, class contributions, evidence of preparation for class, evidence of attention to the analysis of others and consideration of how such analysis might affect one’s own, website contributions, substantive questions for instructor(s), and following and documenting “Self-Socratic” protocols.

  • Student Presentation = 25%. This will be based on preparation of a Discussion Outline that must be created and should be provided  to the class—preferably by posting on the course website – five days before your particular discussion takes place, and leading the discussion for that week. Students will sign up for a particular discussion date and may present on any topic related to copyright law and social media. Each student should expect to speak for about 10 minutes, with additional time for class discussion and questions. All presentations are due by the final date of the teaching semester if they are not presented in class.

  • Term paper/major project = 60%. (18 to 20 pages or equivalent – about 5000 words).


Note with respect to term paper/major project: Given the dynamic and emergent nature of the subject matter, the opportunities for scholarship are vast. Cases and previous legal academic contributions have almost exclusively been non-Canadian and have generally not focused on how court decisions in other jurisdictions might be resolved under Canadian law. That said you are not limited to such topics or perspectives. As well, large territories of legal interest have simply gone unexplored and even undiscovered. The paper can be on a wide breadth of topics, but must relate to both copyright lawand social media(broadly defined). If you have any questions about whether a topic is suitable for this course’s term paper, please reach out to the instructor(s).

Grading will reward thoughtfulness, incisiveness, originality and depth of research, potential for publication/public availability as well as rigorousness of analysis and clarity of presentation.  Term paper is due by email to the instructor(s) by 4:00 pm on Saturday, April 26th.


Per the law school’s grading policies, if an assignment is late and you have not received an extension from the Academic Procedures Committee, your assignment grade will be reduced by 5% of the maximum possible value of the assignment for the first day or part of a day that the assignment is late and an additional 2% for each subsequent day or part of a day.

University Policies

UBC provides resources to support student learning and to maintain healthy lifestyles but recognizes that sometimes crises arise and so there are additional resources to access including those for survivors of sexual violence. UBC values respect for the person and ideas of all members of the academic community. Harassment and discrimination are not tolerated nor is suppression of academic freedom. UBC provides appropriate accommodation for students with disabilities and for religious observances. UBC values academic honesty and students are expected to acknowledge the ideas generated by others and to uphold the highest academic standards in all of their actions.

Details of the policies and how to access support are availableonthe UBC Senate website.

OTHER COURSE Policies

ATTENDANCE

Due to ongoing health concerns, please do not come to class if you are feeling unwell or have even minor cold-like symptoms. Please remember that some people are much more vulnerable to serious consequences due to illness and we should all avoid putting anyone at risk. If you need to miss a class due to illness, please consult classmates to find out what you missed and contact the instructor(s) if you would like to go over any of the material from that class. Attendance will not be directly factored into the participation grade for this course – if you have concerns that you have needed to miss several classes due to illness (or other reason) and this has affected your ability to participate fully in class, please contact the instructor(s) and we can discuss alternative options for participation.

ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT

All Allard School of Law students are subject to the University’s rules on Academic Misconduct (http://vpacademic.ubc.ca/integrity/ubc-regulation-on-plagiarism/), and are expected to act with academic integrity at all times. Students should be especially aware of the University’s rules in relation to plagiarism. Plagiarism includes: copying the work of another student; copying or paraphrasing from a textbook or reference book, journal article, case or electronic source without proper footnoting; copying your own work that has already been submitted for another course in this degree or another degree, passing off the ideas of another person as your own. If you plagiarize, you will be subject to penalties set out in the UBC calendar. (http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/index.cfm?tree=3,54,111,959)

ACADEMIC CONCESSIONS AND ACCOMMODATIONS

All requests for concessions or accommodations must be directed to the Academic Procedures Committee via your Allard Law Advisor and/or to the Centre for Accessibility, as appropriate. For further information and for the Academic Concession Request Form, please see https://allard.ubc.ca/student-portal/academic-concessions-accommodations.

RESPECTFUL CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT

In this class: 1) everyone is allowed to feel they can learn in a safe and caring environment; 2) everyone learns about, understands, appreciates, and respects varied races, classes, genders, physical and mental abilities, and sexualities; 3) everyone matters; 4) all individuals are to be respected and treated with dignity and civility; and 5) everyone shares the responsibility for making the class, and the Academy, a positive and better place to live, work, and learn. (http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/creating-respectful-classroom-environment/)

Copyright

All materials of this course (course handouts, lecture slides, assessments, course readings, etc.) are the intellectual property of the Course Instructor(s) or licensed to be used in this course by the copyright owner. Redistribution of these materials by any means without permission of the copyright holder(s) constitutes a breach of copyright and may lead to academic discipline.