Syllabus

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/CO-REQUISITIES

None.


Contacts

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


Course Instructor Biographical Statement

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.

Rowan Meredith is an SJD student 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.

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. “Social media” encompasses digital entertainment in the forms of social networking platforms, streaming services, and interactive entertainment. 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.

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 impact how copyright is administered in the real world?
  • Music and copyright in the digital age, including issues of sampling and remixing.
  • Pros and cons of personal data being considered copyright material to reinforce privacy.
  • 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.
  • “Users Rights” in Canada as a model for the world.

Course Structure

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

All classes will be recorded, with recordings available on the course website.

Schedule of Topics

Please note that this is a “live” syllabus. There will be rolling changes, especially with respect to scheduling groups, etc., but also occasionally in other ways. Updates will be made available on the course website.

Week 1: January 12, 2024 – Introduction

  • Objectives of the course
  • Evaluation
  • Discussion Hour structure; formation of discussion groups

Materials:

Guest: N/A

Week 2: January 26, 2024 – Social Media Law Currents + A Copyright Law Primer

Materials:

Guest: TBD

Week 3: February 2, 2024 – A.I., Law & Social Media Currents

  • Can A.I. Materials attract copyright?
  • The impact of personality rights, trademarks as copyright adjacent concepts
  • Extralegal Norms

Materials:

Student Discussants: TBD

Guest: TBD

Week 4: February 9, 2024 – History & Future of (Social) Media, A.I., and the Law, Part 1

  • Social media historical precedants
  • Was the Roman Coliseum social media?
  • Post-structuralism & interactivity
  • The circular nature of Justice, Law & Tech
  • Why all media will be social media

Materials:

Student Discussants: Amy Innes & Mads McKnight

Guest: Ryan Black (DLA Piper)

Week 5: February 16, 2024 – History & Future of (Social) Media, A.I., and the Law, Part 2

  • Printing press
  • Italian Opera
  • Romantic authorship
  • Photography, film, and TV copyright
  • News and information/data
  • Sony/Universal
  • Napster
  • Misinformation (Brexit, 2016 election, Cambridge Analytica

Materials:

Student Discussants:

Guest: TBD

Week 6: March 1, 2024 – Fair Dealing and Fair Use Expansions in Modern Social Media

Materials:

Student Discussants: Selasie Doe-Demosse, Selina Jiang, Noah Kingston, Gabby Lees, Emmanuel Onyemachi, Maren Tergesen

Guest: TBD

Week 7: March 8, 2024 – 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:

Student Discussants: Brandon Cormier, Josh Lerner, Rares Minecan, Siam Smart, Joseph Somers

Guest: TBD

Week 8: March 15, 2024 – YouTube Law

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

Materials:

Student Discussants: 1. Scott Gilpin, Peter Mate; 2. Kaja Tecza, Vy Tran

Guest: TBD

Week 9: March 22, 2024: Special Concepts

  • Technological Neutrality
  • Internet Regulation
  • Data as Copyright
  • DMCA
  • Non-Circumvention

Materials:

Student Discussants: 1. Sharvani Mittal, Ragib Chowdhury; 2. Ana Isabel Melo, Molly Ware; 3. Rachel Lee, Gabrielle Tan

Guest: TBD

Week 10: April 5, 2024 – Copyright Law, Social Media and Accessibility

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

Materials:

Student Discussants: 1. Jake Egarhos, Brittney MacBean, Robert Thomson, Jack Wells; 2.Derren Roberts, Nonye Ngwaba; 3. Eric Murphy

Guest: TBD

Week 11: April 12, 2024 – Conclusion: Reconciling Copyright in the Metaverse

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

Materials:

Student Discussants: Laura Burke

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, website contributions, and following and documenting “Self-Socratic” protocols.

  • Group presentation during “Discussion” = 25%. This will be based on group 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. 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 – 5000 words).


Note with respect to class participation:  Factors taken into consideration are attendance, level of engagement in course related discussions & activities including contributions to the course website (or equivalent email contributions to the instructor), evidence of preparation for class, contributions to in class discussions, evidence of attention to the analysis of others and consideration of how such analysis might affect one’s own.


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. 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 in digital form by email by 4 P.M. on the last day of the exam period.


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)


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/)

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.

Copyright

All materials of this course (course handouts, lecture slides, assessments, course readings, etc.) are the intellectual property of the Course Instructor 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.