Music Manumit

Koko: A Talking Gorilla This is not legal advice. Leave audio feedback at (512) 686-6329. This show was recorded and edited using GNU/Linux. Expected Audience: anyone curious about animals, AI, extraterrestrials and copyright This week, Doug speaks to Neal Smith, author of "Monkey Art and Copyright: Intellectual Property Rights in Works by Nonhuman Creators." mp3 audio | ogg audio | torrent | video Per usual, the sparse show notes are after the break. Why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself? Neal Smith law librarian at Western New England University (School of Law) He was the notes editor for IDEA this year. I want to leave plenty of time for questions, so I don’t want to get into too much detail about the paper at this time, but why don’t you give us a brief synopsis of the paper? Title of Paper Monkey Art and Copyright: Intellectual Property Rights in Works by Nonhuman Creators creative works by non-human creatorsthere was a story that went viral in 2011other forms of protection can work Could you speak a little about animal welfare vs. animal rights and does it matter for things like right of publicity? animal welfare is about protecting animals animal rights takes it a step furtherAnimal welfare says we should protect Koko the GorillaAnimal rights might appoint a guardian You don’t talk at all about trade secrets? Why not? Process or methodtrade secrets might be the way to go with AI Why are nonhuman creations not the subject of trademark or patents? It seems like AI or intelligent extraterrestrials could fulfill the requirements for either. strong AI presents the same problems as intelligent extraterrestrials Is the argument on the patent front, that an animal could invent something, but it could not fulfill the disclosure requirements? Just not useful creations You say “These cases together indicate [copyrightable] if the author makes any sort of decision about the outcome of the final product that involves more than the mechanical implementation of a standard method or template.  Works by animals can meet this threshold, while current machine-generated works and works of nature cannot.” You answer this generally in the paper, but more specifically, what would it take for a machine-generated work to meet this threshold? The issue is to meet the originality requirement. “modicrum of creativity” See Feist.more than randomness and more than wrote mechanical method machine creation might include randomness, which means that it isn’t copyrightable Doesn’t the Shakespeare analogy break down because a gorilla eats a lot (and thus costs a lot) and Shakespeare is long dead? A dead gorilla cannot create. Gorilla to paint needs food to keep it alive and materials to let paint.The real incentive is for the humans. novelty is an issue of source and copyright is not about protecting sourcetrademark is about protecting source How does any of this relate to the Public Domain and/or Creative Commons? Creative Commons: doesn’t directly apply to CC, because CC depends on copyrightPublic Domain: Right on point! Right now these works are in the public domain by default Mike Masnick got a takedown notice for posting images of the work in question. What are you planning next in your research and writing endeavors? Going in two different directions1. Orphan/hostage works (is it really a problem?)2. Copyright preemption and licensing agreements this is particularly important for libraries a California case involving UCLA in 2012 language limiting fair use might be preempted Get in TouchMusic Manumit Last.fm group My Last.fm username: DouglasAWh. Libre.fm username: douglasawh.  280.status.net: douglasawh I'm on too many social networks to list them all! DonateFlattr  Help Doug get through law school! Buy him a book or food!

The Federal Circuit This is not legal advice. Leave audio feedback at (512) 686-6329. This show was recorded and edited using GNU/Linux. Expected Audience: law students and attorneys interested in decision tree analysis First off, on top of our usual disclaimer, nothing Alex says should be taken as a statement by the U.S. government or the U.S. Court of Appeals. mp3 audio | ogg audio | torrent | unedited video Interview notes after the break. Can you tell us a bit about your background? Intern at Court of Appeals for Federal Circuit All patent law appeals. Special subject matter jurisdiction. Administrative appeals Many things dismissed for lack of jurisdiction Before we get into the note, you helped file an amicus brief for a DNA decision handed down yesterday. Do you want to discuss that at all? isolated DNA is not patent eligible. SCOTUS handled it properly. We don't need a play-by-play on the note. People can go and read it, but just tell us a bit about the note so people know what we are talking about. IDEA doesn’t stand for anything! How is a decision tree different than a flow chart?flow chart is almost the reverse of a decision tree The paper is presented as an introduction to decision tree analysis for lawyers. Do you think the paper could also be useful to musicians and other content creators trying to make decisions without counsel? Obviously people need to seek counsel if they are making an important decision, but obviously most Creative Commons musicians are not doing that. Caution non-legal Using these trees is all well and good, but isn't the valuation of cost and the evaluation of risk still going to be where most of the failure is?Some things do curves versus numbers What software do you use?Free download but no longer there. You weren't a business major in college, so where did you learn about this?Doing research for a professor and came across it. There have been a lot of bad decisions made in the financial world in the last decade and a half. Were those people using decision trees? What are some of the follies of using decision trees? a tool to help. Since our audience is most familiar with copyright law, could you briefly discuss the difference between utility patents and design patents? Also, how do those relate to industrial designs? utility patent goes to 101design patent is how something looksdesign patent is different because does not have to be original in some wayno fair use in design patent You know the outcome of Samsung v Apple, so doesn't that color your decision tree?Samsung doesn’t have to file with the SEC How broken is the patent system? Where do you think it is broken?Not perfect, but not broken. AIA fixed some problems, but we’ll see how it goes.AIA addressed some litigation issues and created new administrative courts.Other things that could be addressed: gene patents, software patents, NPE, patent trolls, PAE (patent assertion entity) property owners! When/where can people find the note?Should be online early fall. Do you have anything else you'd like to share with the listeners?It’s going to be an interesting next few years Get in TouchMusic Manumit Last.fm group My Last.fm username: DouglasAWh. Libre.fm username: douglasawh.  280.status.net: douglasawh I'm on too many social networks to list them all! DonateFlattr  Help Doug get through law school! Buy him a book or food!

Listen and find out how Tottenham fits in to Music Manumit This is not legal advice. Leave audio feedback at (512) 686-6329. This show was recorded and edited using GNU/Linux. Expected Audience:  people interested in patent policy and those interest in the Netizen Empowerment Federation Welcome back to the Music Manumit Lawcast! It's been a while since we've put out a podcast. We should be putting out one a week this summer. They'll be shorter than last summer, and it'll just be Doug and a guest. Also, Brian should be coming out with some shows on trademark law. mp3 audio | ogg audio | torrent | unedited video Josh and Doug cover a lot of ground. Expect a more focused show next time, when Doug speaks with Alex Owczarczak. Show notes after the break Intro from Doug about NEF, MML and Sportazine discuss the multiple audiences Can you speak a little about your background?2004, BS in Chemistry from Elon went to Colorado, Boulderworked in San Diego Doesn’t like being a chemist! What is your focus in patent law?pharmaceuticals Copyright and trademark law background?Died-in-the-wool punk-rocker Copyright policy vs. Patent policy?objectives are very different Broad sense?Access to educational material is similar to access to medicine What do you see your role as in NEF?Guiding hand to keep other board members on topic ← this is an inside joke of sortsEventually get to the point where NEF is more than an Patent stuff in public interest?Orphan disease listbringing multiple groups together: private labs, etc. Profit-center vs. giving away?Music is a powerful tool for moving causes forward: think of the 1960s.Drive the story and awareness! Conflicts of interests?polio vaccine was patented and then dedicated to the public domain, because it is “the right thing to do” Pharmaceutical research is incredibly expensive. Billions of dollars! And, just because Tom hates it when I ask sports questions and I have the opportunity without him here: who do you think will win the EPL next year?If rumors are true, Mata is gone. City, not a legitimate threat? Currently only limits insolvency. Is there anything else you would like to say?3-way fight between United, Chelsea, Spurs Get in TouchMusic Manumit Last.fm group My Last.fm username: DouglasAWh. Libre.fm username: douglasawh.  280.status.net: douglasawh I'm on too many social networks to list them all! DonateFlattr  Help Doug get through law school! Buy him a book or food!