review Flashcards
- In 2016, a documentary including an interview of WKWSCI administrators first reported that the school would make a statistics course required for all students. Who has copyright in the information that the course would be required?
A. The owners of the documentary’s copyright
B. The administrators interviewed
C. Both A and B
D. No one
It’s D. This is a fact that’s not protectable by copyright law, so neither A nor B.
- Dr Lee Wei Ling (LWL) pays you a fee to write a biographical essay about her and take a photographic portrait of her. Which is true, if there is no contract that states otherwise, after the proposed amendments to the Copyright Act are enacted?
A. Copyright in the biographical essay belongs to you, and copyright in the photos belongs to LWL
B. Copyright in the biographical essay belongs to LWL, and copyright in the photos belongs to LWL
C. Copyright in the biographical essay belongs to you, and copyright in the photos belongs to you
D. Ownership is impossible to ascertain without a contract
E. None of the above
It’s C. Because there’s no contract, the legal default rules apply. These are commissioned works; you have been hired specifically to create them. After the amendments, the default rule for all these works is that the creator owns the copyright. Before the amendments, copyright in an essay belonged to the person who wrote it, whether or not it was a commissioned piece. For a commissioned photo, the legal default rule was that the person who commissioned it owned the copyright.
- YouTuber Bart Baker made a popular parody of recording artist The Weeknd’s hit song “Can’t Feel My Face.” The parody has tens of millions of views. Let’s say that Baker’s parody makes fun of the song and the video so effectively that it drives down demand for The Weeknd’s original; viewers even write in the comments on the parody, “I’ll never look at The Weeknd’s video the same way again. You ruined it for me!” The Weeknd’s team can document that after the release of the parody, plays of the original song decreased on multiple platforms. In the analysis specifically of the potential market effect factor of the fair use test,
A. there is unlikely to be substitution, so the analysis of ‘potential market effect’ is likely to weaken the argument for fair use
B. there is unlikely to be substitution, so the analysis of ‘potential market effect’ is likely to strengthen the argument for fair use
C. there is likely to be substitution, so the analysis of ‘potential market effect’ is likely to strengthen the argument for fair use
D. there is likely to be substitution, so the analysis of ‘potential market effect’ is likely to weaken the argument for fair use
E. none of the above are considerations under the potential market effect analysis
It’s B; it’s poking fun at the original, not substituting for it, and substitution is required for potential negative market effect that hurts the fair use defence. Not A; without substitution, the case for fair use is stronger. Not C nor D; an effective parody is very unlikely to be a substitute for the original. Not E; potential market effect is an important consideration in the fair use test.
- Amos Yee posted a controversial video on YouTube, “Lee Kuan Yew is finally dead!” It was the subject of international news coverage. You are an Associated Press reporter, and you want to use a screenshot of Amos’s controversial video in your news article about multiple police reports filed about it. You are pretty sure this is fair use for news, but just to be safe, you contact Amos and ask his permission to include the screenshot. He refuses permission to use the photo. Which is most likely true?
A. Your use of the screenshot still may qualify for the fair use defence, because permission is not required for fair use
B. Including the screenshot is automatically infringement, because you must have a copyright owner’s permission to avoid infringement liability
C. You asked the wrong party for copyright permission; Amos doesn’t own copyright, but YouTube does
D. There is no copyright in the video because it is the subject of police reports
E. B and C
It’s A, not B; the whole point of fair use is that permission is not required. Amos owns the copyright, so he’s the right person to ask; YouTube only has a licence to distribute the work, so not C. Amos wouldn’t lose copyright just because a police report was filed (not D).
- In reporting on a disappeared airplane, an exclusive article in the Today newspaper breaks news about this new information: An investigator claims that there was a mobile phone call from the pilot’s phone to air traffic control. Seventy-five of the 1500 words of the original Today article describe this new information; the rest of the article discusses other developments and background. A Yahoo! News Singapore reporter, Jeanette, reports this new information on Yahoo’s news website, attributing it to Today and using her own, different words and phrasing to convey the new information. Today’s report uses some standard terms like “airplane” and “mobile phone,” which Jeanette also uses in her report. Which is true?
It’s D, not A. This new info is not copyright protected because it’s a fact, not expression. Not B; since it’s not copyright protected material, the fair use defence is irrelevant. Not C; there’s no innocent dissemination defence for copyright–only for libel.
- In the US, a parody of a top 2019 hit, Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road”, causes many listeners to rethink the song and stop purchasing and streaming it. Which is true?
A. This parody’s market effect on the original weighs against fair use
B. The parody may, in the end, be found to be fair use
C. The fact that it’s a parody weighs in favour of fair use
D. All of the above
E. Only two of the above
It’s E. Not A; the potential market effect that counts against the fair use defence occurs when one work can serve as a substitute for another, not when it makes fun of the other really effectively. B is okay; one can’t know for sure, but parody weighs in favour of fair use (C is okay).
23. A review of Lil Nas X’s work in Vogue magazine quotes 2 lines of his song, “Old Town Road”. Which prong of the fair use test definitely counts AGAINST fair use? A. Purpose of the use B. Amount & substantiality of use C. Nature of the work D. Potential market effect
It’s C; nature of the work concerns whether the work that is borrowed from is copyright protected; if it’s at the “core” of what’s copyright-protected—artistic expression—it counts against fair use. A song is definitely artistic expression that is copyright protected. Not A; the purpose of the use here—for a review—counts toward fair use. Not B; the amount taken is small and it would be difficult to say any part of the song is much more substantial (important to the work) than another. Not D; a quote in a review does not substitute for the song.
