Author Archives: mwillee

There’s nothing good that can’t be ruined, and nothing bad that can’t be made worse, and that holds true for intellectual property as it does for anything else in life. Take the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), for example; like any law, it has its flaws, but applied in the spirit in which it wasContinue reading “DMCA Copyright Trolls Get In On The Automation Game”

Verisimilitude in video games is a relatively new issue, and as seen in the case brought by Lebron James’ tattoo artist against NBA2K, it brings with it a host of new issues about depiction and representations in the medium. Trademark or copyright aren’t much of a concern in 8- or 16-bit formats, but design andContinue reading “Call of Duty Wins Case Over Trademark Use on First Amendment Grounds”

Intellectual property as a concept — the notion that ideas can be protected by their creators for the purpose of exclusive profit — is one that is central to the construction of capitalism as we know it both here in the United States and throughout much of the world. Businesses exist on the idea thatContinue reading “Will Intellectual Property Destroy The Planet?”

In a world that is globally connected, one thing that can remain regional and provincial is restaurants, or, given the conglomerated nature of everything today, restaurant chains. Each region of the country has its own chains that denizens swear by, and in moving west in early-2014, I became privy to In-N-Out Burger, which has noContinue reading “In-N-Out Presses Trademark Case in Australia, Without Actual Restaurants”

The tension that once existed between the rights of the average content creator online and those of copyright holders no longer exists, because the battle has long since been decided in favor of rightsholders. As long documented in this space, the rules and regulations governing YouTube and Facebook and other content repositories lean decidedly towardsContinue reading “Twitch To Delete Clips Automatically Over Copyright Claims”

We all remember movie theaters, yes? Building with large, dark rooms where we gathered to watch films together, back when such groupings weren’t inadvisable? At the point where theaters were a going concern, superhero movies were the dominant storytelling form of the decade, and that success begat more and more franchises, folding in secondary andContinue reading “Marvel Faces Trademark Fight Over WandaVision Series”

When reality becomes stranger than fiction, one would think that scripted television would tend to suffer. Reading about the creation of the Space Force certainly felt like living inside fiction when the news broke a couple years ago, and so when the announcement of a TV show of the same name came later, it wasContinue reading “Netflix’s Space Force is Winning The Trademark Race”

The crisis caused by the coronavirus has given rise to a wave of goodwill gestures form companies looking to help people throughout tough times. Whether it’s out of genuine communal spirit or a desire for good will, brands have made an effort to both donate money and make available products for free in order toContinue reading “Internet Archive Facing Copyright Lawsuit Over Unauthorized Lending”

Change can seem fitful, if not absent entirely, particularly in light of recent events, but it’s still doing its work in society — not always quickly, and often not in the areas in which it’s most needed, but things do change. Take cannabis: once the scourge of parents and authority figures everywhere, it’s now notContinue reading “The Cannabis Industry Is Moving Into Patents”

In the midst of the pandemic lockdown, artists and musicians have turned to virtual means of staying connected to fans and audiences, as much for their sake as ours. It’s a trite observation given the real challenges they face, but performers do survive on the attention that we’re able to give them, and the moneyContinue reading “Even In A Pandemic, Copyright Bots Don’t Rest (Or Learn)”