The Associated Press vs. Fairey

During President Obama’s first run for presidential election in 2008, Shephard Fairey (a well known street artist) created the Hope poster that quickly became a symbol for Obama’s campaign as it was unofficially endorsed.

The photograph on which Fairey allegedly based the design was revealed by the Associated Press in January 2009 as one shot by freelancer Mannie Garcia that was licensed to Associate Press exclusively. The Associated Press demanded compensation for the use of the photograph in Fairey’s work while Fairey’s defense was fair use as he claimed that his work did not reduce the value of the original photograph.

The outcome was a private settlement between the parties in January 2011 part of which included a split of the profits generated by the work. Garcia stated he was “so proud of the photograph and that Fairey did what he did artistically with it, and the effect it has had,” but still had a problem with the fact that Fairey took the image without permission and without credit for it’s originator.

Even tough this case was settled outside the court, it holds great significance as it created an interesting context around fair use and shed some light on this gray area. Surely Fairey’s work brought a lot more exposure to Garcia’s photograph that corresponds to more earnings that Garcia would not have access to without Fairey’s work. Estimating the influence of each party and determining the financial splits might not be an easy task especially when negotiated after the success. What we do learn from this case is that it is always better to get the consent of the original artist before incorporating their work into a new work of art and whatever the case, give credit where credit is due.

David Bowie/Freddie Mercury vs. Vanilla Ice

In 1991 Vanilla Ice releases Ice Ice Baby that became a massive hit but it didn’t take long for Queen and David Bowie’s lawyers to react as Vanilla Ice sampled a very distinctive melody without giving credit.

At first Vanilla Ice denied that the beat was sampled but later retracted his statement dismissing it as a joke, confessed to sampling and the case was settled privately out of court with Ice paying an undeclared sum of money and crediting Bowie/Queen on the track.

What is Blockchain technology?

Blockchain Definition: Blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets in a network. An asset can be tangible (a house, car, cash, land) or intangible (intellectual property, patents, copyrights, branding).

The goal of blockchain is to allow digital information to be recorded and distributed, but not edited. In this way, a blockchain is the foundation for immutable ledgers, or records of transactions that cannot be altered, deleted, or destroyed.

How Copyright Works

Copyright Definition: A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form.

A copyright requires the recordation of three crucial information: the owners or authors of the copyright, the content or material to be copyrighted and a timestamp consisting of the date and time the copyright was created. The recordation of such information must be verified by an external authority acting as a witness agent and is usually the work of copyright offices, either country specific and backed by individual governmental authorities or international backed by independent authorities.

How Blockchain Changed The Copyright Process

Blockchain was first created in October 2008 and for the next decade has been constantly tested as the underlying decentralized technology that runs all cryptocurrencies. Today it is considered to be the proven technology that can be the bedrock of the worldwide record-keeping systems.

This inherent secure decentralized ledger qualities of the Blockchain make it the ideal platform to record copyright information and to offer so many benefits over more traditional copyright office services. Copyright registration processing times have fallen from an average of 3.6 months to literally 5 minutes while blockchain registrations are universally acknowledged by countries beyond the ones endorsing the Berne Convention.

While the International Copyright Organization is the leading global authority in blockchain copyright it continues to offer in parallel traditional copyright services acting as the independent witness agent and verification authority.