Terrific new #IPilogue post by IP Osgoode Senior Research Fellow Shadi Nasseri, describing AI as a “stress test on the heart of the law”—increasing pressures revealing the law’s inherent weaknesses and latent vulnerabilities: www.yorku.ca/osgoode/ipos...
"In this dawning era of AI, when so much remains in flux and the future trajectory of this world-changing technology is being hashed out in courtrooms, boardrooms and back rooms, the metaphors we use to understand our predicament could prove crucial . . . "
- @caryscraig.bsky.social
I’m happy to share my latest - “Data is Nothing Like Oil” - an editorial just published in the IIC: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
We should see data not as oil but rather as an ocean— shifting our regulatory focus from commodification and private control to governance of the knowledge commons:👇
"Expression, [Professor Silbey] argued, is not merely aesthetic but ethical; it enables individuals and communities to bear witness to injustice, preserve memory, and imagine alternative futures."
- Xiang Zhang
My PhD supervisee, Xiang Zhang, did a lovely job writing up this year’s thought-provoking Grafstein Lecture by Jessica Silbey @jessicasilbey.bsky.social: “Copyright’s Edges and the Ethics of Expression in the Digital Age”.
Read about it on the #IPOsgoode #IPilogue:
www.yorku.ca/osgoode/ipos...
Victory for GEMA in Germany against OpenAI
The Munich Regional Court has handed down its much-awaited decision in GEMA v OpenAI, and it is… a lot, and right on the back of the Getty Images High Court ruling. On the surface, this looks like a clear defeat for OpenAI: the court found copyright…
I have been dreaming of this day for over five years. Proctorio’s lawsuit against me is forever over. I’ve won my life back!
linkletter.org/update-33-th...
Below the line of the 1st page of Professor Dan Burk's last article, just published posthumously by the UC Irvine Law Review.
Highlighting the relevant chart...
In the latest #IPilogue blogpost, Osgoode PhD researcher Shadi Nasseri shares her reflections on the recent international #copyright conference, which was proudly co-hosted by #IPOsgoode, on 'The Legacy of CCH Canadian Ltd. v. LSUC and the Future of Copyright Law'. See: www.yorku.ca/osgoode/ipos...
Cover page for Access To Algorithmic Justice Working Paper. Accessible text via link.
...and my a2aj.ca project released a working paper by @simonwallace.bsky.social and me about bulk access to Canadian legal data, the role of @canlii.bsky.social, & our new open-source alternative (a2aj.ca/canadian-legal-data)
Paper is here:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Cover image for a report entitled "From Surveillance to Empowerment: Advancing the Responsible Use of Technology in Alternatives to Detention" Accessible text via link
A busy week...
My @refugeelab.ca released our report about tech and alternatives to immigration detention, co-authored by @danghez.bsky.social & @petramolnar.com, and co-published with @kaldorcentre.bsky.social and @idcoalition.bsky.social:
www.unsw.edu.au/content/dam/...
A poster advertising the conference includes a logo featuring the CN tower and books, as well as a QR code to the conference website.
Registration is open! Join us for an international conference on ‘The Legacy of CCH Canadian Ltd. v. LSUC and the Future of Copyright Law’, taking place on Sept 19-20th in downtown Toronto and live-streaming online! 📚©️
Find more information and a link to register here: www.yorku.ca/osgoode/ipos...
This is a fun episode on AI art and copyright law npr.org - nicely done by @ecjacobs.bsky.social! I was pleased to be included alongside @davidfewer.bsky.social.
CALL FOR PAPERS! 🪩🎉🎊🪩🎉🎊🪩🎉🎊 It's out and full of information. Check it out! Get in touch with questions!
lawandpoliticaleconomy.org
Great post by @technollama: “Copyright is messy.…
Stop trying to make copyright do something that it’s not meant to do. Some of the issues that are being discussed are about societal challenges. They are also about competition, funding to the arts, capitalism, corporate greed, and inequality.” +1 👏
South African apex court recognises the “constitutional imperatives of equality and dignity for persons with disabilities” in a landmark copyright judgment 🎉 | infojustice
Check out Dr. Sanya Samtani’s excellent blogpost explaining yesterday’s remarkable ruling 👇
infojustice.org/archives/46309
An important sequel to the groundbreaking first edition, Robot Law: Volume II discusses the societal and economic transformations introduced by robotics. Editors Ryan Calo, A. Michael Froomkin and Kristen Thomasen, alongside their contributing authors, explore the legal, ethical, and societal challenges that robotics and automated systems pose, investigating the intersection of law and policy in this area.
Robot Law: Volume II, edited by @rcalo.bsky.social, @mfroomkin.bsky.social and @kristenthomasen.bsky.social
Contributors incl: @hartzog.bsky.social @caryscraig.bsky.social @timhwang.bsky.social @cyn-k.bsky.social @karenlevy.bsky.social @abeba.bsky.social
Free chapter ➡️ doi.org/10.4337/9781...
#WeRobot2025 NEXT PANEL: AI Fairness & Discrimination ft "The Fairness-Accuracy Tradeoff Myth in AI" by @ignaciocofone.bsky.social & "Artificial Intelligence and the Discrimination Injury" by @aselbst.bsky.social with @caryscraig.bsky.social as discussant! static1.squarespace.com/static/66e43... +
This image shows an illistrative robot head.
As #AI tools become more prevalent, #policymakers are urged to protect creators & cultural industries from the threats posed by #generativeAI. However, in their rush to act, they may fall into the "Copyright Trap."
Read: http://spkl.io/63321fQcDU
Subscribe: http://spkl.io/63322fQcDq
It's about turning a million little monopolies into one big one, and using it to pummel independent artists, technologists, and the public. Maybe some day someone will be interested in that version of this story, instead of the same old "You wouldn't steal a car??!" cliches.
And their endgame is never an artists' utopia, it's a world where (as @caryscraig.bsky.social explains) a few big corporations control the creative economy, where no one can make or use creative tools without permission from the biggest copyright incumbent industries.
“Copyright is likely to function not as a safeguard for our culture, but as a tool to advance corporate power,” she says, cutting to the heart of a debate that’s reshaping how society values creativity in an age increasingly defined by algorithms.
“Copyright casts the author’s work as an alienable commodity,” she explains, noting that the current framework disproportionately benefits intermediaries – the platforms, publishers and corporations that control distribution. Strengthening copyright, she argues, won’t fix this inherent imbalance. Instead, she calls for a more radical approach: robust public funding for the arts, stronger labour protections for creators and tax policies that support cultural production, not just corporate profit.
This is 1000% the correct take on copyright and AI, from @caryscraig.bsky.social. If we can't break through the braindead "You stole mah website!" level of discourse, we're going to be in a world where Marvel and UMG dictate terms for this technology. www.yorku.ca/yfile/2025/0...
Even as the number of legal cases grows, a definite answer to the question of whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted content to train their AI products is still a long way off
www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/art...
Rejoignez-nous CE JEUDI le 27 février pour en apprendre plus sur l’utilisation équitable et l’intelligence artificielle dans le milieu universitaire avec Carys Craig, juriste et experte en droit d'auteur et en intelligence artificielle.
Inscrivez-vous : us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
It’s Fair Dealing Week! Join us THIS THURSDAY Feb. 27 to learn more about fair dealing and AI in the academy from legal scholar and copyright and artificial intelligence expert Carys Craig.
Register now: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
An image of the first page of Chapter 7, “Copyright and Gender: Feminist Philosophies and the Politics of Proof”
…as if greater participation in the existing IP system is necessarily progress towards equality. From a critical feminist stance, I caution that this is the kind of second-wave neoliberal thinking that sustains the status quo, reinforcing an IP system that produces inequality and exclusion by design
Front cover of book ‘A Research Agenda for Intellectual Property and Gender’, Lai & Bowery (eds)
Image of the table of contents
Images of the table of contents (cont.)
Delighted to finally get my hands on this beauty 💖 and very grateful to have been included! So many *must-reads* in here on IP & Gender: www.elgaronline.com/edcollbook/b... My chapter takes aim at the ‘empirical turn’—all the efforts we’re seeing to measure women’s participation in the IP system…
As AI disrupts our existing copyright regimes, it's critical that we protect fair dealing - the concept that makes copyright compatible with education and freedom of speech.
Join @caut.bsky.social and law professor Carys Craig next week to talk about it!
us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
