Did Tolkien have copyrights to the languages created by him? Why Māori are more powerful than the Professor? And how the Oracle vs. Google case helps us to understand the protection of Quenya?

In this episode, intellectual property lawyers Victor and Anton talk about legal protection of Quenya, Java, Māori and other languages.

Key moments:

00:00 Go!

00:46 Tolkien's copyrights history: Recap of the previous episode of Copycast

01:31 Did Tolkien have copyrights to his languages?

08:50 What if Tolkien was Māori...

11:09 Māori vs. Lego Bionicle  

13:12 Class of Aragorn

16:45 Kia Ora case

18:05 Oracle vs. Google case

19:40 Copyright to languages in future

To learn more about intellectual property rights to the Tolkien's legacy, listen to the previous episode of Copycast.

We also present to you a complete timeline of Tolkien's copyright: from books to films and even merchandise. You will find out which companies “inherited” the rights to Tolkien’s works, to whom the licensing rights to film adaptations of the professor’s works were transferred in different periods, and, perhaps most importantly... When will anyone be able to freely use The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and other works of the greatest fantasy author.  

▶️ The infographic is available on our website via this link: https://claimsip.com/promo/tolkiens_timeline/

How long should we wait until Tolkien's legacy becomes public domain? Or will it never happen due to trademarks? Who exactly owns the rights to the world of Middle-earth, and why is 'The Rings of Power' considered Amazon's fan-fiction?

In this episode of #Copycast, IP lawyers Victor and Anton explore the world of intellectual property rights to the universe of Tolkien.

Key moments:

00:00 - Go!

00:53 - Why Tolkien's books are not in public domain

02:23 - It's not easy to calculate when copyrights to LOTR will expire

06:10 - Who owns copyrights to the Tolkien's legacy  

06:41 - The Tolkien Estate

07:38 - The first copyrights deal and The Middle-earth Enterprises

10:16 - When you should get license from The Tolkien Estate, and when from The Middle-earth Enterprises

12:50 - Trademarks to rule them all

15:29 - The Middle-earth Enterprises against Dungeons & Dragons

17:49 - How a license changed gods

19:56 - Amazon and The Rings of Power

21:25 - What Amazon owns exactly

24:42 - What's wrong with the official story about the deal between Amazon and The Tolkien Estate

Video:https://youtu.be/eIkB8H9-dKk

What if robots generate all possible art? Does this generated content infringe copyrights on the earlier works created by humans? And will the works, created by humans after this point in history, be protected?  

To answer these questions, we look at the story of All the Music Project with the help of Damien Riehl. Tune in!

Key moments:

00:00 - Go!

00:50 - All the Music Project

02:34 - Damien Riehl on the problem of proving parallel independent creation

04:33 - Damien Riehl on the possibility to generate all music

07:36 - All the Music project isn't going to destroy copyright

08:12 - How All the Music project impacted on legal practice

12:20 - Copyright to something already generated by a robot before  

15:17 - Copyright to 4D and 5D works

17:12 - Copyright to modern art

18:46 - Conclusions

Video:https://youtu.be/-TugnH892SQ

In this episode, we're exploring the world of Beethoven's music and copyright. We're discussing whether his music can be used freely today, the Curse of the 9th Symphony, Beethoven's support of copyright, his socialist model of copyright protection (Magazin der Kunst), and the ownership of copyright for his unfinished 10th Symphony. Tune in!

Key moments:

00:00 - Go!

00:40 - Why Beethoven's music is not free sometimes

02:00 - Anthem of Europe

02:37 - Beethoven and length of CD

03:45 - Curse of the 9th Symphony

05:21 - Beethoven signed the Copyright Manifest

06:54 - Magazin der Kunst: Beethoven's socialist system for authors

10:21 - Beethoven AI

Bonus: the article about Magazin der Kunst by Maynard Solomon: https://www.jstor.org/stable/746376

Video:https://youtu.be/709Q3wkEuLk

🤖 Does content generating soft like Stable Diffusion or Midjourney violate copyright to works used for machine learning? That is the issue raised in the Getty Images v. Stability AI, as well as in a few of other cases of 2023.

We have overviewed this legal dispute and found out: what exactly Getty Images claimed in the lawsuit? Can AI be a copyright infringer or copyright owner? And how AI impacts on legal professionals?

Key moments:

00:00 - Go!

01:39 - Getty Images v. Stability AI: the brief overview

03:00 - How Stable Diffusion allegedly violated the trademark of Getty Images

05:27 - Machine learning on artists' works: is it fair? and what EU regulation says?

08:54 - The judge who used AI to write a decision

12:47 - Are AI generated pictures protected by copyright?

14:43 - What developers of AI write about copyright in Terms of Use

Video:https://youtu.be/xHKBl76eZQQ

👻 Can a psychic own copyrights to texts dictated to them by a spirit? This question was answered by courts in Cummins v. Bond (1926) and Oliver et al. v. Saint German Foundation et al. (1941) cases.

We overview these legal precedents and find out: who owns the rights to texts from other worlds? and how the estoppel rule impacts on mediums?

Key moments:

00:00 - Go!

00:52 - Cummins v. Bond (1926, UK): The case of The Chronicles of Cleophas Case

04:37 - Oliver et al. v. Saint German Foundation et al. (1941, USA): The Case of A Dweller on Two Planets

09:16 - Conclusions about copyrights of spirits and ghosts

Watch it on YouTube (https://youtu.be/UQedVE8fM10)