Deepfakes and the Law: an excerpt from my Society of Computers & Law Webinar
On Tuesday, 8 September 2020, I was delighted to give a webinar for the Society of Computers & Law entitled Me and my Deepfake: a closer look at image rights and our digital selves. SCL is a fantastic educational charity so, if you like what
DeepFakes and False Lights: what does the law say?
What do Scarlett Johansson, cyber intelligence experts and some law makers have in common? Their shared concern about AI-generated videos. This post is from February 2019 and much has changed since then. For more recent commentary, view the deepfakes tag. Known as "Deepfakes," these videos can have
Photos of Oxford Student Celebrations Raise Questions About Privacy Rights and Journalism
Dear reader, This post was originally published on 14 October 2018, and subsequently deleted on 24 October 2019, after an interested party contacted me and asked that any reference to them in my blog post be removed. I chose to delete the post in its entirety
Fame and fortune: how do celebrities protect their image?
Famous movie stars and athletes earn big bucks beyond their day job at the studio or stadium. Their image can be used to in a variety of commercial contexts, ranging from endorsements and sponsorships, to merchandising and deals with fashion brands and magazines. Marketwatch reports that on average, signing a celebrity correlates to a rise in share prices, and a 4% increase in sales. After Chanel signed Nicole Kidman in 2003 to promote their N°5 perfume, global sales of the fragrance increased by 30%. Celebrities today spend a huge amount of time and energy developing and maintaining their public image. But here in the United Kingdom, "image rights" have never been clearly stated in law. So how do celebrities protect and control the publicity associated with their name, image, and brand?
Reputation: Taylor Swift’s protections under American and English defamation law
this post is featured on the University of the Arts London's intellectual property blog, creativeIP.org
♫♬ Now we've got problems / and I don't think we can solve them (without lawyers...)The right to freedom of expression is not an absolute right: there are certain restrictions in place to protect an individual's reputation. But those restrictions vary significantly, depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on. Considering the shared legal traditions of the United States and Great Britain, their differences on the issue of free speech is surprising. In early September, PopFront published an article entitled "Swiftly to the alt-right: Taylor subtly gets the lower case kkk in formation." Exploring the singer's (somewhat convoluted, if not contrived) connections to the American alt-right, PopFront suggests Swift's song "Look What You Made Me Do" resonates with Breitbart readers, Trump supporters, and white supremacists, et al. The article also shows a screenshot from Swift's music video juxtaposed with a photo of Hitler, noting that "Taylor lords over an army of models from a podium, akin to what Hitler had in Nazi Germany."