Thanks to the superimposed commentary, this is sufficiently transformative that I am almost sure it is fair use under Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music. I agree with Mike Madison’s comment that Lat is on shakier fair use ground for just copying the whole song and putting it up as an object of mockery. But, as this video makes clear in its final frames, even these goofballs supposedly realized that just because you have a claim doesn’t mean you should pursue it. At least they aren’t suing the Red Cross…

Two upcoming events typify that sort of valuable self-assessment as it pertains to the university and info/law:

1. The Berkman Center at Harvard is sponsoring the Internet & Society Conference 2007 this Friday, June 1st, with the theme of “University: Knowledge Beyond Authority.” The topics include open access, fair use on campus, the future of the library, and the continuing discord between some schools and the RIAA. It kills me that I can’t make it to Cambridge for this event, although I am hopeful that the streaming link here will let me absorb some of the great discussion I expect to transpire. Go if you can!

2. Later this summer (July 24-27), Cornell and EDUCAUSE are hosting the annual Institute for Computer Policy and Law, aimed at everyone involved in making information and technology policy at institutions of higher education, from librarians to IT people and webmasters to publications and public relations officials. I am speaking at this one, and hope to talk about the vital responsibility that universities have to protect and promote fair use (and not just to establish IP rights!). Sounds like a great line-up of topics here too.  And I hear Ithaca is “gorges” in July…

The Times story also shows that the legal situation in France is even more muddled than I had indicated. There are two decisions on the issue of IP rights for perfumes, one going each way. Explains the Times:

[Last month], the Cour de Cassation [France's highest court], denied the petition of a perfume maker, who claimed she deserved to continue receiving royalties from a former employer, even after she had been fired. The court stated, “The fragrance of a perfume, which results from the simple implementation of expertise,” does not constitute “the creation of a form of expression able to profit from protection of works of the mind.”

To confuse matters, a French court of appeals ruled the opposite last January, determining that a perfume could be a “work of the mind” protected by intellectual property law. It ordered a Belgian company to pay damages to the perfume and cosmetics giant L’Oréal, which sued it for producing counterfeits of best-selling L’Oréal perfumes.

[snip]

Under French law the high court does not function like the Supreme Court in the United States, so its ruling does not set aside previous verdicts and leaves the issue open to interpretation.

It’s a Split des Circuites!

These disputes also manifest another difference between IP law in the United States and France, beyond our treatment of perfume. In the US, the employee’s creation would almost certainly be a work for hire and the company would therefore own any IP rights in it anyhow. In France, because of the moral rights doctrine, the employee had a potential claim.

To be sure, there is ever-increasing porosity between those different areas, and there are distinctive aspects of each. But I would maintain that serious thought about the future of our information society must encompass all of them, plus some familiarity with the relevant technology, business models, and geek culture. Quite a tall order…

Plus, as technology changes, what we now know as the internet and the web may well transform into new structures — perhaps, for example, edging toward what some call the “metaverse,” where technology and content are more closely integrated with everyday life through a variety of appliances. (And no one wants to study something called “metalaw” — that’s way too scary!)

By the way, an independent reason to shun the term “cyberlaw” is that I suspect the “cyber” prefix is beginning to gather a layer of dust. In the past, words like “atomic” and “supersonic” had a cool futuristic sound, but now they sound campy. “Cyber” may be headed that way.