By: Dianna Dilworth,
on 5/15/2015
Kim Kardashian‘s book of selfless called “Shelfies” has taken a lot of slack, but not from Lena Dunham.
The author of “Not That Kind of Girl” posted a photo of herself holding up a copy of Kardashian’s book on Instagram.
“selfie with selfish #yeahiboughtit (I support experiments in female identity exploration/am a student of pop culture/will not be shamed),” she wrote.
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By: Miranda Dobson,
on 12/14/2014
When “The Case of the Black Macaque” scooped media headlines this summer, copyright was suddenly big news. Here was photographer David Slater fighting Wikipedia over the right to disseminate online a portrait photo of a monkey which had, contrary to all expectations and the law of averages, managed within just a few jabs of a curious finger, to take a plausible, indeed publishable “selfie”. Did Slater have the right to control the image since it was his camera on which it was recorded, or was it free for the world to use on the basis that he was not its author, the true creator being the crested black macaque who, for all her charm and dexterity, was neither a real nor legal person and therefore disentitled to any legal rights?
Disputes like this make great headlines, but cause even greater headaches for the intellectual property (“IP”) community. Most have little legal substance to them and are interesting only because of their facts, but that’s what drives journalists’ involvement and readers’ interest, making it easier for the media to attract paying advertisers. By the time they pass through the media machine these tales are frequently mangled to the point at which IP lawyers can scarcely recognise them. In one recent case involving a well-known chocolate brand, a company was said to have patented its copyright in England in order to sue a business in Switzerland for trade mark infringement. To the layman this may sound fine, but it’s about as sensible to the expert as telling the doctor that you’ve got a tummy ache in your little finger because your cat ate the goldfish last night. We IP-ers try to explain the real story, but monkeys and selfies are far more fun than the intricacies of copyright law and, by the time we’ve tried to put the record straight, the next exciting story has already broken.
“By the time they pass through the media machine, these tales are frequently mangled to the point at which IP lawyers can scarcely recognise them”
The next selfie episode to hit the headlines, far from featuring a portrait, was quite the opposite end of the anatomical spectrum. Model Kim Kardashian objected that Jen Selter’s selfies constituted copyright infringements of photos which had been taken of Kim Kardashian’s bottom (occasionally colloquially described as her “trademark” bottom, but not yet registered in conventional legal fashion). Here the only questions IP lawyers address are (i) are the pictures of Kim Kardashian’s backside copyright-protected works and (ii) does the taking by Jen Selter of selfies of her own posterior constitute an infringement? For press and public, however, the issue morphs into the much more entertaining, if legally irrelevant, one of whether a person has copyright in their own bottom.
![By Self-portrait by the depicted Macaca nigra female. See article. (Wtop.com) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://blogoup.electricstudiolt.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Macaca_nigra_self-portrait_large-628x744.jpg)
There are many IP rights apart from copyright and they all have their macaque moments. Trade mark law is full of episodes of evil corporations stealing words from the English language and stopping anyone else using them. Patent law (in which the legal protection of body parts very much smaller than bottoms, such as sequences of DNA, does have some relevance) is garnished with tales of greed and intrigue as people seek to steal one another’s ideas and avariciously monopolise them. Confidentiality and the right to publicity have their own rip-roaring encounters in court as amorous footballers who are “playing away” seek to hush up their extramarital (that’s one word, not two) exploits. Meanwhile, the women with whom they shared moments of illicit intimacy seek to cash in on their news value by selling them to the highest bidder. For IP lawyers the legal issues are serious and, when cases come to court, they achieve precedential status that governs how future episodes of the same nature might be handled. For press and public, the issues are different: who is the footballer, who is the woman — and are there any pictures (ideally selfies)?
Seriously, the rate at which not just eye-catching tales like those related above but also far less glamorous tales result in litigation, or even legislation, makes it hard-to-impossible for practitioners, academics, administrators and businessmen to keep abreast of the law, let alone understand its deeper significance for those affected by it: businesses, governments, consumers, indeed everyone. Publishers like OUP are increasingly raising the tempo of their own responses to the IP information challenge, utilising both formal and informal media, in print and online. Since legal publishing is largely reactive, we can narrow the gap between the time an exciting new event or legal decision hits the popular media and the point at which we can strip it down to its bare legal essentials. But it will take more than a little monkeying around before we can close that gap completely.
Featured image credit: Camera selfie, by Paul Rysz. CC-BY-2.0 via Flickr.
The post Selfies and model bottoms: monkeying around with intellectual property rights appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Maryann Yin,
on 8/11/2014
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian has become well-known for her selfies. Universe, an imprint of Rizzoli Publications, will publish a collection of her photos in a book entitled Selfish.
PerezHilton.com reports that Kardashian revealed on an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians that she was aiming to snap 1,200 photos. The finished book will contain 352 pages.
According to E!, “the book was inspired by a collection of Polaroid shots she gave to Kanye West for Valentine’s Day.” A release date has been set for April 07, 2015.
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By: Jason Boog,
on 9/30/2011
HarperCollins may publish a special edition of Dollhouse by Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian, decorating the novel’s cover with Swarovski crystal.
HarperCollins’ senior vice president Lisa Sharkey shared some behind-the-scenes details about the book in Diane Clehane‘s “Lunch at Michael’s” feature this week.
Here’s an excerpt: “There was quite a fracas coming up with a title. Lisa wanted to call it Keeping Up but, she told me, the powers that be at E! put the kibosh on the idea saying that was their brand. Lisa then came up with the idea of launching a contest on Twitter asking followers to come up with their own titles. The winning entry, Dollhouse, was submitted by a gal named Courtney who will herself be written into the book as a wedding planner. Savvy Lisa, who is always coming up with clever ways to market her books, decided the cover will be in leopard print and is hoping to do a special edition adorned with Swarovski crystal (‘Kim loves bling!’). The sisters’ fans can also turn the cover over for a special keepsake poster that is sure to find its way into plenty of teen bedrooms.”
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I should really be on the payroll for the Kardashian’s. Two posts in one week about their entrance into the publishing world! We know that last year the Kardashian sisters published their book, KARDASHIAN KONFIDENTIAL, and I just posted last week about the November release of the Kardashian sister’s first novel, DOLLHOUSE. Well, it looks like November will also bring us Kris Jenner’s memoir, KRIS JENNER…AND ALL THINGS KARDASHIAN. Does this mean that Kris will be battling her daughters for bestseller list status? Here is the description of Kris Jenner’s memoir:
Kris Jenner executive produces and stars as matriarch on the hit reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians on E!, now in its fifth smash season. Here, this ambitious businesswoman who has catapulted her family into the public conciousness reveals what it’s like living under the celebrity spotlight and touches on themes of love, loss, marriage, divorce, and motherhood.Now the mother of six children—Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, Robert Jr., Kendall, and Kylie (and the grandmother of Mason)—opens up about her first marriage to Robert Kardashian (widely known as one of O.J. Simpson’s defense attorneys); her current marriage to Olympic decathlon Bruce Jenner; her often controversial parenting style; O.J. Simpson (she was Nicole Simpson’s best friend); her work in television (she is currently the executive producer of all four hit Kardashian shows—Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami, Kourtney and Kim Take New York, Khloe & Lamar); and more. A media and marketing powerhouse, Kris and her family collectively earned more in 2010 than Angelina Jolie, Sandra Bullock, and Tom Cruise combined. This inside look will appeal to more than just other multitasking moms, but also anyone interested in what it’s like to be the head of such a famous family!
The publisher is listed as Karen Hunter who seems to be a very small publisher with their biggest title being a Janet Jackson memoir. Kourtney Kardashian just posted about her mom’s upcoming memoir on her blog.
Reality TV stars the Kardashian sisters, Kim, Kourtney and Khloe, will release their first novel in November. Titled Dollhouse (the name was picked by a fan who wins a guest role in the novel), it will focus on a “glamorous, high profile and complicated family”. According to Kim, the novel is “based on our lives but we’ve added a lot of crazy fictional twists and turns”. {via Chick Lit Club}
By: Anastasia Goodstein,
on 8/5/2011
Since many of the “Glee” stars will graduate next season (a new crop of characters will soon be introduced. TVLine reports that there will be two new mean girls named Sugar and Sheila, a linebacker named Bubba who will play Mercedes’... Read the rest of this post
By: Anastasia Goodstein,
on 3/2/2011
Young Hollywood (“The Wall Street Journal” catalogues the breakout Gen Y film actors that have emerged in the past year, and takes a look at the quest for fresh faces for new films, quoting “Hunger Games” director Gary Ross,... Read the rest of this post
By: Simone Elkeles,
on 1/22/2009
So Tina's book got me thinking about lips. The cover of her new book is beautiful, and shows these awesome lips. Which got me wondering what makes the lips beautiful.
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