MM 450, Spring 2009
Issues in New Media Theory:
Intellectual Property in the Digital Age
Edward Lee Lamoureux, Ph. D.
Associate Professor
Multimedia Program
& Department of
CGCC 315; office: 677-2378;
home: 672-5878
ell@bradley.edu
Freeforafee.com
Lamoureux's homepage; Professor Beliveau's homepage; the Professor's homepage
Tues: 10:30-11:30; Thurs: 1:30-2:30 and by appointment
Steven L. Baron, B.A., J. D.
Mandell Menkes LLC
333 West Wacker Drive
Suite 300
Chicago, IL 60606
Phone: (312) 251-1009
sbaron@mandellmenkes.com
(class inquiries only. No free legal advice given)
Notable Dates:
January 22, Classes begin
March 14-22 Spring Recess
March 25, Midterm Grades Due
April 22, Last day to drop classes
May 5, Last day of classes
May 6, Study Day
May 8Friday 9-11am: Final Exam
Texts
Edward Lee Lamoureux, Steve Baron, M. Clair Stewart. Intellectual Property Law and Interactive Media: Free For A Fee. Peter Lang Publishers, 2009. [book won't be ready at the start of class; I'll give you .pdf files of material until it's available for purchase]
McLeod, Kembrew (2001). Owning Culture: Authorship, Ownership, & Intellectual Property Law. Peter Lang.
Supplementary Materials:
DMCA (pdf) Summary of DMCA (pdf); Copyright Law of the United States; World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
Course Objectives:
Multimedia students operate in production, management, and consumption environments filled with increasingly complex intellectual property issues and practices. MM 450 seeks to familiarize students with creative, social, cultural, and legal contexts and challenges surrounding the protection of (1) intellectual property (2) intellectual creativity and (3) creative environments in the commons. Students should leave the course with an increased appreciation of interrelationships among the roles of law, public policy, economic development, and creativity in multimedia activities.
Special
Considerations:
You will sign in each class day. Failure to sign the roll sheet results in "missing" the day. Missing the day results in no scoring of the daily contribution.
The final exam is only given on Friday May 8, 9-11am. No early or make-up
exams will be arranged for any exam. Students with emergencies must contact Dr. Lamoureux (in person or by
phone) before the end of the test period; accommodations will be made
for (only) dire emergencies.
We
have a class e-mail alias <mm45001-sp@bumail.bradley.edu>. Please
check it daily (if you forward your mail out of it, be sure to empty
the BU
box regularly). I deduct 25 points (I'll notify you) from your score
total each time--after the first (I'll warn you of this one)-- that
I get bounced
mail because your box is full. There
is a Sakai site for grades.
No late materials will be accepted/graded.
Do not bring food into the teleconference center. You may bring beverage only if it has a small, sealable, lid. Please
do not use tobacco products in class. I am distracted by their use and
will insist that you leave if you persist. Laptops
may be used in class only to take or display notes. No email, web browsing,
or chat. Students who abuse this principle will be asked to leave. All students
are responsible to the same syllabus schedule, regardless of outside or
BU-sponsored activities. I only accept materials early by agreement.
I do not use text messaging, so one student each day will be identified as the "designated emergency text message monitor" and will be asked to leave their cell phone on for this purpose. You must be registered with BU to serve. Please help me identify this person in a timely fashion each day.
All students are responsible to the same syllabus schedule, regardless of outside or BU-sponsored activities. I only accept materials early by agreement before the due date. Those with documented university-sponsored activities or illness MAY NOT reserve their three "misses" using those excuses. Absences in addition to the 3 must be thoroughly documented and arrangements made BEFORE THE CLASS IN QUESTION in order to qualify for exception. I expect ALL students to be able to function within the 3 "free" absences.
Students with BU-certified learning disabilities should contact me immediately.
Please do not call my home (672-5878) after 8pm at night. I am often
in my office (GCC 315; 677-2378). Official office hours: Tues: 10:30-11:30; Thurs: 1:30-2:30 and by appointment. My e-mail address
is <ell@bradley.edu>; AIM & skype: dredleelam; Second Life: Professor Beliveau
FYI:
This is the last offering of MM 450 under it's current number and configuration. Curriculum change proposals that are in the pipeline at this time will find the course becoming MM 350, IP law in New Media, a requirement of all multimedia majors (and an option for minors). 450 will continue to operate as "Issues in New Media" and will feature revolving topics, as was the original intention for the class.
Policy
regarding e-mail communication about grades:
As a matter of the Multimedia Program policy to protect student privacy
and in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act,
questions and concerns regarding grades must be presented in person or
in a written letter. Instructors will not respond to questions and concerns
communicated through e-mail or telephone calls regarding grades.
Policy regarding student absence due to an illness:
When missing classes and related assignments due to an illness, it is
the student's responsibility to provide a document issued by a medical
authority to verify the student's absence due to illness, unless the Office
of the Associate Provost for Student Affairs informs an instructor of
the basis for the student's absence. Instructors will not call the Health
Center or any other source to verify the student's reason for absence.
Plagiarism merits an "F" on the activity and disciplinary action. DON'T copy each other's work and DO document sources properly.
Professor Baron does not give out free legal advice. Don't ask him about personal legal business unless you intend to hire him.
Requirements:
Teleconference Center Entry Ticket. 300 points.
After the first day, attendance credit for class requires submission of a brief reading summary of the day's assignment. No ticket or attendance (both) no credit for attendance, no exceptions. Students must be present and sign in during the class in order to get credit for the ticket/day. Each ticket will be graded for quality. The summary should be posted to the BU-MM 450 web pages by 11am the day of class. Log in at http://multimedia.bradley.edu/ and add the summary to the "MM 450 summaries" section. Be sure to clearly label the summary with specification of the material it covers. Improperly labeled files will not be credited. You may miss 3 of these during the term (doing them all and perfect attendance gets you 3 tickets as extra credit)
One 20-page paper. 200 points total.
Full sentence, documented, outline due April 9; documented rough draft due April 23, final due May 3 Paper presents the history and philosophy of, and current status in, the development of one area of interst--as it relates to computational communication and/or Multimedia-- according to a random drawing, later in the term: copyrights; patents; trademarks; trade secrets; trade dress; url commerce; protection of computer software; unfair competition legislation; works made for hire; fair use; defamation of character; rights of privacy (specific to IP, not privacy in general); rights surrounding publicity; peer-to-peer file sharing; international IP; IP in virtual worlds. The paper should include a brief history of the topic as well as specific application to current computational communication and/or multimedia issues. Every paper must use section headings and sub-headings (in all three versions). This is a state of the art literature review, not an opinion piece. The full sentence outline=50 points, the documented first draft =50 points; final paper=100. Late papers (at each step) face 25% reduction in value per 24 hour period after the start of class on the day due.
Three Examinations. 300 total, 100 points each.
Exam 1 over McLeod; Exam 2 over text course concepts and legislative developments; Final Exam (final) over IP case law.
Each student must post current course-relevant comments on blog posts at freeforafee.com (2 per week). The comments must be about the topics we are covering and posted within a week on each side of the date the topic was covered. Post the comments on freeforafee.com, then post links to the comments you made on the GCC 450 site no later than 3PM each Friday (except week 1). Provide links back to each week's worth of comments as a single "set" (not as two separate posts to the GCC site). Your comments should (1) briefly review the aspects of the blog post that you are discussing, and (2) make specific connections between Free For a Fee (including page numbers where the material is covered (or where it SHOULD BE in cases where it's not) and the material in the blog post.
The purposes are to both improve the depth and quality of the blog posts AND to improve the class and future versions of the text book by incorporating new material in an ongoing fashion. Any week that you complete both comment entries, you may earn extra credit points by suggesting relevant blog posts AND full course-related commentary about them. These entries would consist of topic-relevant current events that can be added to freeforafee.com that have not already appeared there (you find something that our aggregators have not developed/reported). You may do one per week (that you've completed the other posts), up to 5 per term, for a total of 50 points possible. These contributions must stay with the topics we are on at the time (just like the other comments on posts already present). Submit these to me via email. Once I accept the item, I'll post it to freeforafee.com and ask you to go back and add your comment to it.
Grading: Papers [200], Exams [300], Web Site [200], Entry Tickets [300]
A: 100%-88.5% B: 88.4-78.5 C: 78.4-68.5 D: 68.4-58.5 F: > 58.5
Flexible Schedule
{subject to revision with notice}
January
Assignment for 1/27:
Assignment for 1/29: Introduction p. 16-27.
29 [day 3] [Baron 2]: How to read a case
Assignment for 2/3: Free for a fee, Chapter 1, "Copyright", p. 29-55.
February
3 [day 4] Introduction to Copyright
Assignment for 2/5:
5 [day 5] McCloud, Chapter 2 "Copyright and the Folk Music Tradition"
Assignment for 2/10: McLeod, Chapter 3
10 [day 6] McCloud, Chapter 3 "Copyright, Authorship and African-American Culture"
Assignment for 2/12: Free for a fee, Chapter 1, p. 55-67. [no more than 2 sentences of summary per case, 58-67--digital cases only]; Review the summary of DMCA [no written summary needed].
12 [day 7] Copyright cases, especially new media cases.
Assignment for 2/17: [no more than 1/2 page single spaced review for each case]
Tur v. YouTube 2007 U.S. Dist. Lexis 50254 at *7 (C.D. Cal. June 20, 2007); MDY Industries, LLC, vs. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.; and Vivendi Games, Inc.,
17 [day 8] [Baron 3] Copyright and DMCA cases
Assignment for 2/19: Free for a fee, Chapter 2, "Three Copyright Issues"
19 [day 9] Free for a fee, Chapter 2, "Three Copyright Issues"
Assignment for 2/24: Free for a fee, Chapter 3, "Patents," through legislative developments
24 [day 10] Patents
Assignment for 2/26:Free for a fee, Chapter 3, "Patents," judicial developments and McLeod, Chapter 5
26 [day 11]
Assignment for 3/3:
3 [day 12] [Baron 4] Patent cases
Assignment for 3/3: Free for a fee, Chapter 4, "Trademarks," through "Special Trademark Issues in New Media".
Assignment for 3/10: McLeod Chapter 4
10 [day 14] McLeod Chapter 4
Assignment for 3/13:
12 [day 15] [Baron 5] Trademark cases
Rights of Publicity
Assignment for 3/24: Free for a fee, Chapter 5, "Trade Secrets," through new media cases.
spring break march 14-22
24 [day 16] Trade Secrets
SOLUTIONS, INC., and BIAMP SYSTEMS CORPORATION; TACO BELL CORPORATION, v. CHIAT/DAY INC.; CENVEO CORP. v. SOUTHERN GRAPHIC SYSTEMS, INC., MIKE AUSTIN, SHAWN AUSTIN, PAUL PEDERSON, EMILY RYAN, and SUSAN SPEARS
26 [day 17] [Baron 6] Trade Secret Cases
31 [day 18] Torts
April
2 [day 19][Baron 7]
Assignment for 4/7: McLeod Ch. 6 & 7
7 [day 20] McLeod Ch. 6 & 7
9[day 21] Exam 1: McLeod
Assignment for 4/14: Paper outline
14 [day 22] Trial Graphix; Paper outline due
Assignment for 4/16: Free for a fee, Chapter 7, "International IP Law"
16 [day 23] International IP Law
Assignment for 4/21:Mardas v. New York Times Company: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2008/3135.html; Free Speech Protection Act of 2008 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.5814:
21 [day 24] [Baron 8]
Assignment for 4/16: Free for a fee, Chapter 8, "Digital Rights Management"
April 23 is the last day to drop
23 [day 25] DRM; Rough Draft of Final Paper Due today
Assignment for 4/28:Cunningham v. McMahon;20th Century Fox v. Cablevision.pdf
28 [day 26] [Baron 9]
Assignment for 4/30: Free for a fee, Chapter 9, "Toward Tomorrow, Today: IP Law in Virtual Worlds"
Completed Final Paper Due before 12 pm, Sunday May 3
30 [day 27] IP in virtual worlds and beyond
May
3 Completed Final Paper Due before 12 pm, Sunday May 3
5 [day 28]EXAM 2: IP law in MM, general concepts and legislative developments
May 8, Friday, 9-11am: FINAL EXAM: IP law in MM cases
