Christopher Sprigman's Blog, page 10

Ink and Innovation

A new paper on SSRN (which offers millions of scholarly papers to academics around the world) is about IP and tattoos. It draws on some of Chris’ earlier work on social norms with Dotan Oliar.

Here’s the abstract:

“Intellectual Property Norms in the Tattoo Industry”

AARON PERZANOWSKI, Wayne State University Law School, Notre Dame Law School

Email: perzanowski@gmail.com

This article reports the results of the first qualitative study of the norms surrounding creative production, ownership, and copying in the multi-billion dollar U.S. tattoo industry. Despite the availability of copyright protection, the tattoo industry has largely ignored formal law in resolving disputes over copying and use of original works. Instead, it relies on a complex set of social norms enforced through informal mechanisms. Those norms are a product of both cultural and economic factors that offer broader lessons for intellectual property law and policy.

Schumer Tries Again

Last week was Fashion Week in New York, and timed to coincide with the festivities was Sen. Charles Schumer’s reintroduction of a bill to create a new, unique form of copyright for fashion designs.This idea is not new; indeed, it dates back many decades. But the particularities of this proposal are a little different.

Here’s the BNA Patent and Trademark Daily on the bill:

The U.S. Senate’s latest attempt to extend intellectual property protection to fashion design includes provisions requiring the designer to provide notice to alleged infringers prior to initiating enforcement proceedings. S. 3523, the Innovative Design Protection Act of 2012, introduced into the Senate Sept. 10 by Sen.

Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), also contains a section exempting internet service providers and search tools from infringement liability.

As “Fashion Week” in New York and elsewhere wound now, a scheduled Sept. 13 markup in the Senate Judiciary Committee was

postponed.

* * *

Fashion design protection has been debated in Congress since 2006. In general, the bills have aimed to revise design protection under the Copyright Act, in 17 U.S.C. 1301 et seq., by creating a three-year term of protection for original articles of apparel. “Substantially identical” articles of apparel—“so similar in appearance as to be likely to be mistaken for the protected design, and contain[ing] only those differences in construction or design which are merely trivial”—would be liable for infringement.

A Magical Lawsuit

Like comics, magicians have a pretty clear set of norms about copying that are enforced socially and professionally. But as is the case with all rules, compliance is not perfect. It is very rare for one magician to sue another, but it does happen.This month’s Esquire has a great story about Teller, of Penn & Teller, going after a Dutch magician for stealing one his signature tricks. There is a twist at the end that is pretty interesting.

Here is the opening:

On or about March 15 of this year, Teller — the smaller, quieter half of the magicians Penn & Teller — says he received an e-mail from a friend in New York. In that e-mail, the friend included a link to a video on YouTube called the Rose & Her Shadow. Teller, sitting at his computer in his Las Vegas home, within eyeshot of a large black escape cross once owned by Houdini, clicked on the link. The video lasted one minute and fifty-one seconds. “I had what I can only describe as a visceral reaction to it,” Teller says today.

The video was posted by a magician who works under the stage name Gerard Bakardy; his real name is apparently Gerard Dogge. (Bakardy, a fifty-five-year-old Dutch national born in Belgium, is more than a magician; he prefers the title entertainer, because he’s a musician, too. Along with his blond partner, Nadia, he was, until recently, part of a lounge act called Los Dos de Amberes, the Two from Antwerp, booked mostly in the resort of Fuerteventura on the Canary Islands off Spain. “A lovely way to spend an evening,” they said in online advertisements that have since disappeared.) Leaning into his computer screen, Teller watched Bakardy perform some kind of trick.

Against a crimson curtain, Bakardy had erected an easel with what looked like a large pad of white paper on it. Perhaps six feet in front of the easel sat a small wood table bearing a glass Coke bottle filled with water. That bottle also contained a single rose. A spotlight, outside of the camera’s view, cast the rose’s shadow on the paper on the easel. Dressed in a dark suit, Bakardy appeared in the frame carrying a large knife in his right hand. He sliced it deep into the rose’s shadow. And when he cut into its shadow, something impossible happened: The corresponding part of the rose fell off the stem and onto the table. Petal by petal, Bakardy cut at the rose’s shadow until that Coke bottle somehow held only a decapitated stem, which he removed as though to demonstrate the absence of wires. He then lifted up the bottle itself — still no strings attached — and poured out the water. Ta-da.

The video ended with Bakardy’s e-mail address and an offer to sell the props necessary for the Rose & Her Shadow for what turned out to be 2,450 euros, or about $3,050 at the time. In bold white type across the bottom of the screen, Bakardy left a final message for his fellow magicians, including a dumbstruck Teller: EASY TO PERFORM.

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/features/teller-honor-system-1012#ixzz26rdL85zz

 

The ultimate Knockoff Economy: Humans innovate by knocking off nature

Take a look at this wonderful article in the Smithsonian magazine, which discusses the burgeoning science of “biomimicry” — i.e., innovation based on knocking off nature.

The article gives many examples in which innovators create new things by imitating natural substances, structures, and processes.  For example, the wonderful blue morpho butterfly (pictured at left) gets is stunning color not from a pigment, but from the nanoscale arrangement of the plate structures in its wings, which are arranged to interfere with light waves in a way that produces the color.  Now, researchers at cell phone firm Qualcomm have imitated the blue morpho structure in the new screens that it’s hoping to install in the next generation of e-readers — screens that use adjustable morpho-like plates to produce different colors with no loss of readability in bright light and very little use of power.  And fashion designers are using the morpho-like structures in new fabric to produce brilliant, iridescent blue dresses that shine brilliantly in sunlight.

The article relates to an important point we make in The Knockoff Economy. Innovation doesn’t come out of nowhere.  It often involves taking what already exists, adapting it, turning it to new uses, and making it better.  Biomimicry is a great example. There’s something very human — and very innovative — in knocking off nature.

The Knockoff Economy on KCRW’s “Good Food”

Kal is interviewed on KCRW’s “Good Food” about recipe copying and culinary knockoffs.  A great primer on what we say in the book about food, and some great stories. Kal’s interview starts at about 6:35.

The New York Times (sort of) reviews The Knockoff Economy

The “review” appears in the “One-Page Magazine” feature. Which means it’s short. Very short. Like one line. But whatevs . . . it’s the NY Times.

Bob Dylan on plagiarism: “Only wussies and pussies complain about that stuff”

Bob Dylan is a provocateur, a habitual obfuscator, and a bit of a crank. That said, he’s also that rare and precious thing, a genuine artistic giant. His music will endure. And that makes his comments on plagiarism, reported just now, particularly noteworthy. Asked for his thoughts on critics who’ve noted that he often snatches bits of poetry and prose from other writers and works them into his lyrics without attribution, Dylan cut to the chase: “[Only] wussies and pussies complain about that stuff.”

I can just hear Dylan saying “wussies and pussies” in his trademark nasal rasp.

Dylan added that in folk music,”quotation is a rich and enriching tradition”,and that in taking inspiration — and even lyrics — from other writers, he was “working within [his] art form.”  “It’s that simple,” Dylan added, “It’s called songwriting. It has to do with melody and rhythm, and then after that, anything goes. You make everything yours. We all do it.”

Yes, but not all of us do it this well.

The Knockoff Economy knockoff photo contest!

To celebrate the release of The Knockoff Economy, let’s have a contest.  Send your photos of crazy knockoff items to photo@freakonomics.com.  You can see at left an example we heard about a while ago — a Louis Vuitton waffle maker.

Can you find a knockoff that’s nuttier than that?  Send us a pic at photo@freakonomics.com. The winner will receive a signed copy of The Knockoff Economy, and this great new CD of Fleetwood Mac covers. “Cover songs” is just a technical term for knockoffs in music. The law makes these knockoffs legal, so don’t worry!

 

The Knockoff Economy in Planet Money

NPR’s Planet Money does a story on Lululemon’s lawsuit against Calvin Klein for allegedly copying its patented yoga pants (yes, you read that right — patented yoga pants). Kal and I are quoted. One funny thing is that the story refers to me as “Christopher Von Sprigman”. Little did I know that I was descended from German nobility. Awesome.

The Knockoff Economy at Zocalo in L.A.

Great writeup of Kal’s talk at Zocalo in Los Angeles. Especially great is the article’s recounting of a question from an audience member, who said that he’d found that pirated copies of The Knockoff Economy were already available on BitTorrent.  Kal’s response was perfect:

“[I]t’s good that [the] book is available for an illegal download. I think copies are often fantastic advertisements. And even if some people download the book illegally, as long as you price things well, and iTunes illustrates this beautifully, people will go with the legal version.”

Exactly. And I would add that nobody will bother to pirate a book that nobody wants. To see The Knockoff Economy up on BitTorrent so quickly reassures me that we’ve written a book that people actually want to read. Which, at least for me, is the real reward.