Lorraine M. Fleck - March 9, 2012 - Copywrite lawyer

Lorraine M. Fleck
Copywrite Lawyer

Hoffer Adler LLP - Barristers & Solicitors - Trade-Mark Agents

Canadian Copyright Law: A Primer

1.What is copyright?

• Copyright is the exclusive right to reproduce original content and stop others from reproduction that content
• Copyright in the U.S & Canada are drastically different

2. What does it protect?

• Original, literary, dramatical, musical and artistic works    -Literary includes:books, pamphlets, magazines, plays, scripts
• Audible music with or without works
• Paintings photos, map;s, charts, plans, photos, engravings, sculpture, crafts and architectural works such as buildings, sculptures and models

3. How is copyright created?

• The original work is created by a Canadian citizen or citizen of a Berne Convention country
• The work must come into physical existence, copyright does not exist on ideas
• If the work is published, the work is published in Canada or Berne Convention country
• No need to register of mark - if you want to sue for copyright infringement need to have the mark, but you don't need it

4. How long does copyright exist?

• Depends on the type of work and whether there are joint authors
• Most works = life of the author + rest of the calendar year in which the author died+50 years
• Joint authors = term lasts to the end of the 50th year of the last author dies
• Unknown author = lesser of the end of the 50th year after publication or 75 years after the work was made

5. Who owns the copyright?

• Photograph - the first person who owns the negative of the photo
• Employees - employers are the first owner of the works created for the employer by the employee
• If your contract states that all creative works made outside of work, even if non-employer equipment is used, the work still belongs to them

6. Who can use copyright materials?

• The owner - ownership can be transferred by must be in writing. The ownership transfer agreement usually is called an "assignment"
• Copyright ownership transfers always have to be in writing - doesn't have to be notarized in Canada
• "Assignment" is technical legal term for ownership transfer
• Anyone who has permission "license" the terms of the licenses dictate that the licensee can do under the license. The fee paid under license to the copyright owner "liscensor"is a "royalty"
• Liscensor (person that owns the right) licensee (person who has permission) 

7. What is copyright infringement?

• The making of an unauthorized copy
• There must be a substantial portion of the material copied - no hard and fast rule about this, but if you want to take just a snippet of a photo you might be okay - but if its the snippet with the entire essence of the photo you are probably infringing
• 1 Primary - a copy is made without permission
• 2. Secondary  the sale, rental or distribution of content of materials 

8. Are there exceptions to copyright infringement?

• Yes but under specific circumstances
•     Major categories "Fair dealing":
•     1. Research/Private study
•     2. Criticism/Review - i.e. movie review/critique,
•     3. News Reporting - must state who the author of the material is

• While not limited to private or non-commercial contexts, not very useful for advertisers, no advertising specific exception.
• Parody is NOT currently an exception in Canada 

Moral Rights -What are they?

• The authors right to:
• 1. Retain the integrity of the work, cant be cropped or mutilated, destroyed
• 1. Not have her/his work distorted
• 3. Have his/her name associated or not with the work, i.e. Banksy can enforce his work only to be associated as "Banksy"
• Activities must be shown to be to the detriment of author's honour/reputation
• Eaton Center got sued by Michael Snow because of the red ribbons they put on the Michael snow geese because it was infringing on his moral rights
• Read the story here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_v._The_Eaton_Centre_Ltd.

 

Alexander Yougner - Febrary 24th 2012 - Design Lab

ALEXANDER YOUNGER
President and Founder at Design Lab

ABOUT ALEXANDER
Alexander's LinkedIn Profile
ay@designlab.net - email is the best way to contact

• Alexander has a history in fine arts and philosophy and economics education
• Started Design Lab about 20 years ago when the "web" wasn't really around
• Is a pilot - how cool is that?

ABOUT DESIGN LAB
designlab.net

• The company has changed a lot since it has opened because the business is constantly evolving
• The mobile market is hot and keeps growing - over 1.45 million devices are activated each day - that's more phones being activated than babies being born!
• Mobile apps have exceeded web apps in just under a year so Design Lab is doing a lot of mobile work now
• Design Lab encourages it's employees to go to conferences and to further their education
• Their employees average on about 5-6 years at the company
• The company is comprised of only about 20 people
• "Design Lab is about great design - not only from an aesthetic point of view, but also - and more importantly - we are about designing power strategies, solutions and technologies that support beautiful work. Our work has helped boost the bottom line for clients across many industries from banking to fashion retailing to aviation and beyond. " Excerpt from the Design Lab Website

BEST MOBILE PRACTICES

• Steven Krug is a big influence in all their work strategy and some of their guidelines are as follows:

1. Establish business goals - know your audience
2. Keep it simple
3. Get inspired
4. Go Social
5. Remember the Rankings
6. Measure -  The things that work are as important as those that don't

• Think about Angry Birds - what do you think their key business goals were? How do you turn a freebie into money? How do you make people actually want to buy it - want to buy the additional level. Then you build a phenomenon around the game and you can start selling t-shirts, birds and other deals like that.
• When you build an app its about everything around the app
• The key thing for angry birds was they thought about how can they sell it into the market after

THINGS USERS SHOULD NOT HAVE TO THINK ABOUT

1. Scroll bars and what they can select
2. Advanced functionality should be easy to find - short cuts should be OBVIOUS and so easy - people aren't as intuitive as you think
3. Labels - keep  them clear and consistent - you can never underestimate how important it is -if something works don't change it, standards are there for a reason
4. Icons should be obvious , not cryptic
5. Scrolling vs. Multiple pages
6. Usability - test it - one of the first place clients will try and cut the budget - this is critical to have customer feed back when building for the web

THOUGHTS ON AUGMENTED REALITY

• Creates a real wow factor - has to be on brand though

RESPONSIVE DESIGN

• In the mobile world its a nice thing
• Communicates with browser to say how big the window is so it re sizes and repositions
•  Refer back to Best practice #6 - Measure! - the things that work are as important as those that don't - things are always changing, things have to evolve
•  Some good examples of sites that use responsive design:
• www.barackobama.com
• foodsense.is
• smashingmagazine.com

DESIGN TIPS

• For mobile design - not controlling as much of the experience as you would like to - assuming that nobody wants to be using this interface - get them in and out - make it easy - you just want to know
• Look for ways to embed ads - most likely to buy into things if they are not banner ads but integrated

CASE STUDY
The Beer Store

• Alexander got a phone call about 2 years ago saying they wanted to talk to them about an app -First they had to look at their business strategy
• In theory they did not have a big enough market to have a successful app
• So they re-did the beer store website - kept it nice and simple - they needed a new site to begin with, so they started at basics
• The beer store mobile page they make it look like an app to make them happy - the president even referred to it as a mobile app and got in trouble with the press
• The downside is that it does not show everything all at once like the actual website
• But the mobile site actually represents about 33% of the traffic online

Now they have 3 options about how to approach building an app

1. They don't build the app - not reasonable
2. They create an app that skins the mobile website - not a great idea because why would buy something that's already free and will piss of customers
3. Build a full app - the key will be community and strong relationship with customers - to encourage sampling 

• This is in the process of being built now - "The Beer Passport" to encourage sampling - community building - store and beer finder  - its simple, single focus

BEST PRACTICES

GET INSPIRED

• Know what the competition is up to - get out there and s whats going on, download a ton of stuff
• Be on top of new innovations - make sure that your not duplicating someone else's work - sometimes you can ask the designer of the app they will sell you the code for certain functionality
• Good example of a mobile site is Epicurious, very clear buttons and easy navigation
• Remember the rankings - rankings are extremely important for apps - great apps get free promo
• Go social - invite users to write their feedback and ideas- make it personal

ADVICE

1. The best companies are looking for the best portfolio - make it simple and clean
2. Have a great attitude - folks with the great attitudes inspire you to go hire
3. Research the company and your interviewer
4. Ask lots of questions - challenge the interviewer - ask the questions about what kind of company they are - make sure you show your interesting and interested - ask how are you going to grow here - companies that want you to grow are the ones you want to be at
5. Push back, do the testing and research if you want to build something that will deliver results
6. Don't settle - life is short
7. Go with your heart
8. Remember to just have fun!

David Gray - Febrary 16 2012

David Gray
Digital Sales Producer at CTV News & Entertainment at Bell Media Interactive


ABOUT DAVID
David's LinkedIn Profile
ctv.ca

• Graduated from an illustration program at St. Lawrence
• 07' Class of the New Media Design program at Sheridan
• Started his media design career as an interactive designer
• Became known as the "banner guy", because he really enjoyed creating and developing banner ads in mostly Flash, he got to do something different everyday, and loved it
• He has worked for Publicis Modem Toronto for 3 years as an interactive designer, then moved onto being a production manager/Producer for online advertising at the same company for just under a year. Then the next year went over to Digital Branz/Digital Percent as a Client Services Manager. Over the next two years he worked hard as a freelancer working on things like online ads and digital signage, but missed the stability of income and hours of a full time job. He got a job at TBWA Toronto as an Interactive producer to ensure all deadlines were met and all the work was being delivered as requested by clients until he has recently moved to CTV as a Digital Sale producer.
• He realised that he wasn't a great designer or a great illustrator, and was fine with that, so smartly moved himself into management positions to better accommodate his good organisational skill sets.
• His new job at CTV gives him such an array of tasks that he loves. He also has a leg-up because he knows how long designing, coding, testing and research takes which makes him a lot better at this job than others that have no experience in the production work.

ADVICE

• It's all about the contacts, don't piss people off, even if they are letting you go, connections are so valuable in this industry. You might even end up working with or for them later on.
• Agency work will get you the good projects, but comes with long, hard hours. You will find you either love it or hate it.
• Don't expect too much too soon, the people that climb fast are the ones that work after work, research trends to stay ahead.
• Freelance offers you long and weird hours but is great pay. Be organised and available if you choose to go in this direction with your career.
• Sometimes companies give bonuses if you get someone good hired.
• Sign up for groups, LinkedIn jobs are posted here all the time instead of going out to head hunters.
• Put in the hours when you first start out, they do get better.
• Know as much as you can about projects - get to know the clients and what kind of work is produced for them so you can design on target.

ADVICE FOR THE GRAD SHOW

• Keep your head up, don't worry if people are looking at others sites and not yours, you never know who is actually looking at yours and has kept your resume.