Protecting Protest Art

The Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard University, in conjunction with “a collection of lawyers and creative folks,” has authored “The Cyberlaw Guide to Protest Art.” Published on Medium.com, the guide aims to help creators of protest art navigate legal issues in the digital age. Social media platforms and other digital technologies have made it increasingly easy for protest art, “ posters, songs, poems, memes, and more,” to be misappropriated and otherwise exploited in contravention of established intellectual property law. The guide features plain English descriptions of legal concepts, often accompanied by cartoon illustrations, so that artists, writers, and musicians can use basic intellectual property law to their advantage.

Topics covered include:

• Copyright (in three parts)
• Trademark
• Rights of privacy and publicity
• Sharing and merchandising

To see the guide in full, please click here.

The guide aptly includes a disclaimer that it is only to be used for “background educational purposes” and not for individualized legal advice. To learn how Castaybert PLLC can assist with matters of intellectual property law, please click here.