SLATE 1: Fair Use & The Digital Carnivalesque

Professor David Tan kicks off SLATE I

SLATE I (Seminars on LAw and TEchnology) was launched on Friday 23 April 2021 at Bukit Timah Campus with a presentation by Professor David Tan on copyright fair use, internet memes and the digital carnivalesque.

The presentation was based on his published article in the Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal, presently ranked the top intellectual property law journal in the United States, and also touched on the US Supreme Court’s decision in Google v. Oracle handed down earlier this month. The article may be downloaded here.

The influence of social media in the 21st century has led to new social norms of behaviour with a focus on the production of the self or an online public persona on various social media platforms. David Tan draws on the fascinating writings of Mikhail Bakhtin on the medieval carnival and the laughing culture of the Renaissance to postulate that one may view the social media environment as a Bakhtinian digital carnivalesque, where creative practices can be perceived as modes of expression that present a resistance to authority. Within this environment, internet memes present a feast of challenges to exceptions and limitations in copyright law. Memes encompass a wide range of expression about the human experience, while also existing as a playful mode of culturally permissible expression in online social communications rather than as self-contained and specific categories such a parody or satire.

Discussing the “Bernie Sanders Wearing Mittens Sitting in a Chair” memes

The session was moderated by Associate Professor Daniel Seng  (Director of Centre for Technology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & the Law (TRAIL)) with commentary by Dr Stanley Lai (Head of Intellectual Property Practice, Allen & Gledhill; Chairman, IPOS) and Professor Martin Senftleben (Director of the Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam).

It was conducted simultaneously with in-person attendance at NUS Law’s Bukit Timah Campus and via Zoom. Guests who attended in person included Rajesh Sreenivasan (Rajah & Tann Singapore), Joshua Woo (Dentons Rodyk), Paul McClelland and Dixon Soh (IPOS International). Participants on Zoom included Professor Susanna Leong (Vice Provost (Masters’ Programmes and Lifelong Education), NUS), Steve Tan (Rajah & Tann Singapore) and Lanx Goh (ByteDance).

Hybrid session in progress at the Lee Sheridan Room

Professor Martin Senftleben participating via Zoom

Dr Stanley Lai sharing his comments at the physical session

Associate Professor Daniel Seng enjoying his role as moderator

Rajesh Sreenivasan (Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP)

Paul McClelland and Dixon Soh (IPOS International)

Jack Nelson poses a question to the panel

Professor David Tan, Associate Professor Daniel Seng and Dr Stanley Lai

Professor David Tan shares a light moment with Joshua Woo (Dentons Rodyk)

About David Tan

Professor David Tan is presently Vice Dean (Academic Affairs) at NUS Law. He is also Deputy Director of TRAIL, and Head (Intellectual Property) at the EW Barker Centre for Law & Business at NUS Law. David holds PhD, LLB (First Class Honours) and Bachelor of Commerce degrees from the University of Melbourne and an LLM from Harvard.

At NUS Law, David pioneered courses in Entertainment Law, Freedom of Speech and Privacy & Data Protection Law; he has also taught as a visitor at Melbourne Law School, Tsinghua, Tokyo (Todai) and University of Hong Kong. His areas of research cover personality rights, copyright, trademarks, freedom of expression and tort law. He has published over 60 articles, comments, and book chapters since joining NUS Law in 2008. His publications have appeared in a wide range of journals that include Yale Journal of International Law, Harvard Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law, Law Quarterly Review, Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal, International Journal for the Semiotics of Law and Sydney Law Review. His monograph, The Commercial Appropriation of Fame: A Cultural Analysis of the Right of Publicity and Passing Off, was published by Cambridge University Press in both hardback (2017) and paperback (2018).

David has had work experience at McKinsey & Company, Development Bank of Singapore and the Singapore Administrative Service before joining NUS Law. He is also a fine art and fashion photographer, and had staged solo exhibitions in association with Versace and Cartier.

About SLATE

TRAIL is proud to present in association with the Singapore Academy of Law the Seminars on LAw and TEchnology (SLATE). Building on the SAL Journal Special Issue on Law and Technology, each SLATE session explores a theme in the current debates surrounding the interactions between law and technology, by way of presented papers and discussions. SLATE will be of interest to academics, practitioners, and entrepreneurs who desire a more nuanced exploration of legal issues involved in the creation and adoption of new technologies.