Learning the Art of Civil Discourse; Ole Miss University of Mississippi News, October 22, 2021

 STAFF REPORT,  Ole Miss University of Mississippi News; Learning the Art of Civil Discourse

Students apply ethical theory for decision-making and policy

"The Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Mississippi is offering two events in the next few weeks exploring the ethical issues of timely topics.

Just Conversations is a fun event run by students from the Ethical Policy Debates class to explore ethical issues and think about potential solutions through low-key conversation on two hot-button issues. The event is an in-person reception from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Monday (Oct. 25) in the Bryant Hall Gallery. Register by 5 p.m. Friday (Oct. 22) at https://forms.gle/xCS1QNTpZvnvtxQv9.

The second event, The Great Debate of 2021, poses the question “Should patents be waived on COVID-19 vaccines to increase global vaccination rates?” The virtual event on Nov. 11 features presentation of a debate followed by a Q&A between the teams, expert panelists and the audience. All are welcome to attend virtually, especially members of the campus community.

“The Dialogue and Deliberation Initiative events, both Just Conversations and The Great Debate of 2021, bring people together to discuss ethical problems that involve multiple perspectives, competing interests and complex empirical issues in a civil format for productive outcomes,” said Deborah Mower, a UM associate professor of philosophy and the Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Hume Bryant Associate Professor of Ethics.

“We will be focusing on three topics from the slate of fall 2021 Regional Ethics Bowl cases.”

Ole Miss students are conducting research to prepare for discussions about rock climbing on federally protected indigenous cultural sites, the Disney company image and COVID-19 vaccine patents.

“There is no better educational model than the Ethics Bowl for teaching students how to apply ethical theory for decision-making and policy while at the same time fostering skills crucial for civil dialogue,” Mower said."

Copyright Law and Machine Learning for AI: Where Are We and Where Are We Going?; Co-Sponsored by the United States Copyright Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Tuesday, October 26, 2021 10 AM - 3 PM EDT

Copyright Law and Machine Learning for AI: Where Are We and Where Are We Going?

Co-Sponsored by the United States Copyright Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office

"The U.S. Copyright Office and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are hosting an October 26, 2021, conference that will explore machine learning in practice, how existing copyright laws apply to the training of artificial intelligence, and what the future may hold in this fast-moving policy space. The event will comprise three one-hour sessions, with a lunch break, and is expected to run from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. eastern time. 

Due to the state of the COVID-19 pandemic, the on-site portion of the program initially scheduled to take place at the Library of Congress's Montpelier Room has been canceled. All sessions will still take place online as planned. Participants must register to attend this free, public event.

Download the agenda here."

Difference between copyright and trademark; WYTV, October 15, 2021

 WYTV Staff; Difference between copyright and trademark

"LucasFilm trademarked the sound of human breathing through a scuba tank regulator better known as Darth Vader’s breathing, also the sound of the lightsaber, it’s actually microphone feedback.

In the TV show “Law and Order,” it’s the beginning three notes you hear the theme music. Composer Mike Post wrote that along with the show’s theme song. It’s not a sound effect, it’s actually a piece of music that gets a royalty for Post and Universal holds the trademark.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. protects what Burroughs wrote and it holds the trademark for his hero’s yell that Johnny Weissmuller made it famous.

Pillsbury owns the rights to the Pillsbury Doughboy giggle."

‘Star Trek,’ Dr. Seuss Mashup Dispute Ends After 5-Year Legal Journey; The Hollywood Reporter, October 5, 2021

Eriq Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter ; ‘Star Trek,’ Dr. Seuss Mashup Dispute Ends After 5-Year Legal Journey

"On Tuesday, that final frontier known as intellectual property was charted when, after five long years in court, a legally adventurous dispute over a Star Trek-Dr. Seuss mashup concluded in a settlement. As a result of a deal, the crowdfunded “Oh, the Places You’ll Boldly Go!” will be going away."

Hey, those are our Kisses! Hershey Co. files trademark lawsuit against cookie maker; Penn Live, September 29, 2021

  Matt Miller | mmiller@pennlive.com, Penn Live; Hey, those are our Kisses! Hershey Co. files trademark lawsuit against cookie maker

"The Hershey Company is known for ferociously defending its trademarks, especially its iconic Kisses logo.

It just launched another trademark infringement lawsuit in U.S. Middle District Court targeting a California firm it accuses of misappropriating the visage of its familiar and somewhat conical Kisses.

The defendant in the case is The Cookie Department Inc. Hershey claims that bakery is using Kisses-like images to promote products that Hershey contends are just not as sweet as its own."

Marvel Reveals Who Really Owns Iron Man and Mr Fantastic’s First Inventions; Comic Book Resources, October 10, 2021

Amer Sawan, Comic Book Resources; Marvel Reveals Who Really Owns Iron Man and Mr Fantastic’s First Inventions

"WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Deadpool Infinity Comic #1, now available on Marvel Unlimited.

Deadpool's attempt to sneak into a auction for most of the Marvel Universe's villains was prompted by an information leak from the true owners of Iron Man and Mister Fantastic's patents. In the event of their deaths that is. Which has already happened. Quite a few times in fact, so the actual legal rights are a bit up in the air. 

But the question of who owns the intellectual property isn't as important as the question of who Tony Stark and Reed Richards settled upon as the best candidate to look after their life's work. The two geniuses thought it over long and hard and selected Damage Control to be their beneficiary, as revealed in Deadpool Infinity Comic #1, by Gerry Duggan, Lucas Werneck, Geoffo, Rachelle Rosenberg and Joe Sabino."

Peter Parker Losing his Trademark in Amazing Spider-Man #75 (Spoilers); Bleeding Cool, October 6, 2021

Rich Johnston, Bleeding Cool ; Peter Parker Losing his Trademark in Amazing Spider-Man #75 (Spoilers)

"And the Beyond Corporation has the trademark to Spider-Man. Could Peter Parker be in breach of himself right now?"

Marie Wilcox, Who Saved Her Native Language From Extinction, Dies at 87; The New York Times, October 6, 2021

Katharine Q. Seelye , The New York Times; Marie Wilcox, Who Saved Her Native Language From Extinction, Dies at 87

"For many years, Marie Wilcox was the guardian of the Wukchumni language, one of several Indigenous languages that were once common in Central California but have either disappeared or nearly disappeared. She was the only person for a time who could speak it fluently...

After 20 years of labor, of hunting and pecking on her keyboard, Ms. Wilcox, who died at 87 on Sept. 25, produced a dictionary, the first known complete compendium of Wukchumni...

The dictionary was copyrighted in 2019 but has yet to be published; Ms. Wilcox also recorded the words so that others would know the correct pronunciation."

AI-ethics pioneer Margaret Mitchell on her five-year plan at open-source AI startup Hugging Face; Emerging Tech Brew, October 4, 2021

 Hayden Field, Emerging Tech Brew ; AI-ethics pioneer Margaret Mitchell on her five-year plan at open-source AI startup Hugging Face

"Hugging Face wants to bring these powerful tools to more people. Its mission: Help companies build, train, and deploy AI models—specifically natural language processing (NLP) systems—via its open-source tools, like Transformers and Datasets. It also offers pretrained models available for download and customization.

So what does it mean to play a part in “democratizing” these powerful NLP tools? We chatted with Mitchell about the split from Google, her plans for her new role, and her near-future predictions for responsible AI."