In wake of the #ChallengeCulture #BlackTikTokStrike means no viral dance: What TikTok gonna do
#TikTok #Culturalappropriation #IntellectualPropertyTheft #Fortnite #FreshPrinceofBelAir #ShortFormMedia #ChallengeCulture #Copyright registration
Dear #IPFriend,
Welcome to the weekly edition of the #IPSERIES newsletter. My name is Rita Anwiri Chindah, a legal advisor on intellectual property, information technology & arbitration, and I’m glad to be back with the fourth edition. I’ll provide weekly updates on trending global issues with an African bias and with forward-looking opportunities.
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Backstory
For a few weeks now, the hashtag #blackTikTokStrike has been trending on social media because content creators and TikTok influencers of black origin, have refused to put out dance content calling out what they see as a new form of cultural appropriation on the app and also intellectual property theft. In 2020, TikTok was the second most downloaded app by iPhone user.
Viral Dance Challenge
Ever jumped on a viral dance challenge on social media? For me, sort of, and that was the #DrakesControlla in celebration of my birthday this year. However, for every viral dance you come across on Tiktok, it ends up being reshared on other social media platform like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and possibly gets featured on the news depending on the virality.
The purpose of the strike is because black influencers on TikTok accused non-black influencer of benefiting and stealing their choreography while making money of their creative work and personal gains earned from views online without being credited.
A publication by MediaKix showed the top ten (10) TikTok influencers by percentage growth and unfortunately no black influencer was featured, herein lies the issues.
In Solidarity and Demands
Juneteenth which is the anniversary for African Americans who learned of the Emancipation Proclamation, seemed perfect and symbolic for black content creators and TikTok influencers to commence the strike; refuse to create any new dance until credit is given, put a stop to the age long practice in the entertainment industry where black creators where taken advantage of and not compensated. The strike has made the short video sharing tech giant to reconsider their policy to ensure.
In May Sydnee McRae received $700 from Universal Music Group to promote a new song, Out of Love by the rapper Lil Tecca, with a new dance challenge which turned out to be a hit however, a few weeks later she saw Addison Rae Easterling who is considered in the world of TikTok influencers as a queen with 70 million followers (to McRae’s 1.1 million) repeating her dance while getting paid more that upset her because people like her were constantly being taken off and underpaying black content creators.
According to Forbes, millions of dollars has been paid to Easterling for her dances and lip-sync videos, thanks to deals with brands that include American Eagle, Fashion Nova, and Reebok.
What is the case about
1. Grounds to sue for copyright infringement: in the U.S. for an author to sue for infringement, the author’s work must have been registered before steps are taken to sue the infringer. See the case of Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp v Wall-Street.com. LLC, et al. Meanwhile in Nigeria, once an infringement has been determined after consultation with your intellectual property lawyer, you approach the Federal High Court to enforce your right.
2. Intellectual property theft: occurs when neither consents, authorization nor permission is gotten from the intellectual property owner to do act exclusive to them such as selling, copying, licensing etc. In our case study we see that non-black TiktTok influencers use dance routine originally created by black influencers without acknowledgement while earning revenue from views.
3. Cultural appropriation: This is when some elements of a culture such as dance, language, art, fashion clothing; hairstyle etc which is exclusive to a particular set of people is used without consent, permission, and authorization in an offensive way for commercial purpose.
Eligibility criteria for choreography and short form media: this will be based on the amount of sufficient effort that has been put into the making of the work to give it an original character. A dance and short form media can be considered to be a creative work like a manuscript or a painting. In the case of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor Alfonso Ribeiro in 2019 sued Take-Two for copying the Carlton dance, which he created while playing Fresh Prince character Carlton Banks, for a celebratory dance gesture in NBA 2K. He’s also filed a lawsuit against Epic Games, which used a version of the Carlton dance in Fortnite.
However, he lost the right to copyright his dance when he received noticed from the Copyright Office that the dance was just“a simple routine made up of three dance steps” and refused to register unlike JaQuel King that was successful in registering his dance routine.
Commercialization of creative work: are exclusive rights reserved for intellectual property owners to generate revenue by exploring the economic rights they have through licensing, selling, assigning or create merchandise. For instance in the United State JaQuel King was the first choreographer to receive a copyright for his dance routine for Beyonce’s Single Ladies.
They also prevent others from mutilating or modifying the work in a derogatory way which is called moral or paternity rights. Long and short even if you lose your economic right you should have a say as to how your work should be used.
Issues on compensation and race has eaten deep into the entertainment industry which has encroached into the social media era with little respect or compassion for the Black people who are producing that culture and this is why the black tik tok content creators are on strike and the other stakeholders such as artist and consumers who contribute to the views. For example, Rapper Megan Thee Stallion's latest song 'Thot Shit' was supposed to be a TikTok hit; Just like her previous single 'Savage' which had more than 22 million hits on the app. 'WAP' generated 4m and there were 1.5m for 'Body'.
As a result of this strike, there has not been any viral dance over the last couple of weeks.
Are choreography and short form media eligible works for intellectual property protection?
Yes, they are. And they enjoy copyright protection from the moment they are created in a fixed medium. The need to take advantage of revenue through video creation on social media is paramount in promoting creativity. In this era of #ChallengeCulture and going viral, it is important that legal support be given to content creators so as to shield them from copying and imitation, cultural appropriation. They also deserve to be rewarded for their creativity, that way, they can explore commercialization through licensing & creating merchandise. This is where intellectual property and specifically copyright protection comes to the fore..
Recommendations for content creators
Living in a challenge culture and viral era, here are basic steps content creators can take into consideration:
· Explore and opt for legal support by protecting and registering your intellectual property.
· Watermark your videos
· Copyright your content by depositing a copy with the copyright office in your territory. For instance in the United State, you cannot file a copyright suit if you have not registered your work.
· Speak to your intellectual property lawyer.
· In the event of a dispute always confirm what the terms of use of the social media platforms states in relation to intellectual property theft and/or infringement.
· If you must incorporate other things in your work, make sure it is royalty free.
· Always acknowledge or credit the original creator.
· As a content creator, learn about the concept of authorship and ownership in intellectual property.
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To find out more about the issues raised in this case including intellectual property theft, copyright, short video forms, TikTok, terms of use, influencers, intellectual property protection for choreographers and dance, intellectual property in the digital age, check out the podcast version on Anchor, Spotify, Google and Apple podcast, Breaker. You can contact me by sending an email to ipseriesinfo@gmail.com