A detour: Winnie the Pooh, serial killers, and power

Cuties! I’d love to share a podcast with you. It’s part of a season that I’ve hosted for the Intellectual Property Owners’ Education Foundation.

Below is a fun chat about why, as of this year, we’re able to turn Winnie the Pooh into a serial killer in movies. The answer lies in the intellectual property system, and it’s a nuanced ride. Lawyer Christine Xiao and I get into what constitutes inspiration versus infringement (what about fan fiction? parodies? short answer: it’s a long answer!), and how to tiptoe around these worlds as we create, pay homage to, and reinterpret our worlds.

This year, I loved helping explain aspects of the current intellectual property system to folks. There is so much power in awareness. Foundational to knowing how our systems work is understanding WHY they work the way they do - that is, understanding whom our systems are incentivized to protect. For anyone curious, below are some neat starting points to thinking about these “why”s when it comes to intellectual property.

In the meantime, listen to my cute voice (you’ll just have to imagine my cute face along with it), and I hope you learn a thing or two!

Links:

How Disney keeps changing copyright law

Why there are too many patents in America

Racism and patent systems

IP, race, and gender

Also, a proper link to Christine’s article on Winnie the Pooh and the public domain.

Much <3, and happy learning,

Raha