Copyright: The Card Game!

Do you remember that old Shakespeare quote, “To study or not to study copyright, that is the question”? Well, maybe it wasn’t him and instead was something Cathy said when we were talking about playing “Copyright: The Card Game!”.

But, I digress. In honour of Fair Dealing/Fair Use Week that happens annually during the last week of February in Canada and the United States, the Copyright Office hosted five teams to duke it out in a friendly game of who knows the most about copyright. It was kind of like Crossfit® and who can exercise the fastest. Rumour has it that many of the teams pulled all-nighters and diligently scoured the USask copyright website for hints, tips and other advantages. While noshing on Skittles (#DYK they have been in North America since 1979) and peanut butter M&Ms (which Kate accidentally bought instead of normal M&Ms), to a carefully curated 80s Spotify playlist, teams passionately hovered over their cards in hopes to answer the copyright questions posed by Kate. Critical thinking and the highly competitive nature (who knew!?) of library staff helped bring out the copyright ringers on each team (I’m looking at you Myles!).

At the end of the game, after some well-argued-for bonus points had been awarded, we had to go to a tie-breaker between the Legal Eagles and BrainSTEMS!. BrainSTEMS! edged out the Legal Eagles by milliseconds on the squeezing of the squeaky toy to give the correct answer. Congratulations to Team BrainSTEMs! on their inaugural win!

Thank you to all who attended and supported this event – Team TBD ©, Circulation Formation, The Infringers, Legal Eagles and BrainSTEMS! We look forward to seeing you for the second annual Copyright: The Card Game event!

Claim to Fame

Our tractor fender has been getting a lot of press lately!

In February, we received an inquiry from Utah that led to a mention of this famous holograph (handwritten) will in a blog:
https://utahestateplanninglaw.com/2017/02/23/can-i-write-my-own-will/.

The fender surfaced again a few weeks ago on the Canadian Association of Law Libraries ListServ. Greg followed up a post by the law librarian at the Western University Law Library with our new-and-improved photo and some additional details.

We get several visitors to our library each year who come to see this famous holograph will. Check out this short account of the case from The Lawyers Weekly:
“A dying man’s short will has a long history.”

If you zoom in on the photo you can make out the words scratched into the paint. Shout out to Robin for taking a great photo!Holograph will written on tractor fender at the Law Library

Law students have a sense of humour

On the morning of Friday April 1st I was stopped in my tracks as I entered the Law Library. On the gates in front of me was an unexpected sign:

April Fools remove footwareI stared at the sign not really knowing what to think. I had a moment of panic, did I forget something major that was happening here this morning that called for the removal of shoes!? As inconspicuously as possible, I tiptoed into the Law Library to peek around the corner (yes, I still had my shoes on). I could see nothing to warrant the removal of my shoes. I started to relax as I obviously hadn’t forgotten any event. Maybe we were getting the carpets steam cleaned, but they would do that at night…maybe they steam cleaned the carpets last night and they still needed time to dry! YES! Finally our old carpet would be somewhat revitalized! A quick glance down at the carpet let me know that had NOT happened. As I crossed the floor to the staff area I noticed other signs hanging on the end of the carrels:

April fools 3L

 

3L = 3rd year law student

 

 

 

April fools 2L cropped

 

 

2L = 2nd year law student

 

 

 

I finally clued in to what was going on when I saw where the first year law students had been relegated – into the basement:

April fools 1L croppedApril Fools 1L

Before the Law Library opened, upper year law students had put the signs up as an April Fool’s prank on their fellow students, with the first years getting the worst of it. Yes, there was a number of them in the basement wondering why they had to study there on that day. And yes, some people even took their shoes off.

shoes off cropped