Copyright Proof Cakes

Speculative design about the consequences of Article 13

2019

The EU “Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market”, known to be containing the infamous Article 13 (now Article 17), was a legislation carried out in 2019 which supposedly helped creators to have better control over their work across the internet. The fear was that every website was going to be accountable for their user-generated content to not contain copyrighted work.

Algorithms would have taken this job, although they have proven to fail in the task of choosing what is appropriate and what not regarding the use of copyrighted content. A problem which can easily fall into censorship.

Copyright Proof Cakes is an fictional company selling cakes with cartoon themed icing prints which don’t get recognized by upload filters (copyright algorithms).

Imagine a kid’s birthday party who cannot have the beloved Minions on their cake, because that wouldn’t allow anyobdy to post it on social media. Here’s where Copyright Proof Cakes comes in. While the AI won’t recognize the intellectual property, humans will be left with a distorted and uncanny character.

This will not be a solution to the injustice, but an acceptance and adaptation to the new normal. All around the internet people will adapt with various techniques, understanding where the limit lies on which copyright gets detected.

This work was part of the project Al Limite at UniBZ, led by professors Pietro Corraini, Emilio Grazzi and Emanuela De Cecco.

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