Month: October 2019

Jaiden Ingram

Legalization of E-cigarette in Lebanon

Electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes usage are very in-demand these days. In almost every places around the world, you will see people using this new kind of fad. Even in most TV programs and movies, electronic cigarettes exposure prevails. In Lebanon, it has been four years when Juul or what they called Vaporesso, and other brand of electronic cigarettes had been marketed. And its not been so long when another novelties from the tobacco industry in Lebanon had joined the e-cig bandwagon.

The three giants of e-cigarette devices that also penetrate the Lebanese market are the Japan Tobacco International’s (JTI) Ploom, British American Tobacco’s (BAT) Glo, and the Philip Morris International’s (PMI) Iqos. These three had enormously become famous in that country making Lebanon stays in the ranking as the third highest number of smokers in the world. However, despite of the fact that e-cigarette is permitted because of the lesser harm that it may cause as what its companies are marketing, e-cigarettes are officially prohibited on Lebanese terrain. To be able to pursue their want to use this kind of tobacco alternative, users may have to import them from other country or purchase them on the illegal commerce to depart from the prohibition.

Regularization and legalization

In 2013, the e-cigarette was first attempted to be regulated. Similar with South Africa which has new vaping law, an application for the permission of the importation and sale of the product as tobacco alternative to eradicate nicotine addiction was submitted to the Ministry of Health. However, it was rejected because the product was categorized only as a product equivalent.

E-cigarettes were classified not as a type of medication, but only as an alternative to tobacco cigarettes.

In 2015, the Ministry of Finance got a hand to regulate it. With its decision, the regulation of e-cigarettes importation was made into practice in Lebanon which includes the flavored liquid heating apparatus, heated tobacco items, and liquid nicotine items like the air factory. Unfortunately, after three years, the electronic device is still sold in the commerce illegally due to the level of tax being imposed to the product.

Insufficiency to supervise

The Lebanese Law 174 has been enforced but not to address all the disputes positioned by the e-cigarettes, especially the issue of nicotine levels. Moreover, the US FDA intend to have stricter policies regarding the sale of flavored e-liquids. Eradication of nicotine addiction and the desire to quit smoking is not only the responsibility of the government. It should also comes from the voluntary appeal of an individual. Sad to say, Lebanon, both the government and the individuals seem not to be prepared to go on for this law to be imposed in their territory at this moment.

Jaiden Ingram

Katy Perry’s Darkhorse Music Copyright Controversy

Copyright should just shield the original unique creative expression. It has been neglected from the Katy Perry situation, although this is a balance to preserve. The jury sided with the gospel rapper whose attorneys alleged that the tunes’ beats were indistinguishable in pitch, rhythm, and duration.

Perry’s attorneys tried to sabotage that emptiness, asserting that “all those supposed similarities between the functions are trivial” and supplied evidence that they had created the tune individually. On Thursday, the jury decided that Perry, her co-writers, also tag owed 22.5 percentage of their earnings out of “Dark Horse” into Gray, amounting to almost $2.8 million.

That is a worrying precedent for both songwriters and the music sector since when the situation has reduced the threshold for copyright infringement by shielding unoriginal musical components that need to be freely available for anybody to use. Also, however, these high’s award damages will encourage more claims much like this.

The situation adds to the increasing quantity of music copyright cases in the US.  What many don’t understand is that simply because two tunes sound similar doesn’t automatically indicate there was copyright infringement. Because copyright isn’t a monopoly right, that is — that’s fine and just two people are able to think of exactly the idea. To listen to this popularly controversial song, choose some shower speakers in the online market. Additionally, it doesn’t shield thoughts — people are to work with we would have one love song, one blues tune, and a single stone anthem.

The dispute over” Dark Horse” seems to additional support this theory, and its own findings reveal that a result where the national court’s time-honored evaluation has let down musicians again. Despite contrasting proof and details that leave every case on sides of the spectrum made by the evaluation of the court, the Dark Horse case leads to the exact same verdict.

In certain conditions, the plaintiff could demonstrate that the similarity is so large that it impossible there was a coincidence.  When the called “chill” that critics expected after the “Blurred Lines” situation have indeed been shown to be true, it’s even more evident that the “substantial similarity” test could be malleable to match a range of claims so broad that it might possibly be unsuited for songs in 2019.

Although very few songs instances have been effective in protecting against infringement by invoking the “fair use” theory – it feels like if there was ever a moment for it to be implemented, it would need to be today.

Our music copyright legislation is out of the song in many ways. The current multi-million-dollar jury verdict that summer against Katy Perry and Capitol Records exemplifies a lack of harmony between music production and the copyright legislation that’s intended to “protect” it.

𐌢