Is Mickey still copyrighted?
2008-09-03 21:32:37 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Copyright
The LA Times's Joseph Menn has a great, well-researched feature article on the history of the copyright for the image of Mickey Mouse as portrayed in the earliest Disney cartoons -- and the theory that Disney made mistakes early on with its copyright registration, placing images of that specific Mickey (not the Mickey we know today) in the public domain. Prominent legal scholars like Peter Jaszi agree, but who will shell out the millions in legal fees to prove it? After all, the company's already threatened legal action against law-students who publish papers investigating the question!
Brown went searching for flawed formalities -- and found one. It was on the title card at the beginning of a "Steamboat Willie" cartoon that had just been rereleased on a 1993 LaserDisc honoring Mickey's 65th birthday. It said in full:
"Disney Cartoons
Present
A Mickey Mouse
Sound Cartoon
Steamboat Willie
A Walt Disney Comic
By Ub Iwerks
Recorded by Cinephone Powers System
Copyright MCMXXIX."
The authoritative legal treatise "Nimmer on Copyright" says that a copyright is void if multiple names create uncertainty, and courts have agreed. In 1961, a federal judge in Massachusetts cited the "accompanied by" rule in throwing out a copyright claim by newspaper cartoonist Art Moger. Moger's name was included in the title above his panels, but the name of another artist ran inside the boxes. [by Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing.net]
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2008-08-30 03:26:53 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Copyright
"Whenever I hear suggestions that fair use should be “fixed,” I am reminded that there are two very different usages of that term. When you get your car fixed, it is returned to the state where it performs as it was meant to do. When you get your dog “fixed,” however, that is not the result. So I approach all suggestions for fixing fair use from the perspective that we do not want to render that important exception to copyright sterile and, thereby, unusable. We may want to fix fair use like you fix a car, but we must be careful not to fix it like you fix a dog." [by Kevin Smith, Scholarly Communications @ Duke] MORE
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2008-08-21 16:40:06 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Business
China has muffled dissidents and thinned out its notorious traffic for the Beijing Olympics, but its brazen peddlers of counterfeit goods are proving tougher to bring to heel.
Despite a half-hearted crackdown meant to curb embarrassing copyright theft during the Games, sellers of China's vast array of counterfeit goods say they are ringing up bumper sales to bargain-hunting Olympic visitors.
Some spruikers are even brashly wearing counterfeit versions of the blue and white Olympic volunteer shirts now-ubiquitous in the city.
"Business is good. We've got a lot of new customers now due to the Olympics," said a young woman who gave only her surname, Wu, selling pirated Dolce & Gabbana, Polo, and other clothing at Beijing's Silk Street market.
Merchants at that and other fake-goods emporia had reported a crackdown in recent months as Beijing moved to sweep the city's less-savoury elements such as prostitution under the rug during the Games.
But despite finding a slightly less varied selection, several shoppers said it looked like business as usual. [by Dan Martin - Yahoo News]
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2008-08-20 16:38:09 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Copyright
BEIJING -- At the Olympic Games here, you drink Coca-Cola beverages, eat McDonald's food, ride in Volkswagen sedans and watch events on giant Panasonic video screens.
You also take elevators, are protected by fire alarms, cool down thanks to air conditioners, and wash your hands under faucets.
To ensure that only the companies that pay millions of dollars to be official Olympic sponsors enjoy the benefits of exposure in Olympic venues, organizers have covered the trademarks of nonsponsors with thousands of little swatches of tape.
In media centers, dormitories and arena bathrooms, pieces of tape cover logos of fire extinguishers, light switches, thermostats, bedroom night tables, soap dispensers and urinals. The Taiden Industrial translation headsets in a large conference room have had their logos covered, as have the American Standard faucets in the bathrooms nearby, and the ThyssenKrupp escalators down the hall.
Even the sign atop the InterContinental Beijing Beichen hotel, attached to the Main Press Center, has been obscured by an Olympic cloth wrap. InterContinental Hotels Group isn't an Olympic sponsor. Gary Rosen, a spokesman for Intercontinental, says the company doesn't mind complying with the brand restrictions because it had planned all along to formally open the hotel following completion of the Games.
The International Olympic Committee says that such "brand protection" is essential for the Games to raise the corporate money that keeps them going and growing. The Games get 40% of their revenue from sponsors, with the rest coming from broadcast rights, ticketing and licensing. Sponsors of China's Games, believed to be the most lucrative ever, have contributed some $1.5 billion in cash, goods and services, estimates sports-marketing group Octagon.
The IOC says the brand-protection practices here in Beijing are consistent with procedures at past Olympics. Actual enforcement of IOC sponsorship-protection rules falls mostly to whichever city is hosting the Games, however, and by some indications no host has taken that role more seriously than China. In many cases, even products that don't compete with anything made by official sponsors are having their logos covered.
"It's surprising they'd go to that extent," says Toshihiko Shibuya, a spokesman for Matsushita Electric Industrial, which makes Panasonic products. "We're happy that they've taken the effort to hide the names of products in our category," he says.
But he finds it "very bizarre" that even toilet fixtures would have brand names covered up. [by Jason Dean,
Wall Street Journal] UPDATE |
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2008-08-19 12:17:50 Posted
by: aoife Category: Education
A couple of weeks ago Intel launched a new education-focused online community called Inspire. The site is now live at Inspiredbyeducation.com . The goal of the new site and community is to highlight the educational experiences that inspire people, allowing consumers and influencers alike to engage in improving the quality of education.
The site invites visitors to submit a video or story about who or what inspires you, learn about people and programs helping to improve the quality of education around the world and speak up about educational issues. Here are some videosfrom public figures as well as recent videos from students and teachers. [from SocialMedia.biz]
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2008-08-16 14:18:06 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Technology
Here is Cory Doctorow's talk at Cambridge UK on 'Life in the Information Economy.'
Cory is a blogger, science fiction author and journalist. He is editor of Boing Boing, the world’s 11th best blog (according to Time magazine). In this fantastic, wide-ranging and quick-fire talk, he talks about copyright, why DRM is doomed, piracy, and much more.
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2008-08-14 22:36:56 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Remix Culture
A legal dispute involving model railroad hobbyists has resulted in a major courtroom victory for the free software movement also known as open-source software.
In a ruling Wednesday, the federal appeals court in Washington said that just because a software programmer gave his work away did not mean it could not be protected.
The decision legitimizes the use of commercial contracts for the distribution of computer software and digital artistic works for the public good. The court ruling also bolsters the open-source movement by easing the concerns of large organizations about relying on free software from hobbyists and hackers who have freely contributed time and energy without pay.
It also has implications for the Creative Commons license, a framework for modifying and sharing creative works that was developed in 2002 by Larry Lessig, a law professor at Stanford. [John Markoff - New York Times]
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2008-08-11 19:58:07 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Copyright
From MediaRights' Kathyrn Robertson: 'As the Internet and file-sharing have mushroomed rapidly over the past few years, copyright law has been questioned by a myriad of organizations and individuals, including file-sharers and the student-based Free Culture movement. Within the filmmaking community there have been a range of standpoints in the debate over intellectual property rights as well. Some choose to throw their work immediately into the public domain, while traditionalists favor full copyright laws to protect their work from being pilfered. Then there are the in-betweens who put only partial restrictions on their work.' MORE...
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2008-08-13 05:32:33 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Copyright
The 10 finalists of the Total Recut Video Remix Contest have been selected by public vote and will now be judged by our esteemed judging panel, including Lawrence Lessig, Henry Jenkins, Kembrew McLeod, JD Lasica, Matt Mason, Pat Aufderheide, Mark Hosler and Luminosity. And without further ado, here are the 10 finalists:
Remix Culture by Sylvia Koopman, The Netherlands
Remix Culture I by Ricardo Carrion, Switzerland
Detournement by Cary Gillenwater, USA
True Hollywood Robots by Chris Benson, USA
Composition by Jata Haan, The Netherlands
Remix Culture II by Ricardo Carrion, Switzerland
Clusterfuckers by ikat381, Canada
My Bike in C Minor by Vince Levy, USA
Xmas in New York City by DJ Le Clown, France
Read-Write Remix by Matt Agnello, USA
May the best remix win! LINK UPDATE |
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2008-08-11 20:00:57 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Copyright
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