I listened to two separate podcasts
dealing with entertainment law and the liabilities that can be found. The first
podcast I listened to was a Suffolk University podcast on Overprotection in the
IP world. While the podcast itself contained a lot I really want to just sum up
what was discussed in his talk. Basically what was being described was the
difference between what IP law was set up for and what it has become. When IP
law was originally designed it was meant to encourage creation. By protecting
work and making it not able to be stolen, people would want to create and
receive the credit they were due. Now IP law has become a way for people to
never give up their rights, even after death. The big example he gave was how
Google, as the physical website, is registered as a design and as a utility.
Google as a design eventually would loose it’s copyright and eventually become
public domain but since it is also registered as a utility (as long as it’s in
use) it’s protected. Another example being the 21st Century Fox
song, which is registered as the companies trademark as well as the sound
recording. This means even when the sound recording copyright expires, it won’t
as a trademark, as long as it’s in use. For an IP holder this is great. For the
public it’s seriously limiting to rights we are owed as a society. IP should be
allowed to be used by everyone at some point. This overprotecting fad is just
going to allow business to keep greedy hands on things that should belong to
everybody for as long as they want. I’m sure Disney is studying up.
The second podcast I listened to
was the Entertainment Law Update. The episode was called “Cease and desist, but
nicely.” This podcast was over an hour and had much too much information to
talk about everything, so I’ll touch a few I liked. The first thing they
discussed was a lawsuit with the movie 50/50 from music group with the same
phonetic name. The music group said they were infringing on the name and the
judge apparently watched the movie. He defined that the name was so descriptive
on the content of the movie it couldn’t be infringing. Also, in this case and
most others, titles of works are generally not copyrightable. I thought this
was interesting because when he first was describing the case it seemed so cut
and dry and found myself wondering how they would fix it since the movie was
already out. But apparently doesn’t matter movie and the music get to both have
the name since the movie did such a good job making the name meaningful to the
movie. Win for 50/50 and I’m glad. That movie was dope.
Another
case they discussed that I really liked was this new technology available in
NYC called Aereo. It apparently is this little antenna that connects via
Internet and gives you cheap cable to all sorts of devices. Now obviously
network companies went berserk when they heard and sued em’. In the preliminary
trials the big discussion was that it was infringing on their work based on the
fact that it’s a public performance of their work. So far the courts have said
this isn’t the case. Apparently, since everyone gets their own antenna, this
arguments null and void. Courts said it doesn’t count as public performance and,
on those grounds, it’s not infringing. I’m assuming that’s not the networks
only big gun defense, but hopefully it’ll help a bit. Either way, I love
creative technology getting the best of huge corporations. Makes me feel so
proud of my generation.
The
last piece I wanna talk about here is more of a morale case. Pretty simple really.
Some political group finds a picture of a gay couple making out in front of Manhattan.
They take the photo, Photoshop it, and put it in a mailer and send it
everywhere. The couple is like, “Whoa, now way you can’t do that.” The
political group says, “We can do whatever, people do it to us.” Now apparently
the big fuss here is that the political group doesn’t like gays. I have NO idea
why they’re putting gay couples kissing in their mailers if they don’t, but
that’s beside the point. This case hasn’t been brought anywhere, yet. They’re
just spitting fighting words at each other for the moment and I can’t wait to
see where it goes.
Anyway,
after listening to an hour and a half worth of podcasts I’ve concluded this:
people will sue you over everything. I myself am gonna hire myself a decent
lawyer before I do anything.
