Six Degrees of Sun Tzu: Fair Use and the Art of War
Let’s play a bizarre twist on a familiar trivia game I like to call “Six Degrees of Sun Tzu.” If I challenged you to connect the author of Art of War (a 2,500 year old Chinese treatise on military...
View ArticleThe Hangover 2 and the Tyson Tattoo: Lessons in Copyright, Contract, and...
This month, the legal blogosphere has been all atwitter about aMissouri tattoo artist’s lawsuit against the studio behind The Hangover 2, and the artist’s attempt to stop not only the release of the...
View ArticleQ&A: What Copyright Rules Apply if I Record a Live Show for My Film?
Q: I’m a documentarian. If I were to record a live show as part of a documentary — audio and visual — am I free to use it even if there’s live music being played in the background? A: Look, I’m no math...
View ArticleFair Use & Photography
Because I’m a lawyer, everyone in my family thinks I know everything about every esoteric law that has ever been written. As much as I wish I could recite the statute my Aunt Cookie swears she has...
View ArticleFederal Judge Declares Sherlock Holmes Characters in Public Domain. Sort of.
Comedian Dmitri Martin has a great joke about the expression “sort of.” Although normally a fairly meaningless expression, saying “sort of” after certain things suddenly becomes very important. Such as...
View ArticlePanties: 1, Fair Use Doctrine: 0
nancy morgan Picture a sexy young bride, reclining sensuously on the nuptial bed. Smiling seductively, she lifts her wedding dress — a stretch white mini — to give her new husband a glimpse of the...
View ArticleThe Secret World of Copyright
What do Avril Lavigne cover songs, Dish Network’s AutoHop feature, celebrity sex tapes, apartment hunting websites, and ad-serving browser skinning programs have in common? Each of them is a window...
View ArticleThis Is Our Super Bowl Blog Post. Now Come and Get Us, NFL!
[In honor of Super Bowl XLVII — because everyone knows that Roman numerals make everything very distinguished and significant — we’re bringing back one of our most-read, and most personally-favored...
View ArticleHappy Birthday…You’re Being Sued!
Have you ever noticed how people rarely sing “Happy Birthday to You” in movies and television? Instead, people usually sing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow,” even though no one actually sings that song...
View ArticleRequiem for a Ridiculous Lawsuit
Last month, I wrote about some notable examples of film and television producers being sued or threatened for using other peoples’ creations without permission. Examples included Emerson Electric...
View Article
