‘Blurred Lines’ on Their Minds, Songwriters Create Nervously; The New York Times, March 31, 2019

Ben Sisario, The New York Times; ‘Blurred Lines’ on Their Minds, Songwriters Create Nervously

"“There’s no question in my mind that there has been a chilling effect,” Ms. Lepera said. “People have thrown a lot of weight behind this — more weight than it deserves. Defendants may be more inclined not to put up a fight.”

And for songwriters, the impact is still often felt when thoughts about the courtroom intrude in the studio.

“I’m not going to stop writing songs,” said Busbee, who has written hits for Keith Urban and Lady Antebellum. “But it puts a massive damper on the process, if you’re concerned that you will be sued.”"

X-Men: 'Dark Phoenix' Gets an Animated Trailer; Comicbook.com, October 7, 2018

Jamie Lovett, Comicbook.com; X-Men: 'Dark Phoenix' Gets an Animated Trailer

"In September, 20th Century Fox released the first trailer for Dark Phoenix. Now a fan has taken that trailer and recreated it using footage from X-Men: The Animated Series.

The trailer, which can be seen above, was created by YouTuber Darth Blender. It uses the audio from the Dark Phoenix trailer with visuals from X-Men: The Animated Series."

Steel City Con 2018, Monroeville, Pennsylvania (Greater Pittsburgh Area), April 13-15, 2018

Kip Currier; Steel City Con 2018

April 14th I attended the Pittsburgh area's Steel City Con--a several-times-a-year gathering for comic book/toy sellers and eclectic entrepreneurs, celebrities, cosplayers, and pop culture enthusiasts of all ages.

James "Kip" Currier (c) 2018

As in previous years, I spoke with some very interesting and creative small business folks, who are using Intellectual Property in novel ways. Like this example, where iconic comic book covers are transformed by adding wrestlers:

James "Kip" Currier (c) 2018

James "Kip" Currier (c) 2018

I'll be posting an upcoming piece shortly that focuses on some of these entrepreneurs.

Cosplayers (i.e. translation: costume-sporting fans) were in abundance (on a much-welcomed warm weather day!), as you can see from my pics:

2 Deadpools in SPF-compliant costumes, basking in 80+ degree F. sunshine.
James "Kip" Currier (c) 2018

Colonel Sanders--after a 5K run
James "Kip" Currier (c) 2018

True Story:

Kip: May I take your photo, Colonel Sanders?

"Colonel Sanders": Yes--if you can name the 11 herbs and spices in my Original Recipe?

Me: (laughing) Uh, Colonel Sanders, I can't name them... because they're protected as one of the world's most famous trade secrets.

Colonel Sanders: (Big grin--while high-fiving me!)

Copyright in Klingon; Washington Post, 1/9/17

David Post, Washington Post; Copyright in Klingon:

"The court went awry, I believe, in holding additionally that the defendants “are not entitled to the fair use defense,” a holding that illustrates much that is wrong with copyright law these days.

To begin with, the fair use defense, involving a complicated balancing of defendant’s motives and purposes, the effect of the defendant’s use on the market for the original work and any number of other relevant factors, is hardly ever appropriate for disposition on summary judgment; there’s too much fact-finding required.

But more to the point, “Axanar” uses copyrighted material for a transformative purpose — creating a new and original work of art. It is not a substitute, in the market, for the original; if anything, it enhances the value of the original. This is precisely what our copyright law, through the fair use exception, should be encouraging — the production of new and original works of art that build on prior works to create something new and valuable."

Marvel Artist Complains After 'X-Men: Apocalypse' Giveaway Uses His Work; Hollywood Reporter,

Graeme McMillan, Hollywood Reporter; Marvel Artist Complains After 'X-Men: Apocalypse' Giveaway Uses His Work:

"Bill Sienkiewicz, known for work on such Marvel titles as X-Men spin-off New Mutants and Elektra: Assassin, took to Facebook to complain after discovering that Fox was giving away limited edition promotional replicas of an album cover used as a prop in the movie, using artwork he had created three decades earlier. Previously unaware of the promo item, he discovered its existence at Comic-Con itself when fans asked him to sign them, he explained.

"I've been doing this comic-book thing for years. I'm aware most everything is Work-Made-for-Hire," Sienkiewicz wrote on his post. "Still, I received no prior notification (a common courtesy), no thank you (ditto), no written credit in any form whatsoever either on the piece or in connection with the premium, absolutely no compensation and no comp copies of the album. It's like two losing trifectas wrapped in an altogether indifferent f--- you."

The artist, who originally created the image as part of a cover for Marvel's Dazzler No. 29 in 1983, in collaboration with Marvel's in-house designer Eliot R. Brown, went on to say that he had to be physically restrained by colleagues from "making a scene" at the Fox booth during the show about the giveaway.

"Am I over-reacting here?" he continued. "Do I have the right — at least on behalf of fellow creators — to, at the very least expect decent treatment and some kind of minuscule, even boilerplate, acknowledgment?"

Big Content: ludicrous to expect DRMed music to work forever; Ars Technica, 7/29/09

Nate Anderson via Ars Technica; Big Content: ludicrous to expect DRMed music to work forever: Rightsholders can't understand why people who bought DRMed music only to have the authentication servers go dark might demand the right to crack the DRM. Big Content believes the idea that rightsholders "are required to provide consumers with perpetual access to copyrighted works" is laughable. Ha ha.:

"When Wal-Mart announced in 2008 that it was pulling down the DRM servers behind its (nearly unused) online music store, the Internet suffered a collective aneurysm of outrage, eventually forcing the retail giant to run the servers for another year. Buying DRMed content, then having that content neutered a few months later, seemed to most consumers not to be fair.

But that's not quite how Big Content sees things—just ask Steven Metalitz, the Washington DC lawyer who represents the MPAA, RIAA, and other rightsholders before the Copyright Office. Because the Copyright Office is in the thick of its triennial DMCA review process, in which it will decide to allow certain exemptions to the rules against cracking DRM, Metalitz has been doing plenty of representation of late.

He has now responded to a host of questions from the Copyright Office following up on live hearings held earlier this year, and in those comments, Metalitz (again) strongly opposes any exemption that would allow users to legally strip DRM from content if a store goes dark and takes down its authentication servers.

"We reject the view," he writes in a letter to the top legal advisor at the Copyright Office, "that copyright owners and their licensees are required to provide consumers with perpetual access to creative works. No other product or service providers are held to such lofty standards. No one expects computers or other electronics devices to work properly in perpetuity, and there is no reason that any particular mode of distributing copyrighted works should be required to do so.""

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/big-content-ridiculous-to-expect-drmed-music-to-work-forever.ars

When love is harder to show than hate; The Guardian, 5/13/09

Cory Doctorow via The Guardian; When love is harder to show than hate: Copyright law is set up to protect critics, while leaving fans of creative works out in the cold:

"But that's not what this column is about. What I want to ask is, how did we end up with a copyright law that only protects critics, while leaving fans out in the cold?"...

The upshot of this is that you're on much more solid ground if you want to quote or otherwise reference a work for the purposes of rubbishing it than if you are doing so to celebrate it. This is one of the most perverse elements of copyright law: the reality that loving something doesn't confer any right to make it a part of your creative life."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/may/13/cory-doctorow-copyright

Now for something completely different, London Guardian, 11/24/08

Via London Guardian: Now for something completely different -- Sick of losing revenue to illegally uploaded videos, the Monty Python team are among those signing up for YouTube's new ID initiative:

"For three years you YouTubers have been ripping us off, taking tens of thousands of our videos and putting them up on YouTube." So begins one of the current hottest viral videos. It stars the Monty Python team, and explains why they have decided to stop attempts to remove the illegally uploaded videos on YouTube - and have instead signed up to the site's Video ID system, which identifies rights holders' material and allows them to choose to have it either removed from the site, or have adverts attached to it...

The Pythons have decided on the second option."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/24/googlethemedia-digitalmedia