Happy Birthday, You’ve Been Sued I’ve found that it often comes as a surprise that somebody owns the rights to the “Happy Birthday” song (its complete name is “Happy Birthday To You.”) The fact that a part of our common cultural heritage – and an element of countless fond memories – is a piece of intellectual property that is under the control of a multinational corporation, Warner/Chappell, the publishing arm of the Warner Music Group, can seem like one of the more absurd twists of IP law. Nonetheless, Warner claims to own the rights, and it generates annual licensing fees…
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Archives: Copyrights
Internet Meme Copyright & Trademark Battle
May 16, 2013
Internet Meme Copyright & Trademark Battle The owners of two popular Internet memes, Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat, have sued Warner Brothers (“WB”) and 5th Cell Media (“5th”) for unauthorized use of their memes in WB and 5th’s video game series known as Scribblenauts. Memes are all over the internet – I’ll bet there are some on your Facebook timeline right now – so why are they suing over this particular use? Who can and can’t use a meme, and who needs permission to do so?
The Copyright Monster
May 13, 2013
The Copyright Monster My friend Katie recently asked me, “what’s up with those ‘copyright’ notices …are those even enforceable?” She was referring to the notices found at the bottom of just about every website. You’ll see one on the bottom of this very blog. My friend’s email was prompted by the Copyright Monster you see to the left, but it’s a good general question to discuss. Is the Copyright Monster real? Read on to find out…
The Supreme Court’s Landmark First User Copyright Decision
March 27, 2013
The Supreme Court’s Landmark First User Copyright Decision Last week the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark copyright ruling in Kirtsaeng v. Wiley (link goes to a PDF of the full decision). The case concerned the “First Sale” Doctrine, which holds that once a consumer lawfully purchases a copyrighted good, the distribution rights embodied in the copyright are exhausted, and the owner of the product has the right to sell or otherwise dispose of that individual good as he or she pleases. To put it another way, if I buy a copy of Baseball Prospectus 2013 from Amazon, read…
