Oz the Great and Copyrightable Disney’s newest fantasy-adventure, Oz the Great and Powerful, was a box office hit last weekend. Filmgoers managed to overlook the absence of certain well-known elements of the Wizard of Oz, most notably Dorothy Gale and her ruby slippers. Was this just because the new Oz movie is a prequel to the beloved classic? Or does the answer require a journey into the Haunted Forest of intellectual property law?
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Archives: Copyrights
Myspace Relaunches, Encounters Copyright Issue
January 25, 2013
Myspace Relaunches, Encounters Copyright Issue Remember MySpace? Well, it’s back – this time, as Myspace. Maybe the newly private, scaled-down business couldn’t afford the capital “S.” The site relaunched last week and immediately ran into a copyright infringement issue.
Judge Rules News Agencies Can’t Use Twitter Photos Without Permission
January 18, 2013
Judge Rules News Agencies Can’t Use Twitter Photos Without Permission In a landmark social media law case, a Federal judge in New York ruled this week that news agencies can’t publish photos found on Twitter without the photographer’s permission. Neither the fact that the photos were certainly newsworthy – they portrayed images of the devastating earthquake in Haiti – nor that Twitter allows anyone to reproduce the photos (via re-Tweeting) were enough to overcome the photographer’s rights under copyright law.
Alicia Keys Sued for Copyright Infringement
January 10, 2013
Alicia Keys Sued for Copyright Infringement Alicia Keys and her record company, Sony Music Entertainment, are being sued for copyright infringement by the writer of the song “Hey There Lonely Girl” over a simple lyric phrase. Alicia Keys’ latest single, “Girl On Fire,” from her album, Girl on Fire, may not sound much like Earl Shuman and Leon Carr’s “Hey There Lonely Girl.” (You can listen to them here: “Girl on Fire” and here: “Hey There Lonely Girl“). Given the significance differences between the recordings, Mr. Shurman’s concern is limited to the following phrase from “Girl On Fire”: “Nobody knows…
